The Rackman Center
An Israeli research institution, policy center, and legal-aid clinic advancing women's rights and gender equality, particularly in family law and religious legal systems.
Last updated November 4, 2026
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Overview
The Ruth and Emanuel Rackman Center for the Advancement of the Status of Women, commonly called the Rackman Center, is an Israeli research institution, public-policy think tank, and legal-aid clinic based at the Faculty of Law of Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan. Established in 2001 by Professor Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, the Center works to eliminate discrimination against women and improve women's legal, social, and institutional status in Israel. Its activities combine academic research, litigation, legislative advocacy, public education, and direct assistance to women involved in family-law and religious-court proceedings. The Center is particularly associated with the problem of agunot: Jewish women whose husbands refuse to issue a get, the religious divorce document required for remarriage under Jewish law. Because Jewish marriage and divorce in Israel are administered through rabbinical courts, a husband who withholds a get can leave a woman in prolonged legal and personal limbo. The Center provides legal representation and advice in relevant proceedings, supports legislative measures intended to address recalcitrant husbands, and participates in scholarly and halakhic discussions about possible remedies. Its work reflects the legacy of Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, a Modern Orthodox rabbi and former Bar-Ilan University chancellor who devoted substantial attention to the plight of women unable to obtain a religious divorce. The legal-aid program serves women, including those with limited financial resources, in both civil family courts and rabbinical courts. Assistance may include representation, procedural guidance, referrals, and links to emotional-support services. The Center has also promoted a broader understanding of domestic violence that includes emotional, economic, verbal, and coercive abuse in addition to physical violence. Since the mid-2010s it has advocated electronic monitoring for certain domestic-abuse offenders and helped develop legislation that ultimately enabled courts to order electronic monitoring under protective orders. Alongside client services, the Rackman Center publishes research and policy materials, including the periodical HaDin VeHaDayan, which addresses legal and halakhic questions affecting women in the rabbinical-court system. It also convenes conferences and engages lawmakers, courts, professional bodies, and civil-society organizations. Its agenda has expanded from family-law and agunah advocacy into challenges to the structure and practices of state religious institutions. This institutional-reform work has included litigation concerning women's exclusion from bodies connected with the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. In 2018, the Center joined a petition challenging the exclusion of women from seats designated for rabbis in the electoral assembly that selects Israel's chief rabbis. In January 2024, the High Court of Justice held that excluding women from those seats constituted unlawful gender discrimination. In 2025, the Center and partner organizations won a further High Court ruling requiring the Chief Rabbinate to open its rabbinical certification examinations to women on equal terms. These cases placed the Center in direct conflict with parts of the Orthodox establishment, which argued that civil anti-discrimination rules should not determine participation in religious institutions. The Center's approach combines engagement with Jewish legal traditions and resort to Israel's civil and constitutional legal systems when it considers institutional practices discriminatory or harmful. Supporters view this two-track strategy as necessary because internal religious reform has often been slow or unavailable. Critics, particularly in Orthodox legal circles, have questioned some approaches to get-related advocacy, including the use of pressure on husbands and theories of conditional or defective marriage. The underlying debate concerns how to protect women from being trapped in failed marriages while ensuring that any religious divorce remains valid under Jewish law. Despite these tensions, the Rackman Center remains a prominent Israeli organization working at the intersection of women's rights, family law, religious authority, and public policy.
History
The Rackman Center was founded in 2001 within the Faculty of Law at Bar-Ilan University. Its founding director, Ruth Halperin-Kaddari, is a legal scholar trained at Yale whose work focuses on family law, Jewish law, feminist legal theory, and women's rights. The Center was named in part for Rabbi Emanuel Rackman, a prominent Modern Orthodox rabbi, Jewish-law scholar, and former Bar-Ilan University chancellor. Rackman repeatedly addressed the plight of agunot and in the 1990s helped establish a private American beit din intended to assist women whose husbands withheld a get. From its beginning, the Center combined scholarship with practical intervention. It developed a legal-aid clinic for women dealing with divorce, custody, maintenance, and related family-law matters in Israel's civil and rabbinical courts. The program has emphasized access for women with limited means and has connected legal work with emotional and social support. The Center's agunah advocacy has included direct representation, legislative proposals designed to increase consequences for husbands who refuse a get, and participation in debates over halakhic mechanisms that might prevent women from becoming trapped in marriages. The Center has also built an institutional research and public-policy program. Its periodical HaDin VeHaDayan examines legal and halakhic issues involving women in rabbinical courts, and its annual and other professional events bring together legal scholars, advocates, and participants in Jewish-law debates. The organization has argued that women's equality requires attention not only to individual cases but also to the rules and institutions governing family status, religious authority, and access to justice. During the 2010s, the Center broadened its domestic-violence work. It advocated electronic monitoring of people accused or convicted of domestic abuse and supported a wider legal definition of abuse encompassing emotional, economic, verbal, and coercive conduct. In 2020, it drafted an electronic-monitoring bill that was introduced in the Knesset by Keren Barak. The proposal remained politically contested for several years before legislation was enacted and an amendment allowing courts to order electronic bracelets under protection orders took effect in August 2024. The Center's agenda increasingly moved into structural challenges to Israel's religious institutions. In 2018, it joined Ne'emanei Torah Va'Avodah in petitioning the Supreme Court over the composition of the Chief Rabbinate's Electoral Assembly, which elects Israel's chief rabbis. The petition challenged the longstanding interpretation that seats reserved for rabbis could be held only by men. In January 2024, the High Court held that excluding women from those seats was unlawful gender discrimination. The decision was opposed by the outgoing chief rabbis and major ultra-Orthodox parties, who maintained that the secular judiciary should not reshape a religious institution's internal arrangements. The Center pursued a related challenge concerning professional examinations administered by the Chief Rabbinate. In July 2025, the High Court unanimously ruled that women must be permitted to take the rabbinical certification examinations on equal terms with men. The Court distinguished examination of halakhic knowledge from the conferment of formal rabbinic status and noted that the certificates could affect employment and compensation. These cases represented a significant expansion of the Center's work from assisting women within the family-law system to challenging gender barriers in religious institutions themselves. The Center's strategy has generated both support and criticism. Supporters argue that civil litigation and constitutional principles are necessary when religious institutions decline to reform discriminatory practices. Critics have challenged the use of external legal pressure in matters governed by Jewish law and have raised halakhic concerns about whether pressure on a husband can invalidate a get. Similar objections have been directed at theories associated with Rabbi Rackman's proposed remedies for agunot, including conditional-marriage approaches. The tension between securing freedom for women and preserving the religious validity of a divorce remains a central unresolved issue in Orthodox jurisprudence. The Rackman Center continues to operate as a university-affiliated center focused on women's rights in Israel. Its work spans direct legal services, research, litigation, legislative advocacy, conferences, and engagement with religious and civil institutions. Its defining feature is the attempt to address gender inequality simultaneously as a legal, social, institutional, and religious-system problem.
- 2025
High Court opens Chief Rabbinate examinations to women
[1]The Court ruled that women must receive equal access to the Chief Rabbinate's rabbinical certification examinations.
- 2024
High Court rules on Electoral Assembly gender exclusion
[1]The High Court held that excluding women from the Electoral Assembly's rabbi-designated seats constituted unlawful gender discrimination.
- 2024
Electronic-monitoring amendment takes effect
[1]An amendment permitting courts to order electronic bracelets under domestic-violence protection orders took effect in August.
- 2023
Opposition to expanded rabbinical-court jurisdiction
[1]The Center began opposing proposed expansions of rabbinical-court jurisdiction, arguing that broader authority could expose more women to a system in which they face structural disadvantages.
- 2020
Electronic-monitoring bill drafted
[1]The Center drafted legislation on electronic monitoring that was subsequently brought before the Knesset by Keren Barak.
- 2018
Petition on women's participation in the Chief Rabbinate Electoral Assembly
[1]The Center joined a legal challenge arguing that women should not be excluded from Electoral Assembly seats designated for rabbis solely because of gender.
- 2015
Electronic monitoring becomes a policy priority
[1]The Center began advocating electronic monitoring for domestic-abuse offenders as part of a broader campaign for stronger protection against violence.
- 2001
Center established at Bar-Ilan University
[1]The Rackman Center opened within Bar-Ilan University's Faculty of Law to advance women's status through research, legal assistance, and policy work.
Products and positioning
A university-affiliated women's-rights center combining academic research, direct legal assistance, strategic litigation, and legislative advocacy, with a distinctive focus on Israeli family law and the relationship between civil law and religious institutions.
Legal services · 2001
Legal aid clinic
The Center provides free or low-cost advice, representation, and procedural assistance to women in family-law and rabbinical-court matters. The clinic focuses especially on clients with limited financial resources and may connect them with emotional support, social-work services, and volunteer accompaniment during divorce proceedings.
Publication
HaDin VeHaDayan
A recurring legal and halakhic publication addressing questions affecting women in Israel's rabbinical-court system. It serves as a vehicle for analysis, professional discussion, and dissemination of research concerning family law, religious divorce, and women's status.
Legal and policy advocacy · 2001
Agunah advocacy program
A program focused on women whose husbands refuse to grant a get. Its work includes direct legal representation, legislative advocacy, public and scholarly discussion, and exploration of possible remedies within Jewish law, including debate over conditional-marriage theories.
Policy advocacy · 2015
Domestic-violence policy program
An advocacy program promoting stronger responses to domestic violence, including electronic monitoring under protective orders and recognition of emotional, economic, verbal, and coercive abuse alongside physical violence.
Marketing campaigns
- 2025Equal access to Chief Rabbinate examinations
Israel
The Center joined ITIM and Kolech in challenging the exclusion of women from Chief Rabbinate certification examinations.
Outcome. The High Court ruled unanimously that women must be admitted on equal terms.
- 2023Opposition to expanded rabbinical-court jurisdiction
Israel
The Center opposed legislative proposals to broaden rabbinical-court jurisdiction, arguing that expanded authority could increase women's exposure to a structurally unequal legal forum.
- 2018Women in the Chief Rabbinate Electoral Assembly
Israel
Together with Ne'emanei Torah Va'Avodah, the Center challenged the exclusion of women from seats reserved for rabbis in the body that elects Israel's chief rabbis.
Outcome. The High Court ruled in January 2024 that excluding women from those seats was illegal gender discrimination.
- 2015Electronic monitoring for domestic-abuse offenders
Israel
The Center began campaigning for electronic monitoring as a means of protecting people subject to domestic-abuse threats and enforcing restrictions on dangerous offenders.
Outcome. Legislation was eventually enacted, and an amendment allowing courts to order electronic bracelets under protection orders took effect in August 2024.
Brand decisions
2025
Challenge to exclusion from rabbinical certification examsOtherBackground
The Center and partner organizations argued that women were being denied access to examinations testing halakhic knowledge, despite the certificates' relevance to some employment and compensation decisions.
Action taken
It joined a petition to the High Court seeking equal access for women.
Aftermath
The Court ruled unanimously for equal access. The Chief Rabbinate subsequently announced that registration for its ordination examinations would be open to men and women.
2024
Challenge to gender exclusion in the Chief Rabbinate Electoral AssemblyOtherBackground
The Center argued that women were excluded from rabbi-designated seats through an interpretation of the governing law that did not apply a consistent qualification standard.
Action taken
It supported litigation before the High Court of Justice.
Aftermath
The Court held that the exclusion constituted unlawful gender discrimination, while religious authorities and ultra-Orthodox political groups criticized the ruling.
2020
Drafting of electronic-monitoring legislationOtherBackground
The Center had advocated electronic monitoring for domestic-abuse cases since 2015 and developed a bill addressing the issue.
Action taken
It drafted legislation that Knesset member Keren Barak later introduced.
Aftermath
The proposal remained under political discussion for several years before enabling legislation and a later amendment took effect.
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