Professor Sanford V. Levinson will Deliver the Inaugural Lecture in the Jewish Law Institute’s Distinguished Lecture Series

Central Islip, NY –Professor Sanford V. Levinson will deliver the inaugural lecture in the Jewish Law Institute's Distinguished Lecture Series on October 10, 2011 at Touro Law Center at 12:30 pm.

Professor Levinson, who holds the W. St. John Garwood and W. St. John Garwood, Jr. Centennial Chair in Law at the University of Texas School of Law, will discuss his book Constitutional Faith, winner of the Scribes Award upon its publication in 1988, and soon to be reissued by Princeton University Press with additional applications to contemporary American politics. The lecture will focus, in part, on Levinson's insights into comparisons and contrasts between American constitutional interpretation and biblical interpretation, including Jewish interpretive tradition. Consistent with the work of the Jewish Law Institute, Levinson demonstrates the relevance of Jewish law and legal theory to our understanding of American law.

Sanford Levinson joined the University of Texas Law School in 1980. Previously a member of the Department of Politics at Princeton University, he is also a Professor in the Department of Government at the University of Texas. The author of over 350 articles and book reviews in professional and popular journals--and a regular contributor to the popular blog Balkinization—Levinson has edited and co-edited many books and is also the author of four books: Constitutional Faith; Written in Stone: Public Monuments in Changing Societies; Wrestling With Diversity; and, most recently, Our Undemocratic Constitution: Where the Constitution Goes Wrong (and How We the People Can Correct It). He received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association in 2010.

He has been a visiting faculty member of the Boston University, Georgetown, Harvard, New York University, and Yale law schools in the United States and has taught abroad in programs of law in London; Paris; Jerusalem; Auckland, New Zealand; and Melbourne, Australia. He was a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton in 1985-86 and a Member of the Ethics in the Professions Program at Harvard in 1991-92. He is also affiliated with the Shalom Hartman Institute of Jewish Philosophy in Jerusalem. A member of the American Law Institute, Levinson was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2001. He is married to Cynthia Y. Levinson, a writer of children's literature, and has two children, Meira, a member of the faculty at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (after teaching in the Atlanta and Boston public school systems), and Rachel, a lawyer with the American Association of University Professors in Washington, D.C.

Touro Law Center professor Samuel J. Levine is the director of the Jewish Law Institute. Professor Levine is a dedicated and accomplished professor of Jewish Law Studies. The Jewish Law Institute offers a scholarly and intellectual framework for the academic study of the Jewish Law experience. The Institute acts as a center for the study and teaching of Jewish law throughout the United States, bringing together leading scholars, teachers, and lawyers and acting as a clearinghouse for new ideas and independent research. Its major goal is to make the Jewish legal tradition an active force in legal scholarship.

For additional information or to attend this lecture, please contact Courtney Klein at (631) 761-7064 or email events@tourolaw.edu.

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Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center’s 185,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility is located adjacent to both a state and a federal courthouse in Central Islip, New York. Touro Law’s proximity to the courthouses, coupled with programming developed to integrate the courtroom into the classroom, provide a one-of-a kind learning model for law students, combining a rigorous curriculum taught by expert faculty with a practical courtroom experience. Touro Law, which has a student body of approximately 750 and an alumni base of more than 5,000, offers full- and part-time J.D. programs, several dual degree programs and graduate law programs for US and foreign law graduates. Touro Law Center is part of the Touro College system.

About the Touro College and University System
Touro is a system of non-profit institutions of higher and professional education. Touro College was chartered in 1970 primarily to enrich the Jewish heritage, and to serve the larger American and global community. Approximately 19,000 students are currently enrolled in its various schools and divisions. Touro College has branch campuses, locations and instructional sites in the New York area, as well as branch campuses and programs in Berlin, Jerusalem, Moscow, Paris, and Florida. Touro University California and its Nevada branch campus, as well as Touro College Los Angeles and Touro University Worldwide as separately accredited institutions within the Touro College and University System. For further information on Touro College, please go to: http://www.touro.edu/media/.