Hana Mansour-Khatib, a Muslim, is the first women ever to become a religious judge in Israel.
Israel's conservative law doesn't allow Jewish women to serve as religious judges in Rabbinical courts, but there's no law forbidding Muslim women from serving in Shariah courts.
Still, ultra-Orthodox Jewish politicians have previously blocked Muslim women from joining Shariah courts, for fear of changing the precedent. That changed this week, with Khatib's official appointment.
Although some conservative Muslims criticized the move, it is not unprecedented. Sharia Courts in Indonesia, Malaysia, Jordan, Egypt and Palestine have all allowed women to serve as judges.
Arab politicians in Israel's parliament – the Knesset – expressed their enthusiasm for Khatib's appointment.
"For 20 years, women’s organizations have been fighting for this," Aida Touma Suleiman, a Knesset Member from the Joint Arab List, told Haaretz.
"This is a statement that Arab women are capable of filling all function and that it’s time to lift the barriers they face," she said.
Issawi Frej, an Arab politician who represents the left-wing Meretz party in the Knesset and has been leading a campaign to allow Muslim women to serve as Shariah judges, shared similar sentiments to Suleiman.
"History has been made," he said. "This is one of the moments when all the work you do in parliament pays off."
"This is a really big victory, and it really shows how the courts can support equality for women," Khatib said after she was officially appointed.
Fellow religious Islamic religious judges echoed her words.
"With the installation of a female qadi, we prove to ourselves that Islam is based on the same values as our humanity, with no difference between race or sex, because religion must serve humanity," Qadi Iyad Zahalka said following Khatib's appointment.
Now, Jews struggling for the same right for their women feel emboldened.
"This is a positive development that shows things can change in the religious courts,” Seth Farber, the leader of an organization that advocates on behalf of Jews challenged by Israel’s Orthodox establishment, said. His organization continues to campaign for Jewish women to be allowed to serve on religious courts.