JERUSALEM (Press Release) — Nine women have completed the Israeli Chief Rabbinate’s exams to become kashrut inspectors, the newspaper ‘Haaretz‘ reports.
The country’s Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi David Lau approved the move over the objections of some council members. Emunah, the Orthodox women’s movement, battled to end the ban on women, and called the move “an achievement of historic significance.”
The rabbinate said that any of the nine women who passed the exam “would be eligible to be hired as kashrut supervisors by the religious councils across Israel,” according to the newspaper. The Chief Rabbinate’s exam board opened up the field to women in the wake of a 2013 High Court of Justice petition filed by Emunah. The court requested the rabbinate to allow 16 female graduates of Emunah’s course to be officially examined for licensing, with the prospect of working as kashrut inspectors in the religious councils.
About two weeks ago, several months after the rabbinate announced it was allowing women to take the exam, the court ruled that the matter had been resolved, and that “there is nothing left to prevent women, such as these, from serving as kashrut inspectors.”
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Preceding provided by World Jewish Congress