David Yerushalmi, Esq.

The Forward, the national Jewish weekly, published its latest list of the fifty top Jewish leaders in America. Among this year's Forward Fifty was none other than David Yerushalmi, Esq, whom we consider both a friend and a major force behind anti-Sharia legislation developed under the rubric of "American Law for American Courts" (ALAC) uniform model law. 

We interviewed Yerushalmi in the December, 2010 NER: Combating Shariah Through The Law about the legal background for development of ALAC and why adoption of Shariah by our courts in rendering decisions on such matters as domestic custody and contract disputes was a clear and present danger to the underlying principals of our legal system. Yerushalmi is a co-author of the Center for Security Policy, Shariah- The Threat to America -Report of Team B II  and a peer-reviewed article published in the Middle East Quarterly with Prof. Modechai Kedar of  Bar-Ilan University, "Shari'a and Violence in America Mosques."

Yerushalmi, working with his client, the American Public Policy Alliance, has introduced his facially neutral anti-Shariah legislation in more than a dozen states. Three states, Arizona, Louisiana and Tennessee have enacted versions of it. Earlier, he had designed and supervised a survey of more than 100 American mosques developing indicators of Shariah compliance and violence as contained in textual materials.

Yerushalmi has been opposed by several Muslim advocacy groups, Catholic Bishops, the ACLU and several national Jewish groups. The ADL accused him of "anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant and anti-black bigotry." All of which means that Yerushalmi's activism in anti-Shariah legal causes has caught the attention, even of liberal Jewish publications like The Forward. He joins another friend, Dr. Charles Jacobs who had been cited for his activism by The Forward and included in an earlier Forward Fifty list of top Jewish leaders.

We understand that Yerushalmi will be making a video presentation and will be a panlist in discussion of legal issues at next week's "Constitution or Shariah" conference at the Cornerstone Church in Madison, Tennessee on Friday, November 11th.

Here is the entry for David Yeruyshalmi in The Forward Fifty.

Over the last 18 months, about two dozen state legislatures have taken up bills that would restrict judges from consulting Shariah, or traditional Islamic law, in their rulings. Three states have passed such laws.

It is a wave that began five years ago in the Crown Heights office of lawyer David Yerushalmi, a 56-year-old Lubavitch-affiliated Jew with a history of controversial statements about race, Islam and other Jews. It was Yerushalmi’s model legislation for these bills that a network of conservative groups sponsored and then pushed to get state legislatures to adopt. Critics question the legislation’s constitutionality as well as the view of Shariah as a creeping threat to America’s legal system.

Yerushalmi’s new initiative, called “The Mapping Shari’a Project in America,” unveiled its initial offering this past summer: a study of 100 American mosques that purports to show a direct link between Shariah law and support for “violent jihad.” Mainstream scholars have disparaged Yerushalmi’s research. But Yerushalmi has demonstrated an ability to edge his ideas into the mainstream, despite denunciations from hate-group watchdogs such as the Anti-Defamation League.

Yerushalmi is also targeting a broader enemy than Islam: liberal democracy. In his writings, he emphasizes America’s roots as a white, male-dominated, Christian country and criticizes political correctness for discouraging the discussion of why “the founding fathers did not give women or black slaves the right to vote.” Yerushalmi singles out “the radical liberal Jew” as an especially destructive agent in spreading liberal doctrines that, in his view, place international law above nationhood — including in Israel.