Michael A. Helfand: Church, State, and Jewish Education [Jewish Education 2/4]

This series is sponsored by Ari and Danielle Schwartz in memory of Danielle’s grandfather, Mr. Baruch Mappa, Baruch Ben Asher Zelig HaLevi.In this episode of the 18Forty Podcast, we speak to Michael A. Helfand, a Pepperdine Law professor specializing in religious liberty, about the meaning of the First Amendment as it relates to the funding of religious schools.With education so deeply essential to the modern Jewish community, we are confronted with the high cost of private schooling. In America, is the government able to step in and help? Should it? Why doesn’t the government fully fund religious schools?What is the “Lemon test”?Does “separation of the church and state” mean the government cannot support any religious institution, or only that it must support all religious institutions equally?Tune in to hear a conversation about the history and status of religious schools in American law.Interview begins at 9:58.Professor Michael Helfand is an expert on religious law and religious liberty. A frequent author and lecturer, his work considers how U.S. law treats religious law, custom and practice, focusing on the intersection of private law and religion in contexts such as religious arbitration, religious contracts and religious torts. He is currently an associate professor at Pepperdine University School of Law and co-director of Pepperdine University’s Diane and Guilford Glazer Institute for Jewish Studies. He received his J.D. from Yale Law School and his Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale University. Professor Helfand is an executive board member of the Beth Din of America, where he serves as a consultant on the enforceability of rabbinical arbitration agreements and awards in U.S. courts.References:The New American Judaism by Jack Wertheimer“Remembering Rabbi Norman Lamm” by Michael A. HelfandTo Build a Wall by Gregg IversReligion and State in the American Jewish Experience by Jonathan D. Sarna and David G. Dalin