To build a wall
Subtitle: American Jews and the separation of church and state
By: Gregg Ivers.
Series: Constitutionalism and democracy
Publisher: University Press of Virginia; Univ of Virginia Pr
Published: 1995
Place of publication: Charlottesville
Language: eng
Number of pages: 272
Subjects: American Jewish Congress.; American Jewish Committee.; B'nai B'rith. Anti-defamation League.; Jews -- United States -- Politics and government.; Church and state -- United States.
Description: 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.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 255-263) and index.