Alexander L. Kaye

The project analyzes the legal philosophies of Orthodox Jewish Zionists around the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, against the backdrop of the intellectual and sociopolitical contexts in which they operated. While recognizing the impact of the Jewish rabbinical canon, the project traces the influence of European, British, and American legal theories on the writings of religious Zionist leaders and the proceedings of the rabbinical courts in Palestine and, later, Israel. It explores the way that Orthodox Zionists rabbis conceived of their own legal thinking and writing, and also the way that it was conceived of by others—including secular Jewish Zionists and the British Mandate authorities.