The Israel Law and Liberty Forum is a movement of lawyers, judges, students, and other individuals who are interested in Israeli law and policy. Our work -- encompassing debate events, publications, and unique educational opportunities for jurists -- advances a conservative legal worldview based on four core principles: the separation of powers, judicial restraint, individual liberty, and limited government.
The Forum is a non-partisan organization which aims to serve as a platform for debate and scholarship. We do not take specific policy positions.
Outstanding opportunities for legal learning, discussion, and leadership
The Forum encourages the establishment of student chapters in Israeli law schools. Since 2020, its first three chapters have opened at Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, and the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya. Chapters host popular debates between prominent public figures and legal academics on campuses. In addition, chapters sponsor other learning opportunities, writing contests, panels, and events.
What is the proper role of the State Attorney’s Office?Has there been a shift in the application of criminal law to public figures? Should the Supreme Court be able to invalidate Israel’s foundational legislation? Should the judicial nominations process be reformed, and if so, how? Our national organization hosts public events, including debates, interviews, and conversations with prominent legal figures drawn from academia, government, the media, and the private sector. We will be holding our first-ever academic conference in June 2021.
What could a constitution for Israel look like? What is the value of precedent in judicial decision-making? How should courts decide whether or not to hear a case? What is the proper balance of power between the regulator and the judge? Our Hebrew-language digital publications provide a unique contribution to Israeli legal discourse by addressing these questions and others from a conservative perspectives. These include a magazine with in-depth long form essays on contemporary issues in Israeli law, a popular podcast, and an ever-expanding library of texts relating to law and society. We will launch our English-language podcast in May 2021.
We host an annual summer seminar for 20 of Israel’s top law students. The seminar intensively cultivates the study and discussion of conservative legal thought, involving the contributions of some of the top Israeli and international legal thinkers in the world.
Led by outstanding Israeli law students, campus chapters host debates between leading legal figures representing diverse perspectives on significant questions of law. In addition, chapters host member-only meetings with VIP’s from across the world of Israeli law, Israel’s only annual law student conference, and an annual writing contest. Forum chapters exist at four out of five of Israel’s top law faculties: Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, Bar Ilan, and Reichman University. Our chapters also co-sponsor Israel’s only national law school writing contest, encouraging serious and creative discussions of broad legal themes across all Israeli law faculties.
Israel is still in a period of significant formation that will determine its security and prosperity for years to come. The legal aspects of great debates on governance, security, economics, and culture all deserve a rich and varied conversation. Our Hebrew-language digital publications offer a unique platform from conservative and classical liberal perspectives. These include “The Public Domain,” and online journal with in-depth long form essays on contemporary issues in Israeli law from contributors including Supreme Court justices, professors, and prominent attorneys. We also publish a popular podcast with in-depth legal interviews, and an ever-expanding Classics Library featuring translations of great legal texts to Hebrew as well as touchstone Hebrew-language scholarship.
In 2022, we were privileged to partner with Shibolet Press to publish “In the Name of the Law,” the first-ever Hebrew-language translation of select writings by Justice Antonin Scalia.
The Skolnick Summer Seminar in Law & Democracy is an annual summer seminar for 20 of Israel’s top law students. The seminar intensively cultivates the study and discussion of conservative legal thought, involving the contributions of some of the top Israeli and international legal thinkers in the world. Former speakers range from Justice Alex Steyn to Professor Menachem Mautner, Professor Ruth Gavison (z”l) to former Chief Justice Aharon Barak, as well as former Minister of Justice, Ayelet Shaked and former deputy Attorney General, Dina Zilber.
What is the proper role of theState Attorney’s Office? Has there been a shift in the application of criminallaw to public figures? Should the Supreme Court be able to invalidate Israel’sconstitutional legislation? How should the military and legal systems interacton key questions of national security? These issues and more deserve thoughtfulanalysis by top legal experts in Israel and abroad. Our national organization hosts public events, including debates, interviews, andconversations with prominent legal figures drawn from academia, government, themedia, and the private sector.
Richard Epstein is the Tisch Professor of Law at New York University and a senior lecturer at the University of Chicago. He is the founder and head of the Classical Liberal Institute at NYU, and the Bedford Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University. Professor Epstein is an expert in law and economics. He is considered one of the world’s most influential and prolific contemporary legal scholars.
Daniel Friedmann served as the dean of Tel Aviv University Law School and as head and founder of the law school at the College for Management and Administration. He is a former Minister of Justice for the State of Israel. Friedmann received the Israel Prize for Legal Research in 199, and writes widely on the law, including in his seminal history of the Israeli legal system, “The Purse and the Sword.”
Aylana is deputy director of the Tikvah Fund in Israel, overseeing the Law and Liberty Forum and Tikvah Israel’s annual conference. She worked in senior roles at Tikvah US for seven years prior. She obtained her BA in Jewish Studies from Queens College and her JD from Georgetown University. Her work has appeared in Mosaic Magazine, Commentary Magazine, and other outlets.
Yonatan is a board-certified lawyer in Israel and the State of New York. He obtained his law and communications degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has previously worked as an attorney in the offices of Ephraim Abramson & Co., as a Product Manager at Mobileye, and as a researcher at the Kohelet Institute.
Kayla is a licensed attorney in Israel. She obtained a joint degree in Law and Government at IDC-Herzliya. She interned at the Department of International Affairs at the Office of the State Attorney and was a project manager at ‘Reservists on Duty’ NGO.
