US Doctors to be Waived in to Israel- JPost

According to a JPost article, US doctors who have passed the USMLE need not take the Israeli medical licensing exam but will be waived in.

The exemption from the local licensing exam will be retroactive, granting a license to whoever has passed the USMLE in the past decade.

This is the first time that Israeli health authorities have accepted foreign test results for an MD license.

But someone who has taken an Israeli licensing exam and failed may not ask to take the USMLE exam and receive an exemption; he will be able, however, to resit the local exam instead.

I don't expect to see a similar rule for lawyers anytime soon. First of all, Israel seems to need more doctors so this will help ease the shortage while there is a glut of lawyers in the country. Second, the human body is the same in every country and medicine is fairly standardized whereas the legal system in the US and Israel, while similar, has many differences. On the other hand, lawyers who have passed the bar exam in one of the 50 states and has 5 years of experience need not pass the Israeli bar even if they can barely read Hebrew or know anything about the Israeli legal system. One can always hope...