Shas Yosef received strategic help and guidance from Rabbi Elazar Shach, leader of Israel's non-Hasidic Haredi Ashkenazi Jews. Yosef founded the party in 1984 on the platform of a return to religion, and as a counter to an establishment dominated by Ashkenazi Jews of European extraction. Not all Shas voters are themselves ultra-Orthodox. Many of its voters are Modern Orthodox and traditional Mizrahi and Sephardi Jews, due to its alignment with the promotion of an "authentic Middle Eastern" Israeli culture, which fits with traditional Zionist beliefs of a revival of authentic, non-Europeanized Jewish culture. However, it still represents the Sephardi and
Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi vote. Mizrahi has come under fire from some within the disability community for what some perceive as racist commentary on the 2016 election. Mizrahi apologized for the comment and reaffirmed her lifelong commitment to social justice and equality. Mizrahi and RespectAbility run the National Leadership Program to advance a diverse leadership talent pool for the disability movement. So far more than 70 people have graduated from the program. In 1987 Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi co-founded and managed the first DCJCC Community Services Program which she ran through 1989. During her tenure it helped recruited, trained and placed 900 volunteers and helped