Ultra-Orthodox girls boast record-breaking 96% pass rate in Israel’s tough CPA exams

“Our goal was single-minded: to pass the exam and start working.”

By World Israel News Staff

Israeli lawmaker Moshe Gafni (UTJ), who chairs the Finance Committee, this week hailed a record-breaking 96% pass rates for Israel’s CPA exams by ultra-Orthodox Beis Yaakov seminar students, beating out leading universities by a large margin.

Of the 95 young charedi women who took the test, which is known for being extremely difficult, 91 passed.

“Our goal was single-minded: to pass the exam and start working,” Maayan Hanun, a charedi woman who recently passed the exam, said. “When you have such a goal in mind, you run with it all the way. It was our lives for the past two years and nothing got in our way.”

“I told everyone I met as well as everyone who knows me to pray for me to pass. Me and the girls I study [the course] with went to the kotel the day before the exam. My aunt recited psalms until the exam was over,” Chaya Saruk, another passing candidate, said.

Bar Ilan University came second, but by a much lower pass rate. Of the 97 students who sat the exam, only 67% passed. Tel Aviv University recorded a pass rate of 54% for 39 students, while only 34% of the 47 students from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem passed.