The State Prosecutor’s Office has been called upon to order an investigation into alleged illegal activity surrounding exams for Chief Rabbinate of Israel semicha, Yehuda Schlesinger reports in the daily Yisrael Hayom newspaper. According to the article, persons close to Shas politicians and the office of Rishon L’Tzion Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef Shlita were permitted to pass exams when they may not have actually known the material.

The report details that in order for one to be certified as a civil service rabbi of a neighborhood one must pass six exams and to be certified as a civil service rav of a city, 12 exams. Generally speaking, persons stop their lives and are involved in limud full time for months ahead of each exam, and the process of passing the 12 exams usually takes a minimum of five years, usually more.

However, the persons under suspicion in this case completed their exams in less than two years and they did not commit to full time limud ahead of the exams.

The persons who were allegedly passed by the Chief Rabbinate have tied to Shas politicians as well as Rabbi Yitzchak Yosef, the report adds.

The report adds another factor contributing to suspicions is the fact in the previous administration the Bayit Yehudi party controlled the Ministry of Religious Services and semicha exams were given by and graded by an independent company. Today, with the ministry under Shas control, the independent company gives the exam but it is marked ‘in house’ in the Chief Rabbinate. Chief Rabbinate officials are involved in the probe to determine if foul play is connected to the semicha exams, the report adds.

The report quotes a Justice Ministry source promising there will be a comprehensive police investigation.

A spokesman for the Chief Rabbinate released a response to the media explaining over 6,000 exams are given annually and they are all given and graded by an independent company. It adds there are no time regulations and one may take as many exams as one wishes in a period of time.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)