Israel must change how Rabbinical Court judges are appointed - opinion

This change directly affects the Jewish citizens of the State of Israel. The main mandate of the commission is the appointment of judges to the State Rabbinical Courts. These courts, by law, have sole jurisdiction over the personal status of Jewish citizens or residents of Israel. Marriage and divorce ultimately lie in the hands of the Rabbinical Court, and by extension, these courts determine who is a Jew. All Rabbinical Court Judges are male, resulting in a situation where more than 50% of the Jewish population has no representation on the judicial panels. One would hope that at the very least, women would be represented by those who choose the judges.

Originally the Appointments Commission was made up of 10 members: The two chief rabbis, two judges serving on the High Rabbinic Court of Appeals, two ministers, two MKs and two attorneys from the Israel Bar Association. For many decades this was a male-only panel—with very few exceptions. In the summer of 2013, then-MK Aliza Lapid of Yesh Atid succeeded in passing an amendment into law. Based on the reasoning that four of the members are exclusively male (referring to the four rabbis) – there must be an equivalent four members who are female. Thus, the number of members was increased to 11  (with an odd number making more sense) accompanied by the directive that at least one of the ministers, one of the MKs and one of the attorneys must be a woman. The 11th member was to be a female Rabbinical Court Advocate to be appointed by the justice minister. Thus the committee included four men, four women and three positions to be determined by democratic means.

The new form of the committee did have an effect as 24 judges were appointed to the regional courts and a full complement of 10 to the High Rabbinical Court. As explained in these pages, (“Examining appointments to Israel’s highest rabbinical court,” June 19, 2016) in the High Rabbinical Court a full 50% of the appointed judges served in the IDF, while three of the newly appointed judges to the regional courts had academic degrees. These two aspects were unheard of prior to these appointments and were a direct result of the women working together, countering the influence of the ultra-Orthodox rabbis and politicians.

But all this was not strong enough to break the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) stranglehold on the workings of the commission. Two glaring instances of haredi control continued to be in play. Instead of a clear process of selecting the most worthy candidates, there was an immutable presumption that the appointments were to be divided into a “third/third/third.” That is actually the “name” of the “rule.” One-third of the positions were to be determined by the Ashkenazi haredi rabbis and politicians, one-third by the Sephardi haredi rabbis and politicians and one-third was left to the “Zionists” (sic). Meaning that two-thirds of the appointed judges are haredi and control the personal status of a population that is two-thirds secular or religious-Zionist! Two-thirds of the population are limited to appointing only one-third of the judges! There was an additional caveat: while the two haredi groups had autonomy in determining their choices, the “Zionist” choices were subject to haredi vetoes. Thus, the most worthy candidates and promising of positive change within the Rabbinical Courts were denied their appointments although they were the first choices of the non-haredi members of the commission!

The current legislation has the potential to rectify the situation. Two more positions were added to the commission, bringing the number to 13: a third minister and a second female Rabbinical Court Advocate. As before, the four rabbis are, by definition, male. With at least one female representative each of the government, the Knesset and the Israel Bar Association required to be female – this brings to a minimum of five women members, including the two Rabbinical Court Advocates. The remaining two ministers, MK and attorney are most likely to be men, adding up to eight male members. However, when examining the political makeup of the present commission, yet to be finalized, the haredi faction include the four rabbis and probably one MK. Five out of 13 members. The remaining eight, hopefully, will work to appoint worthy judges who have served in the IDF and have academic degrees.

Most importantly, following this legislation, the Commission for the Appointment of Rabbinical Court Judges will have the power to abolish the coercive “third/third/third” presumption. Appointments to the court must be carried out in a transparent manner, awarding the position to those who do not fear plumbing the depths of Jewish law in order to develop an array of solutions which would free Jewish society of today’s unconscionable situation of agunot and victims of get-refusal.