The Chief Rabbinate on Wednesday opened registration for its rabbinical certification exams to women for the first time.
A string of High Court of Justice decisions had said the long-standing exclusion was unlawful discrimination and rejected the Chief Rabbinate’s attempts to narrow or delay implementation.
Over the past few months, no new exam dates were set amid legal wrangling over whether women could access the Rabbinate’s testing track. The pause affected thousands of candidates.
The Rabbinate’s certificates have significant professional implications in the public sector.
Registration opened this week and will run through the end of February, with the first exam session slated for after Passover. The exams will include multiple certification tiers administered by the Rabbinate’s exams unit, including Yoreh Yoreh, and additional tracks linked to neighborhood, local, regional, and city rabbinic credentials.
This week’s opening marks the practical endpoint of a fight that has been in the courts for years.
In July, the High Court ruled unanimously that women could not be barred from taking the Rabbinate’s certification exams. The landmark verdict was authored by Deputy Chief Justice Noam Sohlberg.
The High Court ruled that the exclusion was discrimination and said the exams are not merely religious rites but gateways with tangible civil consequences, particularly in employment and salary structures tied to state recognition.
The Rabbinate’s exams serve as a state-recognized certification mechanism, the court ruled, adding that first-tier certification in particular is treated in parts of the public sector as equivalent to an academic degree for purposes of eligibility and pay scales.
That practical reality undercut the Rabbinate’s claim that the matter lay purely within its internal religious autonomy, the justices ruled.
Push to limit women’s access
In October, the Chief Rabbinate petitioned the High Court for a rehearing and sought to limit women’s access to certain subject areas, such as laws of Shabbat and family purity, while excluding them from other certification tracks. Critics characterized the move as an attempt to sidestep the July judgment rather than implement it.
In November, Supreme Court Chief Justice Isaac Amit rejected the Rabbinate’s request, leaving the July ruling intact and clearing the way for full implementation.
In doing so, the court underscored that the dispute was not about ordination or conferral of rabbinic title, but rather equal access to a state-administered testing framework whose certificates carry professional and financial benefits.
While the Rabbinate’s exams are framed as halachic proficiency tests, the certificates function as credentials in the Israeli labor market.
That reality has been central to the petitioners’ argument. The exams certify knowledge rather than confer rabbinic office, and therefore, they do not justify a categorical exclusion, particularly when the state uses the certificates as a gatekeeping device for jobs and compensation, they said.
The petition was filed by six women together with ITIM, the Rackman Center, and Kolech (the Religious Women’s Forum, which promotes gender equality). Earlier attempts to create parallel frameworks outside the Rabbinate had failed to resolve the discrimination claim.
ITIM, which initiated and led the petition, is an Israeli nonprofit that challenges the authority of the Rabbinate. The development was a historic milestone, it said.
“The women… believe deeply in the justice of their cause,” ITIM said. “This is a historic event by any measure, and we are moved and proud to have led this effort, enabling women who love Torah to sit for the Rabbinite’s certification exams and to benefit from the fruits of their dedication and investment in Torah study and halachic scholarship.”
ITIM chairman Rabbi Seth Farber said: “We welcome the Chief Rabbinate’s decision to honor the ruling of the High Court of Justice and to open the halachic examinations to women. This is an important and meaningful step that strengthens public trust in religious institutions and reflects a commitment to equality within the framework of halacha and the law. We hope that the registration and examination process will proceed smoothly, professionally, and respectfully, so that every candidate may fulfill her aspirations in Torah study and certification. This is a development that is good for Torah, good for Israeli society, and good for the future of Jewish life in Israel.”
The Rabbinate has said a professional committee is examining broader reforms to the examination system. For now, however, women will be able to register for and take the same exams administered under the Rabbinate’s existing structure.
The ruling brings to a close a legal battle that has reshaped the boundaries between religious authority and state-backed certification.