ITIM organization asks High Court to bar draft evaders from Rabbinate exam benefits

ITIM argued that the state cannot award those benefits on the basis of years of study completed while an applicant was failing to comply with his legal obligation to report for military service.

The court kept that law frozen following a hearing before an expanded nine-justice panel on Tuesday and said a final judgment would be issued soon.

The petition lists the Chief Rabbinate, its Examinations and Certification Department, and the Religious Services Ministry as respondents.

Under the Rabbinate’s current rules, applicants must generally have studied for at least three years in an advanced yeshiva or kollel before they can sit the certification exams.

ITIM is asking the court to require every applicant to provide confirmation that he has regularized his status with the military authorities and to prevent study undertaken during a period of unresolved draft status from counting toward the three-year requirement.

According to the petition, a public authority cannot recognize a period of study as satisfying an official eligibility requirement when that study was undertaken alongside an ongoing failure to comply with the law.

That claim reflects the current legal position governing the haredi draft. The statutory framework that had allowed the state to defer the service of full-time yeshiva students expired in June 2023 without being replaced.

In June 2024, a unanimous nine-justice High Court panel ruled that the government no longer had legal authority to refrain from drafting eligible yeshiva students or to continue funding institutions for students legally required to serve.

The court returned to the issue in November 2025, ordering the government to formulate an effective enforcement policy without delay. That policy, the justices said, was required to include meaningful criminal enforcement as well as broader economic and civil measures.

After finding that the government had failed to implement the ruling, the court issued a more detailed decision in April directing specific ministries and public bodies to consider conditioning subsidized housing, daycare assistance, public-transport discounts and municipal tax reductions on the recipient having regularized his draft status.

The principle behind those rulings is also central to ITIM’s new petition: The state cannot continue providing civil and economic advantages that arise from, or facilitate, noncompliance with the draft law.

The Knesset attempted to alter the enforcement situation on July 14, when it passed a temporary law protecting qualifying yeshiva students from arrest, investigation, prosecution and other proceedings for failing to report.

The amendment meant that the state would have been prevented from enforcing the draft. Attorney-General Gali Baharav-Miara described the arrangement as a discriminatory “group immunity mechanism” that protected one sector while leaving other draft evaders exposed to the law.

Justice Ofer Grosskopf froze the amendment the day after it passed, meaning that the existing legal obligation and enforcement framework remain in place while the court considers whether to strike the legislation down.

The new case also builds on ITIM’s previous legal battle over women’s access to the same examinations.

In July 2025, the High Court unanimously ruled that the Chief Rabbinate could not prevent women from sitting its certification exams. The Rabbinate subsequently sought a retrial and attempted to delay implementation of the decision, but that request was rejected in November. Registration was ultimately opened to women in February 2026.

One of the central arguments raised by ITIM and the women petitioners was that the examinations do not confer rabbinic ordination but do grant access to secular, state-backed professional and financial benefits.

The Rabbinate’s first-tier certification, when combined with the required period of yeshiva study, is treated by regional hiring committees as equivalent to an academic degree, a qualification required for nearly all public rabbinical positions. That equivalency can also affect public-sector pay scales, including the salaries of religious-studies teachers.

The petitioners in the women’s case argued that it was unlawful to reserve those advantages for men. The new petition argues that the same benefits cannot be granted to applicants based on years of study accumulated while they were not complying with their military obligations.

ITIM said information it received from the Chief Rabbinate through a freedom of information request showed that the median age of those sitting the examinations was 30. It added that hundreds of younger applicants within military-service age take the exams each year.

The organization said it petitioned the court after a series of requests and warning letters sent to the Chief Rabbinate’s legal department beginning in November received no response.

“When the security burden on the serving public is unbearable, it is essential to ensure that the religious establishment does not encourage non-enlistment, even indirectly,” ITIM chairman and president Rabbi Seth Farber said.

“The public expects those who are destined to serve as spiritual leaders and hold religious positions to be the first to obey the law and participate in our collective security effort,” he added.

Attorney Shaya Schloss of ITIM’s legal department said a public authority could not count “years of draft evasion” as a criterion for granting professional and financial advancement.

“We expect the Rabbinate to act in accordance with the law and the principle of equality and to join the effort to protect Israel’s security,” Schloss said.