State and Religion in Israel

Gideon Sapir is Professor in the Faculty of Law at Bar-Ilan University. A scholar of constitutional theory and the relations of state and religion, he is the author of Israeli Constitution: From Evolution to Revolution (forthcoming). Daniel Statman is head of the philosophy department at the University of Haifa and former chair of the Israeli Philosophical Association. He is the author of Moral Dilemmas (1995), Religion and Morality (1995), and most recently, War by Agreement: A Defense of Traditional Just War Theory (forthcoming).

• Part I. Theory: 1. Liberalism and neutrality(1): arguments against support; 2. Liberalism and neutrality(2): arguments against preference; 3. The assumed dangers of religion; 4. Religious reasons for separation; 5. Freedom of religion; 6. Protection of religious feelings; 7. Freedom from religion; 8. Religious coercion: the place of religious arguments in the public sphere; Part II. From Theory to Practice: 9. Marriage and divorce; 10. Religious education; 11. Serving religious needs; 12. Drafting Yeshiva students into the army; 13. The Sabbath in a Jewish state; 14. The Supreme Court on the protection of and from religion; 15. Minority religions in Israel.

'There are plenty of books and articles, both in Israel and abroad, which deal with freedom of conscience and religion. State and Religion in Israel by Sapir and Statman is the best of them all. No other book can compete with its intellectual honesty, sharp reasoning and comprehensive knowledge of the topic in all its complexity. I will not be exaggerating if I say that the public and legal discourse in Israel will improve as a result of the ideas in this book, which is mandatory reading for any thinking person.' Aharon Barak, Israel Prize Laureate and former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel