The ITIM organization petitioned the High Court of Justice against the Chief Rabbinate on Wednesday, demanding that men who have not regularized their military status be prevented from using yeshiva study completed during that period to qualify for rabbinical certification exams.
The case concerns more than the right to sit an examination. Chief Rabbinate certificates can substitute for academic qualifications in some public-sector positions and grant access to higher salary rankings.
ITIM was founded in 2002 by Orthodox Rabbi Seth Farber to challenge the rabbinate in matters of Jewish identity and Jewish life. The non-profit argued that the state cannot award those benefits on the basis of study completed while an applicant was failing to comply with his legal obligation to report for military service.
The petition comes as the High Court prepares to rule on a separate law passed earlier this month that sought to suspend arrest, investigation, and other enforcement proceedings against qualifying ultra-Orthodox (haredi) men who fail to report for service.
Justice Ofer Grosskopf froze the law the day after it passed. A nine-justice panel heard arguments against it on Tuesday and kept the freeze in place pending a final ruling.
The petition lists the Chief Rabbinate, its Examinations and Certification Department, and the Religious Services Ministry as respondents. The court ordered them to submit a preliminary response by September 14.
Applicants currently have to study for three years in a yeshiva
Under the rabbinate’s rules, candidates must have completed three full years of study after age 18 at an advanced yeshiva or kollel, be at least 21 years of age, and submit a letter from the head of their institution confirming their preparedness for the exam.
ITIM is asking the court to rule that study completed while an applicant’s military status was unresolved cannot count toward the three-year requirement. It also wants the rabbinate to require documentation showing that the applicant’s status was regularized during the relevant period.
The petition does not seek to restrict the exams to people who served in the military. A lawful exemption, deferment, or other individual arrangement with the military authorities would satisfy the proposed requirement.
According to a Freedom of Information (FoI) response attached to the petition, the rabbinate does not maintain a formal list of recognized yeshivas for registration purposes.
Applicants are generally approved if they submit confirmation from an identifiable institution on letterhead providing contact information.
The statutory framework that had allowed the state to defer the service of full-time yeshiva students expired in June 2023, without being replaced.
In June 2024, a unanimous nine-justice High Court panel ruled that the government no longer had the authority to refrain from drafting eligible yeshiva students or to continue funding institutions for students required to serve.
The court described military deferments and state support for Torah study as “two sides of the same coin,” finding that once the legal basis for deferments expired, the state could no longer fund the activity for which they had been granted.
ITIM argued that the same reasoning applies to the rabbinate’s rules: A public body cannot treat study completed during an unresolved draft obligation as qualifying study and then use it to award professional and financial advantages.
The petition also cited later rulings concerning National Insurance Institute (NII) discounts. In such cases, the court accepted that the legal category of “yeshiva student” did not include someone who had failed to regularize his military status when that classification produced a state benefit.
ITIM argued that the same principle should apply to the rabbinate exams.
In November 2025, the High Court ordered the government to formulate an effective enforcement policy that included criminal enforcement and complementary economic and civil measures.
After finding that meaningful steps had not been taken, the court issued operational orders in April, requiring ministries and public bodies to consider restricting benefits, such as subsidized housing, daycare assistance, public-transportation discounts and municipal tax reductions.
ITIM: State cannot provide civil, economic advantages to draft dodgers
The petition also cited an October 2025 letter in which the Attorney-General’s Office proposed generally requiring applicants for government support or subsidies to provide proof of military service or confirmation that they had regularized their status.
The Knesset sought to change the enforcement situation on July 14 by passing a temporary law shielding qualifying yeshiva students from specified proceedings for failing to report.
The amendment left the legal duty to enlist intact but would have suspended many of the consequences for refusing. Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara described it as a discriminatory “group immunity mechanism” protecting one sector while leaving other draft evaders exposed to enforcement.
The petition details the professional and economic consequences of passing the rabbinate exams.
Under several regulations, passing designated exams can substitute for academic education or professional experience for positions involving religious councils, rabbinical pleading, and other public functions. Local-authority tenders may also treat combinations of rabbinate exams and yeshiva study as equivalent to an academic degree.
Civil service rules equate the first-tier qualification with a bachelor’s degree for some salary-ranking purposes, while Education Ministry rules also allow specified combinations of exams to produce an academic-equivalent salary grade.
The economic character of the exams was central to ITIM’s previous legal battle over women’s access to the same system.
In July 2025, the High Court unanimously ruled that the rabbinate could not exclude women from the exams. The rabbinate sought a rehearing and attempted to delay implementation, but the request was rejected and registration opened to women in February.
The petitioners in that case argued that the exams do not themselves ordain anyone as a rabbi, but instead test knowledge through a state-administered system whose certificates carry employment and financial benefits. Reserving access to those benefits for men was therefore unlawful, they argued.
The new petition applies a similar equality argument to military service, contending that the state should not award the same benefits on the basis of study completed during a period of noncompliance with the law.
Data obtained by ITIM showed that in 2026, approximately 150 examinees were aged between 20 and 24, meaning that at least part of the three years of study after the age of 18 that they submitted occurred after the statutory deferment arrangement had expired. Nearly 300 were 26years old or younger.
ITIM said it first contacted the rabbinate in November 2025 and sent several reminders, followed by a formal pre-litigation warning in March. None received a response, according to the petition.
The rabbinate then held examinations in April and opened registration for the next cycle in June under the same rules, without requiring proof that applicants had regularized their military status.
“When the security burden on the serving public is unbearable, it is essential to ensure that the religious establishment does not encourage non-enlistment, even indirectly,” ITIM Chairman and President Rabbi Farber said.
“The public expects those who are destined to serve as spiritual leaders and hold religious positions to be the first to obey the law and participate in our collective security effort,” he added.
Attorney Shaya Schloss of ITIM’s legal department said a public authority could not count “years of draft evasion” as a criterion for granting professional and financial advancement.
“We expect the rabbinate to act in accordance with the law and the principle of equality and to join the effort to protect Israel’s security,” Schloss said.