High Court gives rabbinate 90 days for solution to women’s Halacha exams

The interim ruling comes following a petition by three NGOs to the court, which argued that women are discriminated against by the state since they cannot obtain the same qualifications as men.

By JEREMY SHARON
High Court of Justice May 3, 2020 (photo credit: COURTESY HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE)
High Court of Justice May 3, 2020
(photo credit: COURTESY HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE)
The High Court of Justice has given the Chief Rabbinate 90 days to find a solution for women to take exams in Halacha and receive state accreditation.
The interim ruling comes following a petition by three NGOs to the court that argued women are discriminated against by the state since they cannot obtain beneficial qualifications that men can.
Men who pass Chief Rabbinate exams qualifying them for the state rabbinate can also use these qualifications when applying for other jobs in government agencies, municipal authorities and other statutory bodies. They also receive salary benefits for them.
The three organizations, Itim, the Rackman Center for the Advancement of Women, and Koleich, together with several women seeking to obtain such qualifications, argued in their petition that the refusal of the Chief Rabbinate to allow women to sit for these exams was discriminatory and illegal.
Following a hearing last month, the High Court issued an interim injunction giving the Chief Rabbinate 90 days to justify why its policy is not discriminatory.
The court asked the Chief Rabbinate to explain by October 14 why the court should not order it to “open its gates” to women seeking to be examined and for the Chief Rabbinate to issue relevant certification to women who pass the exams.
The court said another option the Chief Rabbinate might entertain is for “parallel certificates” to be issued, presumably by another government agency, for women to those received by men.
The Chief Rabbinate refuses to give such qualifications to women since it would resemble non-Orthodox practices, even though the women party to the petition are Orthodox.
The Chief Rabbinate’s legal advisers initially responded to the petition by suggesting that another government body, such as the Higher Education Ministry, organize Halacha exams for women wanting such qualifications.
Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef last month criticized the determination by Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit that the state was obligated to let women take the exams. He threatened to have the Chief Rabbinate’s examinations department go on strike if the court forced it to allow women to sit in the exams.

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Allowing a separate government agency or ministry to administer the exams could be problematic, since a state-mandated body would have to review such tests, and the only body competent to do that is the Chief Rabbinate.
“We are pleased that the court has corroborated our position that the rabbinate discriminates against women when it bars them from taking public exams,” Itim director Rabbi Seth Farber said.
“This practice denies women the recognition of their academic and intellectual expertise, prevents them from rising up within the civil-service system and sends a message that they have no contribution to make to the world of Torah scholarship,” he said. “I believe the opposite: That the explosion in the number of women studying Torah and Halacha at the highest levels in recent years only serves to enhance the Jewish world. And so I look forward to hearing the rabbinate’s response to the High Court.”


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