Although it has been hailed by its supporters as a way to give women more say in the selection of Israel’s top religious leaders, an amendment to the Chief Rabbinate bill passed last week in the Knesset constitutes in “clearly discriminates against women,” Orthodox feminist groups and liberal rabbinical organizations warned this week.
The bill, which provides for at least 30 women to be appointed to the 150-member Chief Rabbi’s electoral assembly, was passed in the third and final reading in the Knesset by 32 votes to 7 last Wednesday, after nearly of a year of legal and political wrangling over the extent to which women should be allowed to participate in the traditionally male-dominated process of selecting Israel’s two chief rabbis.
Addressing the Times of Israelseveral women’s rights organizations have complained that the law, which purports to increase women’s representation in the assembly, actually serves to disenfranchise female Torah scholars, thereby circumventing a High Court ruling dating from the beginning of the year.
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The assembly is made up of two categories of representatives: the “rabbis”, who are all men because this term has been considered to fall under the Orthodox definition which excludes women, and the “representatives of the people”, who represent all women of the Assembly.
Director General of the Ministry of Religious Affairs Yehuda Avidan attending the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee meeting at the Israeli Parliament in Jerusalem on June 18, 2024. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
However, this old the state in which was thrown into turmoil in January when the High Court of Justice ruled that for the purposes of electing chief rabbis, the term “rabbi” would apply to people, including women, with knowledge of the Torah and the Orthodox Jewish law – or halacha -, comparable to that of men.
The move sparked a strong backlash from religious conservatives, with Yehuda Avidan, director general of the Ministry of Religious Affairs, describing it as an attempt to “force the rabbinate to appoint female rabbis in violation of halacha.”
The fight for women’s representation led to a significant delay in this year’s chief rabbi elections and an unprecedented situation in which the positions of Ashkenazi chief rabbi and Sephardic chief rabbi remained vacant for several months.
The ongoing battle has prompted coalition parliamentarians to push for a bill mandating increased representation of women in the assembly, while defining rabbis only as men, i.e. -say as people who have received the ordination of the Chief Rabbinate or an equivalent certification and who can exercise the function of municipal rabbi – in other words, as men.
Sharon Brick-Deshen, PDG de Kolech-Ne’emanei Torah v’Avodah. (Credit : Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
Supporters of the bill argued that given the underrepresentation of women in the Assembly (by some estimates, they represent only 10% of seats), imposing a minimum of thirty seats is already progress.
However, women’s rights advocates, whether religious or secular, have a different view on the new law.
“The bill passed last week discriminates against women,” Times of Israel Sharon Brick-Deshen, president of Kolech, Israel’s first feminist religious organization.
“It is absurd that knowledgeable female rabbis who have completed training programs are excluded and cannot participate in the selection of a public Torah figure,” she said, asserting that by rejecting women as teachers of halachaleaders and rabbis, the rabbinate has proven “irrelevant to the majority of people in Israel.”
Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll (Credit: Chochmat Nashim)
Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll, co-founder of Chochmat Nashim, another organization advocating for Orthodox women’s rights, was equally critical, noting that the Chief Rabbinate will be involved in the selection of at least some of the women appointed to the position. Assembly.
“It is always good to diversify the group of people who choose municipal leaders, [mais] the problem here is that they choose who they are, so you can have women who are just told what to do,” she said.
Tal Hochman, executive director of the Israeli Women’s Network, said the new law constituted “clear discrimination against women, under the guise of promoting equality.”
The measure “will in fact enshrine in the law an underrepresentation of women”, who “will only constitute 20% of the assembly”, she declared, echoing Keren Horowitz, CEO of the Rackman center from Bar Ilan University, one of the applicants in the case brought to the High Court in January.
“The institution of the Chief Rabbinate is meant to reflect a broad common denominator of the Jewish people. In order to fulfill this role faithfully, women must be allowed to influence and take a significant part in choosing the people who lead it. The new law only reserves a place for 30 women out of a total of 150 members of the electoral assembly,” Horowitz said.
The bill was also rejected by Modern Orthodoxy’s most liberal rabbinical organizations.
Rabbi David Stav, who heads the Tzohar rabbinical group, told the Times of Israel that it was “absurd” that government-appointed female politicians could vote while female Torah scholars were excluded from the decision-making process.
A spokesperson for MK Simcha Rothman (HaTzionout HaDatit), whose Constitution, Law and Justice committee deliberated on the law, did not respond to a request for comment.
Expanding the power of rabbinical courts
Separately, women’s rights advocates prepare for their next fight as lawmakers on the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee begin preparing another bill expanding the authority of the judiciary rabbinics of Israel. This bill will have to go through three successive readings before having force of law.
Sponsored by members of the ultra-Orthodox parties Shas and United Torah Judaism, the text would give religious courts the power to arbitrate civil proceedings in accordance with religious law, provided that both parties consent.
Rabbi David Stav, co-founder and president of the Tzohar Rabbis’ Organization, at the 5th Annual Presidential Conference, June 2013. (Flash90)
Its supporters say it would allow “legal pluralism”, while its detractors say it would cause considerable harm to women if adopted.
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“While we are all consumed by the war and its aftermath, the coalition is promoting a dangerous law that will take us back to the Middle Ages, to a time when men dominated women,” the Israel Women’s Network said in a statement.
“The law will allow the rabbinate, which applies a conservative interpretation of halakha [loi juive orthodoxe] that women are not equal to men, to control the way of life of women in civil affairs, including in the job market,” the group said.
According to the nonprofit TIM, which helps Israelis navigate the country’s religious bureaucracy, the justice system, whose judges are all men, “is fundamentally oriented toward men, which naturally raises concerns about structural undermining of women’s rights, even if it is not intentional.”
Additionally, “religious courts are not bound by protective laws that the state has enacted to protect workers’ rights,” the group said in a position paper.
“This means that the state would grant legal legitimacy to a parallel justice system that does not recognize fundamental principles enshrined in Israeli law, such as the protection of pregnant women, members of the armed forces and others. This would create an unacceptable situation in which an official body of the State of Israel would issue decisions that ignore the fundamental rights that the State itself has enshrined in its law.”
On Wednesday morning, members of the women’s rights group Bonot Alternativa gathered outside rabbinical courts across the country to protest.
