Attorney Shira Ben-Eli was appointed as a legal advisor to the dayanim of the Chief Rabbinate beis din system, and for the first time a woman will serve in a judicial post in the official rabbinical courts in Israel and will be an official partner in the decision-making process in the religious judicial body.
The Rackman Center and the Itim organization praised the decision. “This is a significant step, but certainly not the last one, in the struggle for gender equality in rabbinic courts, an institution in which there is structural discrimination in most positions of influence and decision,” said Keren Horowitz, director of the Policy and Legislation Promotion Unit at the Rackman Center.
“We hope that this appointment is the first step in the true and full participation of women in the rabbinical courts, and to wish an assistant who was successful in fulfilling her duties and certain that the courts will be blessed with this appointment.”
The post is far more significant than it sounds, for Ben-Eli will serve to guide the dayanim, who are prohibited from making a ruling that contravene Israeli law. The decision to appoint her was in response to a petition filed with the Labor Court by ITIM and the Rackman Center for Advancing the Status of Women.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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5 Responses
A very slippery slope
Humor:
If they are truly interested in gender equality, the RackMAN Center should change their name to RackPERSON.
From what I can gather from the post, the lady is advising the dayanim on Israeli state law, not halacha or dinim. This isn’t exactly earth-shaking. It’s more like a kashrus agency consulting a chemist on what goes into additives. She’s just giving the dayanim a heads-up when their rulings may be challenged according to state law.
“the dayanim, who are prohibited from making a ruling that contravene Israeli law”
This is shocking, and if true no honest rabbi can work within such a system. The Torah absolutely prohibits any dayan from subordinating his halachic opinion to the government’s wishes: לא תגורו מפני איש, and the Tashbetz writes that one must be moser nefesh for this principle.
Millhouse, no one needs to be moser nefesh, they can just resign their government job and become a private beit din. And announce that no one should take their place working for the state.