“For the sake of Zion I will not rest” by Matia Kam

Our brothers and sisters in the United States, our partners in the Jewish destiny and the values of the State of Israel:

Please join us in the decisive struggle to preserve the Jewish and democratic character of the state, which was established 75 years ago and inspired by the prophets and with the aim of shaping a Jewish state based on the values of justice and ethics, which are the foundation of our existence: “Zion in judgment will be redeemed and those who return to her – in justice” (Isaiah 1:27).

And in the spirit of Abraham, “to do what is just and right” (Genesis18:19).

I am drawing on the Bible because it is the source of Jewish justice and ethics and our very foundation. We are a nation of laws.

We are grateful for the American law professors who initiated and signed the petition for our struggle. Thank you on behalf of the troubled and concerned citizens of Israel, regardless of their political or identity affiliation, across religions and ethnicity.

Matia Kam is an Israeli writer, commentator, wife, mother, and grandmother

US Law Professors’ Statement About the Proposed Law Reforms in Israel

Initial Posting Date: January 29, 2023

List of Signatories Updated: January 30, 2023

We, law professors in the United States who care deeply about Israel, strongly oppose the effort by the current Israeli government to radically overhaul the country’s legal system. This effort includes proposed reforms that would grant the ruling coalition absolute power to appoint Justices and judges, make it almost impossible for the Supreme Court to invalidate legislation, severely limit judicial review of executive-branch decisions, and curtail the independence of the Attorney General and legal advisers assigned to different government agencies.

Some of us believe that the Israeli Supreme Court has over-reached in important respects and would support a scaling back of its power to review legislation and executive decisions. Others believe that the legal status quo need not be changed. Regardless of the disagreement amongst us, we are all deeply worried that the speed and scale of the reforms will seriously weaken the independence of the judiciary, the separation of powers and the rule of law. These safeguards have contributed to Israel’s flourishing over the last 75 years, helping it weather severe security, political and social challenges. Weakening them would pose a dire risk to freedom of expression, to human and civil rights, and to efforts to reduce corruption, making it harder for Israel to survive such challenges going forward. We hope for Israel’s sake that it chooses a wiser path.

Signatories

[university name added for identification only and not as a sign of institutional support]

Organizers / Initial Signatories

Oren Bar-Gill (Harvard University)

Jesse Fried (Harvard University)

Amos Guiora (University of Utah)

Additional Signatories

David Abraham (University of Miami)

Matthew Adler (Duke University)

Bill Alford (Harvard University)

Anat Alon-Beck (Case Western Reserve University)

Hadar Aviram (University of California College of the Law, San Francisco)

Reuven Avi-Yonah (University of Michigan)

Tom Baker (University of Pennsylvania)

Kenneth A. Bamberger (University of California, Berkeley)

Michal Barzuza (University of Virginia)

Lucian Bebchuk (Harvard University)

Yochai Benkler (Harvard University)

Omri Ben-Shahar (University of Chicago)

Mitchell Berman (University of Pennsylvania)

Lisa Bernstein (University of Chicago)

Gabriella Blum (Harvard University)

Michal Buchhandler-Raphael (Widener University)

Erwin Chemerinsky (University of California, Berkeley)

Harlan Grant Cohen (University of Georgia)

Alan Dershowitz (Harvard University)

Melvin Eisenberg (University of California, Berkeley)

Ann Laquer Estin (University of Iowa)

Joseph Fishkin (University of California, Los Angeles)

Eleanor Fox (New York University)

Barry Friedman (New York University)

Richard D. Friedman (University of Michigan)

Larry T. Garvin (Ohio State University)

Clayton P. Gillette (NYU School of Law)

Talia Gillis (Columbia University)

Ronald J. Gilson (Stanford University and Columbia University)

Rebecca Goldstein (University of California, Berkeley)

Ellen Goodman (Rutgers University)

Jeffrey Gordon (Columbia University)

Sarah Barringer Gordon (University of Pennsylvania)

Robert W. Gordon (Stanford University)

Jonathan Gould (University of California, Berkeley)

Bruce Green (Fordham University)

Ariela J. Gross (University of Southern California)

Daniel Hemel (New York University)

David Hoffman (University of Pennsylvania)

Robert Howse (New York University)

Samuel Issacharoff (New York University)

Debbie Kaminer (City University of New York)

Gregory Keating (University of Southern California)

Amalia Kessler (Stanford University)

Russell Korobkin (University of California, Los Angeles)

Christopher Kutz (University of California, Berkeley)

Alexandra D. Lahav (Cornell University)

Pnina Lahav (Boston University)

Yair Listokin (Yale University)

Omri Marian (University of California, Irvine)

Andrei Marmor (Cornell University)

Florencia Marotta-Wurgler (New York University)

Peter S. Menell (University of California, Berkeley)

Carrie Menkel-Meadow (University of California, Irvine)

William I. Miller (University of Michigan)

Martha Minow (Harvard University)

Robert Mnookin (Harvard University)

Noga Morag-Levine (Michigan State University)

Dotan Oliar (University of Virginia)

Barak Orbach (University of Arizona)

Nizan Geslevich Packin (City University of New York)

Robert Post (Yale University)

Richard Primus (University of Michigan)

Barak Richman (Duke University)

Edward Rock (New York University)

Daniel B. Rodriguez (Northwestern University)

Robert Rosen (University of Miami)

Guy A. Rub (Ohio State University)

Daniel Rubinfeld (New York University)

Samuel Scheffler (New York University)

Richard Schragger (University of Virginia)

Avital Schurr (University of Louisville)

Alan Schwartz (Yale University)

Peter M. Shane (Ohio State University)

Dan Simon (University of Southern California)

Daniel Sokol (University of Southern California)

Michael Stein (Harvard University)

Nomi Stolzenberg (University of Southern California)

Jennifer Taub (Western New England University)

Joshua C. Teitelbaum (Georgetown University)

Joseph William Singer (Harvard University)

Matthew Stephenson (Harvard University)

Lior Strahilevitz (University of Chicago)

David Webber (Boston University)

Laura Weinrib (Harvard University)

Alan Jay Weisbard (University of Wisconsin)

Mark G. Yudof (University of California, Berkeley)

Jonathan Zasloff (University of California, Los Angeles)

If you want your name added to the list of signatories, please send an email to:

jesse.fried@gmail.com or bargilloren@gmail.com