Israeli High Court Grants Recognition to All Rabbis

The Supreme Court granted Reform and Conservative rabbis their first official status in Israel this week Wednesday when it ruled that rabbis from either movement must be allowed on municipal religious councils.

In a related decision, the court recommended that the government set up a commission that would examine how all wings of Judaism could maintain access to the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site.

The two decisions reflect the tension between the powerful Orthodox Jewish establishment and the Reform and Conservative movements, which the Orthodox dismiss because they deviate from the fundamental belief that the Bible is God’s absolute word.

The Orthodox Establishment has banned recognition of marriages, divorces and other services performed by Reform and Conservative rabbis.

Reform Rabbi Uri Regev, who launched the appeal that resulted in Wednesday’s decision, said he hoped it would serve as a basis for granting Reform and Conservative rabbis the right to provide such basic religious services.

The appeal stemmed from a 1989 action in which the Orthodox chief rabbinate rejected the appointment of a Reform rabbi to the Tel Aviv religious council. Such councils are appointed by municipalities to supervise the handling of religious services.

In its ruling Wednesday, the court said, “Banning candidates because of their worldview constitutes discrimination and contradicts the principle of equality.”

A spokeswoman for the Orthodox chief rabbinate said it was examining the decision.

The decision regarding the Western Wall was in response to a group of religious Jewish women who were banned from praying there in 1990. The wall is the last vestige of the Second Jewish Temple, destroyed by the Romans in AD 70.

Jerusalem’s Orthodox rabbinate banned a group called Woman at the Wall from appearing at the wall because the women would pray out loud and wear prayer shawls.

Strictly Orthodox Jewish tradition bans women from wearing prayer shawls and forbids men to hear women sing. Uniformed guards maintained the ban by dragging women away from the wall.

The Supreme Court upheld the right of the rabbinate to ban the women’s group from appearing at the wall, but recommended the government investigate how such groups could attend services at the wall without offending Orthodox sensibilities.