Poraz v. City Council of Tel Aviv-Jaffa

In Israel, there is a chief rabbi who is selected by the Jewish community, and it is a position that is recognized by law. The chief rabbi oversees the provision of religious services to the Jewish community in Israel. Major cities also have chief rabbis who oversee the provision of services within the city and work with the chief rabbi of Israel. According to the procedure prescribed by the religious-service law, the chief rabbi of a city is selected by an elective assembly made up of representatives from the city council, representatives of the religious council, and representatives of the local synagogues in the area. This case involves the selection of the chief rabbi for the city of Tel Aviv-Jaffa. There was a long debate over whether to include women representatives from the city council in the elective assembly to select the chief rabbi of the city. In the end, the Tel Aviv-Jaffa city council (defendant) did not select any women to serve on the elective committee based on the fear that the national chief rabbi would not cooperate with a city chief rabbi elected by women and the fear that the best candidates would not present themselves for election if they knew that women formed part of the elective committee. Poraz (plaintiff) filed suit, challenging the city council’s intentional exclusion of women from the elective assembly.