The party was formed in July 1999 during the 15th Knesset when Roman Bronfman and Alexander Tzinker broke away from Yisrael BaAliyah.

At first, the party had no name, and was recorded as the Parliamentary Group of Bronfman and Tzinker in the Knesset, but after six days a name was approved by the Knesset committee: Mahar (Hebrew: מח"ר), literally Tomorrow, but also an acronym for Mifleget Hevra veReformot (Hebrew: מפלגת חברה ורפורמות, lit.

However, Tzinker, who did not share Bronfman's social-democratic ideology, quit the faction and founded an independent party, Citizen and State.

Prior to the 2006 elections Bronfman announced that the party would run independently on the basis that the alliance with Meretz was costing him votes in the Russian sector.

[5] In January 2006 Bronfman held discussions with Avraham Poraz about a mass defection of Shinui MKs (who were unhappy with the surprising results of the party's primary elections) to the Democratic Choice.