ABSTRACT
The formal legal institution of ‘resident alien’ is only possible in the biblical polity. Hence, the medieval turn, in conditions of exile, to a more generalized understanding of membership in other religions, such as Christianity and Islam, as markers of observance of Noahide law entitling their members to rights of equality and association with Jews under Jewish law. Observance of the Noahide laws secures non-adherents to Judaism various rights under the Jewish law, including rights of equal treatment under the law and rights of association. The idea that government is a universal structure subject to the basic logic underlying the Noahide legal order – to secure a minimally just society – facilitates recognition by the Jewish legal tradition of the laws and institutions of the State of Israel. The State of Israel presents a case of first impression because it is a new political structure: a Jewish state, with a Jewish majority population, yet secular.
