A Beit Din Of Peers

According to the Chief Rabbi of Ramat Gan, there is no legal obstacle preventing women from serving on rabbinical courts. The Jerusalem Post reported in March. Rabbi Ya’acov Ariel also has a solution to the practical problem of women sitting next to men on the bench: .some panels, he told The Post, could consist entirely of female judges.

Orthodox feminist leader Blu Greenberg said that she was gratified by Rabbi Ariel’s good-faith attempts to open up the tradition more fully to women. “The key, of course,” Greenberg said, “will now be communal follow-through.”