LDB President Kenneth L. Marcus contributes a chapter on “Three Conceptions of Religious Freedom” to Hanoch Dagan, Shahar Lifschitz and Yedidia Z. Stern’s newly released volume on Religion and the Discourse of Human Rights (Jerusalem, Israel: Israel Democracy Institute, 2014) (downloadable here). The volume marks the inauguration of an important human rights program at the Israel Democracy Institute, while Marcus’ contribution reflects the expansion of the Brandeis Center’s work on anti-Semitism and religious discrimination. Religion and the Discourse of Human Rights is the product of the first international conference of IDI’s Religion and Human Rights project, which explores the existing and potential relationships between the Jewish tradition, in all of its forms in the past and present, and the doctrine of human-rights, in its broadest sense. Marcus’ essay addresses three conceptions of religious freedom in American constitutional law, explaining how traditional approaches do not always adequately protect the rights of religious minorities such as Jewish Americans. This research grows out of the Louis D. Brandeis Center’s work advancing the civil rights of Jewish students in American universities in situations where they are sometimes denied protections that are routinely extended to members of other groups. Mr. Marcus delivered an early version of this paper in at the Israel Democracy Institute in Jerusalem in 2012. The presentation can be viewed in this video. The book presents a series of case studies that examine the interaction between religion and human rights from various angles. Among other approaches, the authors investigate the possibility of using religion as a source of human rights and suggest a discursive framework for dialogue between a religious tradition and the human rights tradition. A few highlights include: Princeton University President Christopher L. Eisgruber and former University of Texas Law Dean Lawrence Sager write an important piece on “Equal Membership, Religious Freedom, and the Idea of a Homeland.” This is a sophisticated exploration of the moral and political meaning of the idea of a “homeland,” especially in the context of Israel. Queens University Belfast and University of Michigan human rights legal scholar Christopher McCrudden writes an interesting critique of Reva Siegal’s work on the idea of dignity, exploring her ideas in the context of Catholic social thought. Princeton religion scholar Leora Batnitzky writes a fascinating piece on the modern concepts of “religion” and “human rights.” In addition, the volume includes important new scholarship by Menachem Mautner, Richard Arneson, Avihay Dorfman, Itzhak Brand, Itzhak England, Haim Shapira, Gili Zivan, Jonathan Fox and Yasemin Akhaba, Micha’el Tanchum, Alison Dundes Renteln, Ronit Irshai, Laura Underkuffler, Avinoam Rosenak, Alick Isaacs, Sharon Leshem-Zinger, Shai Lavi, and Suzanne Last Stone.