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X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law
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SUMMARY:Spring 2026 Events *Open to Harvard ID holders only*
DESCRIPTION:Monday February 9\nAdjudicating the Spiritual World in Israeli Courts: Dilemmas of Equality of Justice Erica Weiss moderated by Guy Priver\n12:15-1:15pm Hauser Hall 101\nClick here to livestream \nErica Weiss is Visiting Professor in the Department of Judaic Studies at Brown University for 2025–26. An anthropologist of religion and ethics\, her work traces how Jewish communities\, navigate responsibility for others in contexts of conflict and diversity. She has conducted research on conscientious objection in Israel\, Jewish–Muslim reconciliation\, and the role of political theology in shaping Jewish-non-Jewish relations. Currently\, she is Principal Investigator of the ERC project The Praxis of Coexistence\, a multi-sited ethnographic study in six countries that investigates how everyday Jewish\, Muslim\, and other communities practice coexistence in ways that challenge nationalist\, xenophobic\, and ethnically exclusionary paradigms. Weiss brings ethnography to bear on debates often dominated by philosophy and political theory\, offering alternative moral and political grammars for thinking about pluralism\, responsibility\, and Jewish life in diverse societies. \nMonday February 23\n When Courts Do—and Don’t—Defend Democracy: Evidence from Israel\nAndrew O’Donohue moderated by Adan Ershied\n12:15-1:15pm Hauser Hall 101\nClick here to livestream\n \nWhen does judicial behavior defend democracy by upholding constraints on executive power? I study this question in Israel under Benjamin Netanyahu by analyzing quantitative data on over 16\,000 panel decisions by Israel’s Supreme Court and qualitative interviews with high-ranking judges\, lawyers\, and politicians. I theorize that when judicial selection institutions disperse power (e.g.\, through a supermajority requirement)\, they limit court capture by the executive and preserve judicial constraints on executive power. I further theorize that judicial allies\, or actors outside the judiciary who support anti-government decisions\, explain variation in the judiciary’s power to rule against the executive and ensure executive compliance. I demonstrate the theory in Israel under Netanyahu and test the theory cross-nationally by using original data on judicial selection institutions in 139 countries. These findings illuminate when and why courts\, a key bulwark against modern democratic backsliding\, succeed or fail in constraining illiberal executives. \nAndrew O’Donohue is the Carlson and Nelson Graduate Fellow at the Harvard Radcliffe Institute and a Ph.D. Candidate in Government at Harvard University\, as well as a Nonresident Scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. O’Donohue’s research has been published in The Journal of Democracy and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Nexus\, as well as in The Atlantic\, Foreign Affairs\, Foreign Policy\, and The Washington Post. His research studies law and courts\, democratic backsliding\, and Middle East politics\, with a focus on Israel and Turkey. \nMonday March 2\nIndissoluble Bonds: Jews\, Law\, and the Limits of the Argentine Immigrant Nation\nLeila Stadler moderated by Tamar Herzog\n12:15-1:15pm Hauser Hall 101\nClick here to livestream\n \nIn this talk\, Stadler explores how migration to Argentina shaped Jewish law at the turn of the twentieth century. Argentina granted religious freedom to rebuild itself as a “Nation of Immigrants.” But this freedom was limited in ways Eastern European Jews had not encountered before. Specifically\, its family law perpetuated the Catholic ban on divorce and extended it to all citizens. This talk draws on newly opened rabbinic archives\, civil court files\, and Yiddish radio and press to examine how rabbis and lay leaders adapted halakhah to these constraints and how Jewish immigrants developed alternative strategies to dissolve marriages within and beyond the state framework. Ultimately\, these practices challenged Catholic legal dominance and redefined Jewish autonomy\, writing a new chapter in the social and religious meanings of marriage and divorce within the broader tradition of Jewish–state relations. \nLelia Stadler is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History at Columbia University. Her research focuses on modern Jewish migration to Latin America from legal and social perspectives. Her article “Ethical and Legal Bigamy: Transatlantic Jewish Families Caught between Conflicting Legalities\, Argentina\, 1930–1939\,” has recently appeared in Jewish Social Studies (2025). \nWednesday March 4\nJewish Law and International Law: Sovereignty and Exogenous Authority in a Transnational World\nMichael J. Broyde moderated by Gabi Blum\n12:15-1:15pm Hauser Hall 105\nClick here to livestream\n \nIn this talk about his new book\, Michael J Broyde explains how he and his co-author Yehonatan Elazar-De Mota understand the methodological and jurisprudential parallels between Jewish law and international law. They envision how the two legal systems might collaborate to address global challenges and offer a nuanced understanding of Jewish law’s contributions to the broader legal landscape. Finally\, Broyde and Elazar-de Mota analyze key areas including ethical considerations in wartime and intellectual property law. \nMichael J. Broyde is professor of law at Emory University School of Law\, the director of the SJD Program\, and Berman Projects Director at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University. He is also a core faculty member at the Tam Institute of Jewish Studies at Emory.  His primary areas of interest are law and religion\, Jewish law and ethics\, family law\, legal ethics\, and comparative religious law. \nMonday March 9\nMedical Expertise\, Women’s Bodies\, and Jewish Law in Early Modern Europe\nJordan Katz moderated by Jessica Marglin\n12:15-1:15pm Hauser Hall 101\nClick here to livestream\n \nJordan Katz is a historian of early modern Jewry\, with a focus on Jewish cultural history\, history of medicine\, and women and gender in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Her current book project examines the role of Jewish midwives within communal\, intellectual\, and medical frameworks in the early modern Ashkenazic world. Through an exploration of Jewish midwives’ medical influences\, their engagement with administrative knowledge systems\, and their intellectual status in the eyes of prominent male leaders\, Katz’s study offers a new understanding of the structures of knowledge and authority that undergirded early modern European society. More broadly\, she is interested in the ways in which expertise and special skills created pathways for interaction between Christians and Jews\, and between Jews of different socioeconomic classes\, that have not yet been studied. \n  \nMonday March 30\nSelf-incrimination\, Confession and Repentance in Jewish Law and Thought\nMoshe Halbertal moderated by Noah Feldman\n12:15-1:15pm Pound Hall 102\nClick here to livestream \nMoshe Halbertal is the Gerard Weinstock Visiting Professor in Jewish Studies and the Caroline Zelaznik Gruss and Joseph S. Gruss Visiting Professor in Talmudic Civil Law at Harvard for Spring 2026 \nMoshe Halbertal is the Gruss Professor at NYU Law School and a Professor of Philosophy at the Hebrew University. He received his PhD from Hebrew University in 1989\, and from 1988 to 1991 he was a fellow at the Society of Fellows at Harvard University. He is the author of many books\, including Idolatry (co-authored with Avishai Margalit\, 1992) and People of the Book: Canon\, Meaning\, and Authority (1997)\, both published by Harvard University Press; Concealment and Revelation: Esotericism in Jewish Tradition and Its Philosophical Implications (2007)\, On Sacrifice (2012)\, and Maimonides: Life and Thought (2013)\, The Beginning of Politics: Power in the Biblical Book of Samuel (co-authored with Stephen Holmes\, 2017) all published by Princeton University Press; His latest book Nahmanides Law and Mysticism was Published by Yale University Press in 2020. Halbertal was named a member of Israel’s Academy for the Sciences and the Humanities and his a member of American Philosophical Society. \n  \nMonday April 13\nLegal Advising in Times of Emergency: Dilemmas and Lessons Learned\nYael Dekel-Shafrir moderated by Ran Ridnik\n12:15-1:15pm Hauser Hall 101\nClick here to livestream \nThis talk will examine the role of government legal advisors during periods of national emergency\, drawing on Israel’s experience during COVID-19 and large-scale security emergencies.\nIn each of these moments\, the executive branch was required to act quickly\, often through emergency regulations and fast-tracked legislation\, while operating within a constitutional framework that demands legality\, proportionality\, transparency\, and judicial review. Dekel-Shafrir will explore the institutional role of the Israeli Ministry of Justice and the government’s legal advisory system in navigating these tensions.  The discussion will address questions such as:\n• How should emergency powers be exercised without normalizing exceptional measures?\n• What safeguards can realistically be preserved when legislation is enacted under urgent conditions?\n• How do legal advisors balance executive necessity with judicial oversight and the protection of rights?\n• How can governments maintain public trust when restricting movement\, economic activity\, or civil liberties?\n• What does it take to return from “emergency governance” to constitutional normalcy?\nUsing concrete examples from COVID-19 regulations\, rapid legislative processes\, administrative adaptations\, and subsequent judicial scrutiny\, Dekel-Shafrir will reflect on broader comparative lessons about institutional resilience and democratic accountability in times of crisis. \nYael Dekel-Shafrir is a 2025-2026 Wolk Fellow at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard.  She is the head of the Special Affairs Unit at the Attorney General’s Office in Israel and a student in the mid-career Master of Public Administration Program at the Harvard Kennedy School as a Fulbright Fellow. Based in Israel\, Yael has dedicated her career to advancing democratic values and the rule of law.  As a legal professional\, Yael addresses critical constitutional challenges\, safeguarding democratic institutions within complex societal and political changes. Previously she served as director of the Department of Economic Law\, leading significant governmental legislation and policy initiatives\, and as a member of the Administrative Enforcement Committee of the Israel Securities Authority. Her exceptional contributions\, including her leadership in shaping the Arrangements Law\, earned her the Ministry of Justice Excellence Award in 2022. Earlier in her career\, Yael prosecuted economic crimes at the State Attorney’s Office. She holds an LLM (magna cum laude) from Bar-Ilan University and an LLB from Tel Aviv University.ow has law constituted religious collectives across time? And how do these legal constructions help us understand contemporary debates over religious pluralism and group rights? \nWednesday\, April 15\n**CANCELLED**\nMessianism\, Politics\, and Halacha in Israel 1967–2024\nImmanuel Etkes moderated by Jay Harris\n12:15-1:15pm Hauser Hall 101\nImmanuel Etkes is Professor Emeritus of the History of the Jewish People at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His research focuses on the currents and movements of the Jews of Eastern Europe during the 18th and 19th centuries.
URL:https://pjil.law.harvard.edu/event/spring-2026-events-all-in-person-events-open-to-harvard-id-holders-only/
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