To Build a Wall: American Jews and the Separation of Church and State (Constitutionalism and Democracy)

Ivers, Gregg

ISBN 10: 0813915546 / ISBN 13: 9780813915548

Published by Univ of Virginia Pr, 1995

About this Item

Seller Inventory # Abebooks199355

Bibliographic Details

• Title: To Build a Wall: American Jews and the Separation of Church and State (Constitutionalism and Democracy)
• Publisher: Univ of Virginia Pr
• Publication Date: 1995
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813915546
• ISBN 13: 9780813915548
• Binding: Hardcover

About this title

Synopsis

To Build a Wall represents the first extensive study of the effect of Jewish interest groups on church-state litigation. Ivers carefully traces the evolution of the American Jewish Committee, the American Jewish Congress, and the ADL from benevolent social service agencies to powerful organized interest groups active on all fronts of American politics and public affairs. He draws extensively upon original sources and archival materials from each organization, personal interviews over a five-year period, as well as the personal files and papers of Leo Pfeffer, the lead counsel or amicus curiae in nearly every establishment clause case from the late 1940s through the early eighties. Ivers concludes that organized interests can and do have critical influence in the legal process, but that organizational needs and external demands result in a more ad hoc, less planned approach to law and litigation than much previous scholarship has suggested. Ivers also argues that the ethnic, economic, and religious differences that led to the formation of competing Jewish organizations eighty years ago continue to drive a dynamic pluralism within the Jewish community, manifest in part in divergent approaches to litigation and public affairs.

About the Author

Gregg Ivers is Associate Professor of Government in the School of Public Affairs at the American University.