Israeli Supreme Court Rules Women Must Be Allowed to Take Rabbinate Exams

DIN: Please Note:

This has nothing to do with giving women semicha in any way, shape, or form. Passing the rabbinate tests results in several benefits, e.g., it can be recognized as the equivalent of a college degree in certain contexts. What the court ruled is that women cannot be denied the opportunity to take the exams in order to receive those benefits.

And another important point:

Nobody has gone OTD because of an Israeli Supreme Court decision. What drives thousands of Jews away from Torah today and is the greatest threat to Judaism, is when yiddishkeit is perverted and fake chumros and halachos are made up. The anti Torah threat, is overwhelmingly from within.

Israel’s Supreme Court last week ruled that the Chief Rabbinate must allow women to take its rabbinic exams. The justices said excluding women from the exams — which are tied to academic equivalency and government employment — is unconstitutional.

“The exclusion of women from these exams constitutes illegal discrimination,” wrote Justice Ofer Grosskopf in the ruling. “A public authority in Israel cannot deny services based on gender.”

The exams test knowledge of Jewish law in areas like kosher slaughter and family purity. While they don’t grant the title of “rabbi,” passing them enables men to qualify for roles in the religious public sector. Women were previously barred.

Several groups, including ITIM and Kolech, brought the case.

The Chief Rabbinate had proposed a separate track for women, but the court dismissed that as inherently unequal. Former Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef had even threatened to cancel the exams rather than open them to women.

Justice Daphne Barak-Erez responded pointedly: “These are women of Torah, women of halacha, who seek recognition. The state cannot slam the door on them.”