NPR · 2 days ago

Israel Allows Orthodox Jewish Women to Take Rabbinic Exam

After an eight-year legal battle, Orthodox women in Israel can now sit for the same grueling rabbinic exams that were previously reserved only for men-though the religious establishment still refuses to officially ordain them as rabbis. When Dr. Ruth Agiv emerged from a nearly six-hour exam testing her knowledge of Jewish mourning laws, she was met with singing and flowers from her teachers, women who themselves had to fight for access to the sacred texts that "for generations" belonged only to men. "Women need to be part of the world of Torah," Agiv said. "We should not need to be outside. It belongs to us." The victory is fragile-Israel's chief rabbis expressed "deep regret" over the court ruling, and authorities have delayed administering further exams-yet the shift feels irreversible, a quiet insistence that spiritual authority need not have a gender. Even the great-great-great-grandson of ultra-Orthodoxy's founding father, who led the legal fight, believes that while his ancestor might not be comfortable with this change, "times have changed."