In a landmark decision that is already sparking widespread debate, Israel’s High Court of Justice has ruled that women must be permitted to sit for the rabbinical ordination exams administered by the Chief Rabbinate. Justice Noam Sohlberg, delivering the ruling, ordered that a previous conditional injunction be converted into a binding, final order—effectively obligating the Rabbinate and the Religious Services Ministry to open the exams to women, even if they are not intended to serve as rabbis.
The ruling states: “Preventing women—darshaniyot, tzidkaniyot, and chachmaniyot—from taking the tests administered by the Chief Rabbinate constitutes unlawful discrimination. There is no sufficient justification for this exclusion—indeed, no justification at all.”
Justice Sohlberg sharply criticized what he described as a double standard in the current policy: “The Chief Rabbinate and the Ministry for Religious Services seek to have it both ways—on the one hand, barring women from the exams by claiming they are only meant for rabbinic ordination, which they argue is unavailable to women; on the other hand, allowing any man to sit for the exams and receive certificates and various benefits, regardless of whether he actually intends to serve as a rabbi. This approach is clearly untenable.”
The petition, filed by a group of women who have studied halacha in various institutions, argued that barring them from the exams is a violation of the principle of equality. The Rabbinate responded that the exams are solely for official rabbinical positions, roles to which women are not appointed under current guidelines. But Justice Sohlberg rejected this argument, stating that without a separate testing mechanism for women, there is no legitimate basis to exclude them from the existing system.
{Matzav.com Israel}