When the a group of rabbis took Israel's official state funded (and haredi-controlled) Chief Rabbinate’s exam on the Choshen Mishpat section of Shulkhan Arukh (the Code of Jewish Law) one year ago as part of the process of becoming certified as dayanim (rabbinic court judges), they were reportedly promised that their tests would be graded and the results would be given to them within 120 days.But one year has passed and none of the tests have yet been graded.
Chief Rabbis David Lau and Yitzhak Yosef
Israel’s Dysfunctional Chief Rabbinate Also Hurts Haredim, Zionist Orthodox
Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com
When the a group of rabbis took Israel's official state funded (and haredi-controlled) Chief Rabbinate’s exam on the Choshen Mishpat section of Shulkhan Arukh (the Code of Jewish Law) one year ago as part of the process of becoming certified as dayanim (rabbinic court judges), they were reportedly promised that their tests would be graded and the results would be given to them within 120 days.
But now, one full year later, hundreds of rabbis are still waiting for their test results and the rabbis responsible for grading the tests have not even begun to do so, Yeshiva World reported based on a report on the haredi news website Kikar HaShabbat.
This year’s Choshen Mishpat exam was scheduled to be given last week. But it was reportedly cancelled because last year’s exams have not yet been graded.
“We are not willing to examine the tests because our salary is too low. They take too much income tax from out monthly salary,” a rabbi who grades these exams allegedly told a disgruntled test-taker.
In October, about 200 hundred of last year’s test-takers met with Rabbi Nissim Ben-Shimon, who is one of the rabbinic judges responsible for grading the exams but apparently made no progress in getting the exams graded.
“It is a terrible injustice. It is wrong. We did not keep our promise to return the exam within four months.…[It is the fault of the accounting department in the Prime Minister’s Office] which did not permit us to review the exams for legal and budgetary reasons,” Rabbi Rafael Mizrachi, who is in charge of exams given by the Chief Rabbinate reportedly said.
The Knesset Audit Committee addressed the foot-dragging by the Chief Rabbinate in 2010, but not much has changed for the better – or changed at all – since then.
Deputy Religious Services Minister Rabbi Ben-Dahan announced in August that system of exam management would soon be upgraded and his office reiterated that in response to the newest revelation.
“The deputy minister is working on announcing a tender for an agency to manage the exams with the intent of optimizing the system that exists today to prevent such situations [from recurring],” Ben-Dahan’s office stated.
Ben-Dahan has been working on that tender for almost three months.