MK Simcha Rothman is leading a revolution in Israel’s child support laws by empowering a religious committee instead of civil reformer experts. In a discussion held yesterday in the Law, Constitution and Justice Committee that he heads, they decided to establish a committee led by the president of the rabbinical court system to formulate recommendations on child support by September 2025. The Constitution Committee will then consider enshrining these recommendations in legislation and granting authority to Israel’s rabbinical courts, who decide on divorce cases, to also rule on child support matters.
What’s the significance?
• A committee composed entirely of men, without women or professionals in the fields of welfare and economics , will determine how child support is calculated in Israel.
• The rabbinical courts will be given authority to rule in accordance with these recommendations based on religious law.
• Their review will ignore years of professional research carried out on this subject.
Ignoring the Experts:
In recent years, the Ministry of Justice conducted a comprehensive examination of the issue of child support, based on expert opinions from leading academics, the Central Bureau of Statistics, and the private sector. The result of this professional study was the Parents’ Financial Responsibility for their Children Bill (2022), which was intended to create a unified civil support system in Israel, following the recommendations of the Shifman Committee.
Now, all this professional research is being pushed aside in favor of a religious committee with no relevant professional knowledge of the relevant economic and social issues.
Israel 2025: Another step forward towards a state governed by religious law, a step backward for civil law.
