The Israel Bar Association — the overall pass rate for the bar exam has dropped to ~52%

Israel, January 11, 2026

The Israel Bar Association is a professional organization that maintains the registry of lawyers, is responsible for admission to the profession, and oversees basic work rules: internships, qualification exams, ethics, and disciplinary procedures. Simply put, without passing its formal “entry framework,” one cannot become a licensed lawyer in Israel.

Against this backdrop, the Bar Association published the results of the written exam for a lawyer’s license for December 2025. The key figure: the overall pass rate among all participants was about 52% — effectively, about every second person passed.

What the results showed

For the winter session of 2025, 2,953 interns were admitted. Of these, 1,545 passed the exam.

Among those taking it for the first time (there were 2,056), the result was noticeably higher — 67.7%. This is where the main contrast appears: the overall statistics “dip” due to retakes.

Retakes — the main reason for the low overall rate

328 people came for the second attempt — only 28.96% passed.

568 came for the third and subsequent attempts — 10.21% passed.

That is, the further from the first attempt, the tougher the barrier looks: retakes sharply reduce the overall pass rate.

The average result across the country in this session was marked as 59.2 points out of 100.

The gap between universities and colleges

Among first-time takers, graduates of universities showed a pass rate of about 87.5%, while graduates of colleges — about 43.2%.

The leaders in pass rates among first-time takers were:

• Hebrew University — 95.86%

• Bar-Ilan — 91.67%

• University of Haifa — 90.91%

• Tel Aviv University — 86.61%

• Reichman — 87.64%

Among the weak indicators mentioned in publications were:

• academic center in Safed — about 44%

• “Ono” — about 49.9%

• college in Netanya — about 52%

In some reports, an example with a zero pass rate in one of the small academic centers was also given — as an illustration of how disastrous the result can be with a small number of takers.

An important factor — where the internship took place

A separate note was made of the difference by internship location:

• internship in district/state prosecution — 85.14% passed

• internship in private offices — 46.64% passed

This is one of the most sensitive conclusions: results depend not only on the university but also on practice and preparation environment.

Why this became news

Because three things converged in one picture: a low overall pass rate, extremely weak results on retakes, and a large gap between types of educational institutions and internship trajectories. Against the backdrop of these figures, the familiar debate returns: does the exam really “weed out” the weak — or does it become too harsh a filter, which especially painfully affects those who did not pass the first time.