Thanks to the advocacy efforts of Hadassah Foundation grant recipient the Rackman Center, as well as alumnae of grant recipient Maharat, Israel’s High Court last week issued a landmark decision requiring the Chief Rabbinate to open its ordination exams to women.
The court ruled unanimously that women must be permitted to take the official examinations for rabbinic ordination offered by the Chief Rabbinate and that barring women from taking the same exams as men “is prohibited discrimination without sufficient justification.”
The petition to the High Court — which cited Maharat alumnae Rabbanit Avital Engelberg and Rabbanit Sarah Segal-Katz — was brought by the Rackman Center, together with Itim and Kolech: Religious Women’s Forum. As the Rackman Center’s blog explains, this ruling ends “the discriminatory practice of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel that prohibited women from taking its halachic knowledge exams. Success in these exams will enable women to compete for various positions in the private and public sectors, and is also significant regarding eligibility for a range of economic and employment benefits.”
Professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, head of the Rackman Center, told Moment Magazine: “Finally, after six years of struggle against the Rabbinate, the High Court has mustered the courage to do the right thing. This ruling represents a significant milestone in the struggle against the exclusion of women from leadership and guidance roles in Jewish religious life.”
Based at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan, the Rackman Center promotes the status and rights of women in matters of family law and works to end gender discrimination and inequality in Israel through advocacy and legislative change. Since 2007, it has been awarded multiple grants from the Hadassah Foundation, totaling $365,000. Located in the Riverdale section of the Bronx and established in 2009, Maharat is the first institution to ordain Orthodox female rabbis; it ordained its 100th female rabbi in June, and its alumnae serve throughout North America, Israel, and around the world. The Hadassah Foundation has awarded two grants to Maharat for a total of $180,000.
You can learn more about the ruling and its significance in the following news articles:
Israel’s High Court Opens Rabbinic Ordination Exams to Women
Moment Magazine, July 22
In Win for Modern Orthodoxy, Israeli Supreme Court Rules Women Can Take State Rabbinic Exams
eJewish Philanthropy, July 15
Israeli Supreme Court Says Rabbinate Must Offer Tests to Women
Religion News Service, July 16