The Jewish Agency for Israel is now the first public institution in Israel to help employees finance surrogacy services abroad. The loan is valued at approximately $11,000.

Gay men prohibited by law from using surrogates in Israel are the first to benefit. Employees living in a Jewish community abroad can also benefit from the system.

The Jewish Agency’s Chairman of the Executive, Isaac Herzog, said that the organization recognizes ” the right of every man or woman to actualize their wish to be parents and to raise a family, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation”.  

This decision comes despite the Knesset’s rejection last November of a bill that would have allowed same-sex couples to have children by surrogacy (see Israel rejects surrogacy for single men and gay couples and Israel, extension of the surrogacy law overturned).