In this six-session course co-taught by Rabbi Adam Zeff and Maria Pulzetti, we will examine questions of whose law controls in situations where there are multiple claims to sovereignty or jurisdiction. For example, issues arise in American law as to whether municipal, state, or federal law controls, and most of Jewish law developed during times when Jewish communities lived as religious minorities under the rule of other groups. Our topics will include fugitive slave laws; abortion and family law; laws regarding the practice of religion; laws addressing conduct in outside jurisdictions, such as the Alien Tort Claims Act; tribal and American Indian law; and conflicts in criminal law. In all sessions, we will consider a case study from American law alongside traditional Jewish sources, and we will discuss the political, social, and historical factors and ethical implications that contribute to similarities and differences. This course is open to all, and lawyers can receive CLE credit for a fee. Please join us!
Sessions run from 12:30-1:30 PM on November 2, December 7, January 4, February 1, March 1, and May 3.
Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credit for PA lawyers is available through S. Freedman and Company, Inc. for an additional $35 per credit hour. CLE questions can be emailed to Susan Freedman at susanfreedman@comcast.net.
ABOUT THE TEACHERS:
Maria Pulzetti is a student at Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where she seeks to integrate her love of Torah into her work toward justice, dignity and wholeness for all people. She finds sacred connection in learning people’s stories and being present with them through times of challenge, transition and joy. She is honored to serve GJC, her family’s spiritual home, as student rabbi. Maria also works as a lawyer at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia, where she provides direct services to her low-income clients and leads systemic advocacy to strengthen social safety net programs. Maria was a public defender for twelve years. Before that, she was the founding executive director of the Moscow-based Russian Justice Initiative, a human rights litigation project. When she was 18, she co-founded the Day of Silence, a student-led day of action against the silencing and erasure of LGBTQ people in schools. Maria lives in Philadelphia with her wife and two children. She received her BA from the University of Virginia and her JD from Yale Law School.
Rabbi Adam Zeff has served as Rabbi at Germantown Jewish Centre since 2010, after previously serving as Assistant Rabbi (2007-2010) and Student Rabbi (2002-2007). He received a B.A. in Anthropology from Yale University in 1990, a Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1999, and rabbinic ordination from the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College (RRC) in 2007. Rabbi Zeff is active in religious dialogue with Christian and Muslim clergy and is on the Executive Committee of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia. As someone who grew up Reform, experimented with Orthodoxy in college, studied at a Reconstructionist seminary, and is a member of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, Rabbi Zeff is comfortable in a wide variety of Jewish settings and modes of worship and practice. His core conviction is that diversity in Jewish life and in the wider world is the truest expression of the divine.
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