Women to be allowed to serve as Israeli religious court

Women will for the first time be allowed to serve as top officials at Israeli Jewish rabbinical courts, which have power over personal law issues such as marriage and divorce, supreme court judges ruled today.

Only men have been allowed to hold the post of court administrator at rabbinical courts, a top managerial post. Women will however still not be allowed to become judges at such courts.

Women serve as judges in Israel's other, non-religious courts. The current supreme court president, Miriam Naor, is a woman.

"At a time when women exercise important functions in the public sector, we cannot accept that they would not be able to apply to become administrative directors at rabbinical courts," the supreme court ruled.
 

In Israel, civil marriages do not exist. Rabbinical courts grant marriages or divorces for Jewish citizens.

Husbands currently must grant permission for women to obtain divorces from the rabbinical courts, something which activists are also hoping to change.

Activists welcomed the supreme court decision and said they hoped women would eventually be allowed to become judges at rabbinical courts.

"This decision constitutes an important step in the battle against discrimination against women and men's monopoly over public functions," said Batia Kahana-Dror, secretary general of the Mavoi Satum (Dead End) women's rights group.

In April, Israel appointed its first female judge in its Muslim sharia court system, a move hailed as historic.