Page 11 / De iure September 2018
Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, Supreme Court Justice Prof. Daphna Barak-Erez, and Prof. Arye Edrei at the Great Synagogue of Moscow
Prof. Arye Edrei of TAU Law and Israel’ s Ambassador to Russia Mr. Gary Koren
“ Mishpat Ivri Society” Celebrates Centenary
The national theatre of Israel, the Habima Theatre, was founded in 1917 in Moscow. In the same year, and in the same place, the first research society in Jewish law was established. Both of these initiatives were the result of the Balfour Declaration and the emerging cultural revival among Jewish communities in Eastern Europe. The establishment of the“ Mishpat Ivri Society” signaled the foundation of a new field, the scientific investigation of the halakhic system and the development of Jewish law scholarship.
The Society celebrated its centenary in a recent conference in Moscow, attended by Jewish law scholars from TAU Law and the Jewish Law Association, as well as researchers from around the world. During the conference, 50 lectures were given by the finest researchers in the field and the topics ranged from principle methodologies to new tools in the research of Jewish law. The conference also examined the achievements in the field over the last century and discussed future challenges.
The participants visited the Great Synagogue of Moscow, which was founded at the end
of the 19th Century and contains one of the rooms in which the Society was originally founded in 1917. The Chief Rabbi of Moscow, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, hosted the participants and related interesting anecdotes about the Society’ s illustrious history. Later in the evening, a festive dinner reception was held at the Moscow Jewish Museum and guests of honor included Supreme Court Justice Prof. Daphna Barak-Erez, Israel’ s Ambassador to Russia Mr. Gary Koren, Vice
President for Resource Development at Tel Aviv University Mr. Amos Elad and senior representatives from the Jewish Congress in Russia.
Some of the early participants in the Society became renowned for their significant contributions to the study of Jewish law and went on to have diverse and eminent legal careers in the land of Israel. Two leaders of the Society and primary‘ theoreticians’ of the Hebrew Law of Peace, Shmuel Eisenstadt and Paltiel Dickstein, later immigrated to Israel and were among the founders of the schools of law and economics in Tel Aviv, an institution from which Tel Aviv University grew. Dickstein also served as TAU Law Dean for many years. Thus, the establishment of the Society constitutes a momentous event in the history of the Faculty and Tel Aviv University.
The conference was co-sponsored by the Zimin Foundation, the Eliyahu Foundation with support from the Koschitzky Family, as well as the Berg Institute for Law and History and the Taubenschlag Institute of Criminal Law. •