You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
Scholars of Jewish, European, and Israeli history as well as readers interested in issues of legal and social justice will be grateful for this detailed volume.
This is the first book to present a systematic and synthetic introduction to Jewish law.
The story of Jewish emancipation is not well-known, nor how Jews made such an important contribution to law and democracy in England. In The Jewish Contribution to English Law, Barrington Black explains how Jews first came to the UK, were expelled, returned, and eventually took their place in Parliament and on the bench. He tells of the first Jewish lawyers as well as those who rose to be judges, President of the Supreme Court, Lord Chief Justice, Lord Chancellor, Master of the Rolls and Attorney-General. The turning point was a Statute of 1858 which allowed Jews to take an oath compatible with their religious beliefs (extending comparable benefits conferred on Catholics almost 70 years befo...
The Freehof Institute of Progressive Halakhah is a creative research center devoted to studying and defining the progressive character of the halakhah in accordance with the principles and theology of Reform Judaism. It seeks to establish the ideological basis of Progressive halakhah, and its application to daily life. The Institute fosters serious studies, and helps scholars in various parts of the world to work together for a common cause. It provides an ongoing forum through symposia, and publications including the quarterly newsletter HalakhaH, published under the editorship of Walter Jacob, in the United States. The foremost halakhic scholars in the Reform, Liberal, and Progressive rabbinate along with some Conservative and Orthodox colleagues as well as university professors serve on our Academic Council. Book jacket.
In Law’s Dominion, Jay Berkovitz offers a novel approach to the history of early modern Jewry. Set in the city of Metz, on the Moselle river, this study of a vibrant prerevolutionary community draws on a wide spectrum of legal sources that tell a story about community, religion, and family that has not been told before. Focusing on the community’s leadership, public institutions, and judiciary, this study challenges the assumption that Jewish life was in a steady state of decline before the French Revolution. To the contrary, the evidence reveals a robust community that integrated religious values and civic consciousness, interacted with French society, and showed remarkable signs of col...
A scholar of law and religion uncovers a surprising origin story behind the idea of the separation of powers. The separation of powers is a bedrock of modern constitutionalism, but striking antecedents were developed centuries earlier, by Jewish scholars and rabbis of antiquity. Attending carefully to their seminal works and the historical milieu, David Flatto shows how a foundation of democratic rule was contemplated and justified long before liberal democracy was born. During the formative Second Temple and early rabbinic eras (the fourth century BCE to the third century CE), Jewish thinkers had to confront the nature of legal authority from the standpoint of the disempowered. Jews struggl...
Environmental concerns are at the top of the agenda around the world. Judaism, like the other world religions, only rarely raised issues concerning the environment in the past. This means that modern Judaism, the halakhic tradition no less than others, must build on a slim foundation in its efforts to give guidance. The essays in this volume mark the beginning of a new effort to face questions and formulate answers of vital importance.
A guide to, and abbreviation of, the standard code of Jewish law, the Shulhan Aruch