Trustees: Professor M.D.A. Freeman
(Chairman), Mr. David Landau (Vice-Chairman), Her Honour Judge Dawn Freedman,
Rabbi Reuven Livingstone, Mr. Philip Morgenstern, Mr. Peter Ohrenstein, Mr.
Sigismund Reisman, Lord Justice Rix, Professor Avrom Sherr, Mr. Romie Tager
Secretary: Professor Bernard Jackson, Hon.
Consultant:
Rabbi Dr Daniel Sinclair
Details of next lecture: click here
Text of Professor Jackson's agunah lecture: click here
Objects
The Jewish Law
Publication Fund was established, and granted charitable status, in 1982, its
objects being "to advance public education in and research into Jewish Law
and the dissemination of the useful results of such research". The main
efforts of the Fund were initially to secure the continued publication of The
Jewish Law Annual (supported since 1985 by the Institute of Jewish Law of
Boston University School of Law) and since 1987 to assist the publication
series of The Jewish Law Association, Jewish
Law Association Studies, which include conference proceedings, a volume on The
Halakhic Thought of R. Isaac Herzog (with a Foreword by his son, the
then President of the State of Israel), and thematic volumes (see Mishpat
Ivri Research Materials, below).
Teaching
Materials in Jewish Law
Jewish law is
now being taught in a number of US and UK law schools, but the number would
increase considerably with the availability of suitable teaching materials
written in English. The Fund has supported the Jewish Law Association's project
for an introductory textbook on the sources of Jewish law, explaining and
exemplifying the sources of each period in the context of the juridical status
of the Jewish communities concerned. The book, entitled An
Introduction to the History and Sources of Jewish Law, was published by
Oxford University Press in 1996.
Mishpat
Ivri Research Materials
A large body
of published work on Jewish law written in Hebrew by the present generation of
Israeli scholars is currently inaccessible to those not sufficiently fluent in
Hebrew. Such work is published either in the form of monographs or in several
well-established journals of Jewish law. The Fund seeks to make appropriate
selections from this work accessible in the English-speaking world. The
following three volume have recently been published:
Law, Judicial Policy and Jewish
Identity in the State of Israel, ed. D.B. Sinclair (Binghamton:
Global Academic Publishing, 2000, ISBN 1-586840-89-4; Jewish Law Association
Studies, XI). This volume provides translations of leading cases on Jewish
identity (Beresford, Shas, Miller, Passaro) after the Law of Return was
amended in 1970 by providing a statutory definition of a "Jew". It
includes an editor's Introduction and articles by A. Rubinstein, Z. Warhaftig,
P. Shifman, A. Maoz and A. Shapira.
Jewish Family Law in the State
of Israel,
ed. M.D.A. Freeman (Binghamton: Global Academic Publishing, 2002, ISBN
1-58684-183-1; Jewish Law Association Studies, XIII). This volume carries a
major debate between Pinhas Shifman and Eliav Shochetman on the merits and
implications of any introduction of civil marriage in Israel, together with an
essay by Ruth Halperin-Kaddari on the interaction between the civil and
rabbinical courts, in the light of theories of legal pluralism. There are also
essays on separation in the rabbinical courts (Michael Corinaldi), maintenance
of minor children (Menashe Shawa) and the ketubah obligations of a
violent and recalcitrant husband (Rabbi She'ar-Yashuv Cohen).
Jewish Biomedical Law, ed. Daniel B.
Sinclair (Binghamton: Global Academic Publishing, 2005, ISBN 1-58684-261-7,
hardback and paperback eds.; Jewish Law Association Studies, XV). This volume
carries statutory, case-law, doctrinal and halakhic materials from Israel
relating to Abortion, Assisted Reproduction, Cloning, Life-Saving Medical
Therapy and Patient Autonomy, Definition of Death and Cardiac Transplants,
Treatment of the Terminally Ill, Bone Marrow Donation, and Sale of Organs.
Jewish Commercial Law, Essays
in Memory of George Webber, ed. Jonathan Cohen (Deborah Charles Publications for
The Jewish Law Association, 2009, ISBN 978-1-906731-02-1 (hardback), 978-1-906731-03-8 (paperback),
2009;
Jewish Law Association Studies, XIX). This volume carries articles on Business in Intangibles, Non-Monetary
Loans, The Power of Monetary Customs to Override the Law, Market Failure, Guarantor
and Debtor, Mortgage and Resale, and Negotiability in Talmudic and Gaonic Times
Full tables of
contents may be found on the website of The Jewish Law Association, where ordering
arrangements from the publishers, Global Academic
Publishing and Deborah Charles Publications, may also be found.
Future
Projects in Preparation in this series are:
A volume on Israel as a Jewish and
Democratic State, ed. A. Maoz
Amongst
further projects for which the trustees particularly seek support is a volume
on the writings of the late Ariel Rosen-Zvi.
Publication of
these projects will provide teachers for the first time with top quality
material in English, directed to the study of particular areas of Jewish law,
written by leading Israeli experts. It will supplement the excellent general
introductions to Jewish law which have recently become available -
notably, Justice Elon's monumental 4-volume Jewish Law (1994) and the Jewish
Law Association's An Introduction to the History and Sources of Jewish Law (1996).
Consideration
is now being given to the support of new monographs written in English on
aspects of Jewish law.
The trustees
will be happy to discuss these and other suggestions with potential sponsors.
Costs and Timetable
Much depends
upon the size of the book and other practical matters. For an average-size
volume, a budget of at least £7500 is anticipated. From the commissioning of
the translation to publication one may anticipate a timetable of three years.
Recognition
A dedication
page in the volume will record the sponsorship, name the honoree, or dedicate
the volume to the memory of the sponsor's nominee. Press releases on
publication will also recognise the sponsorship.
Lectures
The Fund
sponsors regular lectures in Jewish Law, in collaboration with the Oxford
Centre for Hebrew and Jewish Studies and the Institute for Advanced Legal
Studies. Details of forthcoming lectures will be published on this page.
Other
internet resources
For links to
sites providing resources for the study of Jewish law, click here. Those wishing to bring
such sites to our attention should e-mail Professor Jackson: Bernard.Jackson@man.ac.uk.
The Secretary
of the Fund, Professor Bernard Jackson, will be happy to provide further
information. He may be contacted at: