On June 17, 2009, Issam M. Saliba and Rabbi Shlomo Yaffee each gave lectures on Halakhah (Jewish law), Shari‘ah (Islamic law), and their relevance to contemporary legal issues. Rabbi Yaffe is the spiritual leader of Congregation Agudas Achim of West Hartford, Connecticut and founder of the Connecticut Symposium on Contemporary Legal Issues and Jewish Law. The discourse was held at the Library of Congress and was sponsored by the Law Library of Congress and the African and Middle East Division of the Library of Congress. The program was attended by 200 persons and was the first of its kind at the Library. It explained and explored the respective historical developments of Judaic and Islamic law and how adaptations of it are thought to benefit policymakers in their legislative work on foreign policy and other areas affecting religiously oriented communities.
