Half of Israelis in rabbinical courts say they were wronged – survey
According to a study by the ITIM nonprofit, one in five Israelis also report their connection to Judaism was negatively impacted by the experience
Rossella Tercatin is The Times of Israel's archaeology and religions reporter.
Over half of Israelis who appeared before a rabbinical court in the past five years feel they have been wronged during the procedure, a new survey commissioned by the religious rights organization ITIM has found.
The rate of those who thought they faced wrongdoing increased to 75 percent when the case lasted more than nine months.
The survey was cast as biased and irrelevant by a spokesperson for the Rabbinical Courts Administration.
Some 400 respondents, half men and half women, were polled in the last week of 2024. Of these, 287 went through a divorce and 113 appeared before the court to clarify their Jewish status. One out of five said that their connection with Judaism was negatively impacted by their experience before the court — or bet din, as it is called in Hebrew — with the rate reaching 40% for those whose case lasted more than nine months.
“The role of the rabbinical courts is to provide Jewish services, not to distance people from Jewish life,” ITIM director Rabbi Seth Farber told The Times of Israel in a phone interview. “These results are painful.”
Rabbinical courts are part of Israel’s judiciary, handling legal matters such as divorce, wills and inheritances, and conversions. The system includes 12 nationwide regional courts, and the Great Rabbinical Court in Jerusalem is the highest appellate authority. The president of the Great Rabbinical Court, a role held by one of Israel’s chief rabbis, oversees the rabbinical court system. Currently, this position is held by Sephardic Chief Rabbi David Yosef.
Among the respondents, 78% described themselves as secular or traditional but secular, 8% as Haredim, and the rest as religious or traditional and religious.
According to Farber, the negative experience undergone by many respondents is primarily caused by the disconnection between those who serve as judges, most of whom are ultra-Orthodox, and the population they serve.
“The growing gap in society between the ultra-Orthodox and the average citizen has created a situation where rabbinical courts have become marked by a culture of suspicion and accusation, rather than a culture of enabling,” he said. “Once upon a time, Israeli society was less polarized, and rabbinical court judges understood that part of their role was to be encouraging even in difficult moments.”
Among those who divorced, some 60% said that if they were to remarry, they would not do so through the Chief Rabbinate, and a similar percentage said that they would consider getting divorced through a private bet din as opposed to a Chief Rabbinate one.
The Chief Rabbinate is the only option for Jewish Israelis to officially get married in the country. Israel has no civil marriage due to the objection of religious political parties but recognizes unions celebrated abroad, an option chosen by a growing number of Israelis.
Several hundred thousand Israelis, mostly immigrants from the former Soviet Union or their descendants, are recognized as Jewish by the state but not by the rabbinate, leaving them with no option to marry in the country. Some appeal to a bet din to see their Jewish status recognized by the rabbinate.
According to the survey, while only 5% of those who seek to be officially recognized as Jews receive a negative answer, among the respondents some 43% said that, in hindsight, they would not have chosen to get married before the rabbinate.
Asked whether the results of the survey may be influenced by a general unpleasantness that many feel appearing before courts and undergoing bureaucratic procedures, regardless of the court’s nature, Farber said that batei din should uphold higher standards.
“Rabbinical courts need to be better,” he said. “It is not enough to say that secular courts are bad and therefore they can be bad too. Batei din represent one dimension of the public face of Jewish life in Israel. Because of that, they have to rise to a much higher standard if we want to maintain the integrity of Judaism in the Jewish and democratic state.”
Other survey findings indicate that 65% of the respondents felt that the courts used respectful language (with 12% strongly disagreeing), and 45% thought the final decisions were well reasoned (with 16% strongly disagreeing).
Almost 30% of the female respondents said being a woman negatively impacted the judges’ attitude toward them. About half of the men said the same about being a man (only men sit as judges in rabbinical courts).
“The problem is that bet din judges’ appointments are very political,” said Farber. “The judges are appointed by a committee that includes representatives of the Chief Rabbinate and Knesset members, and coalition politics heavily influence the process. There is no meritocracy.”
According to Farber, to improve the rabbinical courts’ performance, the State of Israel should decentralize the system.
“Local rabbinical authorities could maintain the highest halachic [Jewish law] standards and at the same time feel the needs and the pain of people from their community,” he said. “We believe that all major issues, including marriages, divorces, and conversions, should be managed at the local level because this would engender greater responsibility and connection with Jewish life.”
Reached out for a comment, a spokesperson for Rabbi Yosef declined to discuss the matter, directing this reporter to a spokesperson for the rabbinical courts.
“This is a biased, non-objective, and irrelevant ‘commissioned survey,’ in which leading questions were designed to confirm a predetermined conclusion,” the Rabbinical Courts Administration told The Times of Israel in a statement.
“The rabbinical courts are a judicial authority, and in any legal proceeding, there will always be one party dissatisfied with the ruling,” the statement said. “The practice of inciting parties unhappy with their verdict against the judiciary, instead of accepting the system’s decision, is inappropriate and entirely rejected.”
The spokesperson pointed out that in a recent comprehensive government service survey, the rabbinical courts system received a significantly higher than average score compared to other government offices.
“The ITIM organization would do well to focus on fostering unity in Israeli society rather than fueling divisions and reopening wounds,” the statement concluded.
