Contact: Darren Johnson, Director of Communications
(631) 421-2244, ext. 383, djohnson@tourolaw.edu

March 26, 2006

Can a Constitution and Religion Co-Exist? Touro Law Center Hosts Symposium

Huntington, N.Y. – Touro Law Center and its Institute of Jewish Law will host a very special symposium, “Accommodating Basic Religious Concerns in a Democratic Society: An Israeli, American and European Legal Perspective,” on Thursday, April 6, at 7 p.m. in the Faculty Conference Room. The event is free, but reservations are required. Call 631-421-2244 ext. 389.

The panelists are Prof. Amos Shapira, former dean of Tel Aviv University Law School; Prof. Richard Collin Mangrum of the Creighton University School of Law; and Prof. Thomas Schweitzer of Touro Law Center. The moderator is Professor Chaim Povarsky, Director of the Institute of Jewish Law.

The symposium will focus on how church and state coexist, and not, in the United States, Europe and Israel, where the country is considering adopting its first constitution. The U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment set the precedent for what has become a legal minefield for the U.S. and subsequent constitutional states. The First Amendment juggles church and state by neither sanctioning nor prohibiting the free exercise of any religion. However, this has been tested in the courts in topics ranging from prayer in schools, the posting of the 10 Commandments in a courthouse, use of the word “under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance, whether or not Jewish inmates should work on the Sabbath and Native American tribal use of drugs such as peyote in religious rituals.

In Europe, the idea of church and state has really been tested with varying legal opinions on large Muslim populations that have sprung up in predominantly Christian nations. Israel is strongly considering adopting a constitution, but will have many challenges in trying to accommodate a large Jewish majority without the Israeli Supreme Court knocking down such religious protections as unconstitutional.

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