A leading English-language Israeli news outlet explains that while the ruling does not grant women the right to be ordained as rabbis, it marks an unprecedented recognition of their Torah scholarship and advances their status within the country’s religious establishment.
On Monday, the High Court found that excluding women from official rabbinical exams amounts to discrimination, noting that passing these exams confers significant rights and economic benefits.
An Israeli milestone for women’s religious leadership
Rabbi Seth Farber, who led the legal challenge, said the decision will allow women trained at leading Torah institutions to sit for the exams, though implementation may face delays due to longstanding opposition from the Chief Rabbinate.
“This is a win for women’s Torah scholarship,” said JOFA, the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance, which advocates for expanding women’s rights within the framework of Jewish law (halakha).
BREAKING: A win for women’s Torah scholarship. Israel’s High Court rules that women must be allowed to take the same...
Opublikowany przez JOFA Poniedziałek, 14 lipca 2025
Rabba Daphne Lazar Price, JOFA’s executive director and an adjunct professor of Jewish Law at Georgetown University Law Center, called the ruling “big news from Israel” and described it as “a huge and groundbreaking step in the right direction for women in leadership positions.”
Missed our livestream? Catch the recorded Q&A with Rabbanit Dr. Segal Katz and Rabba Daphne Lazar Price — a plaintiff in the landmark Israeli Supreme Court case that now allows women to take the Rabbanut’s halakhic exams. Don’t miss this powerful conversation!
Opublikowany przez JOFA Wtorek, 15 lipca 2025
Source: Times of Israel/JOFA
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