Today’s guidelines for one to qualify as the director of a Chief Rabbinate of Israel Beis Din requires one to be certified as a dayan or at the very least, to have the credentials if not the certification, which refers to rabbonim certified to hold the post as a chief rabbi of a city.

However, Deputy Minister of Religious Services Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan feels it is time for a change, one that will permit women to advance to new heights, a position of influence in the nation’s rabbinical courts. The party told its women’s faction that it is preparing a bill to advance legislation that would permit women to serve in this capacity for the first time in the history of the State of Israel. Ben-Dahan held the post of director-general of the Chief Rabbinate Batei Din for a number of years.

Ben-Dahan stresses there is no halachic reason why women cannot serve in this position, in addition to promising to clear the way for females to serve as mashgichot kashrut too.

Party leader Minister of Religious Affairs Naftali Bennett praised the move, adding he believes the women will have less of an ego issue and their work standard has proven as being extremely high, expressing overwhelming support for the legislation.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)