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Religious Trusts: Trusts Held By and For the Church - Chapter 25 - Trusts and Estate Planning in Israel - Second Edition
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This chapter is from Trusts and Estate Planning in Israel, Second Edition
PAGE PREVIEW The churches in Israel are numerous, and include the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem (hereinafter GOPJ), the Archdiocese of Jerusalem of the Latin Catholic Church, the Maronite Church (local vicariate of the Syriac Maronite Church of Antioch), the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, and many smaller denominations and sects, some autocephalous and some in communion with Rome. Land ownership by churches in the Holy Land dates back 1900 years but major developments took place during in the Ottoman era, i.e., 1517-1917. The GOPJ has perhaps always been the dominant church, and today certainly controls the largest portion of the lands owned by the various churches in Israel, even though by membership it is barely eight percent of all the churches in the Christian world. Amnon Ramon of the Jerusalem Institute of Israel Studies stated that most of these lands are owned by endowment in a fashion similar to that used by churches in the Moslem world. Itamar Katz and Ruth Karak have estimated the amount of land owned by the GOPJ at 100,000 dunams (a local land measure equal to 10,000 hectares). K. Beer, an Israeli real property expert, has stated that the GOPJ registers most of the land it owns as Muslim wakf. Some land is registered in the name of the patriarch but is considered an endowment kept in trust for the church. Shlomo Kerem notes that the wakf has been used locally for hundreds of years and is a legal entity. In 1922, at the outset of the British Mandate of Palestine, the British recognized the jurisdiction of the non-Muslim religious courts, including religious endowments. This was accomplished via Section 54 of the King’s Order in Council, which remains in force and valid today in Israel as the enabling legislation for the creation and administration of Christian endowments in Israel.
Dr. Alon Kaplan, Advocate & Notary, is a member of the Israel Bar and was admitted as a member of the New York and Frankfurt Bars. He is the President and founder of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners “STEP Israel”. Academically speaking, he has a Ph.D. from Zurich University in Switzerland and an LL.B. and LL.M. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Dr. Kaplan maintains a direct and close relationship with academia, and he was a lecturer on trusts in the Academic Management College, Reichman University, and the Law Faculty of Tel Aviv University, where he taught trust courses for LL.M. students. Dr. Kaplan is a popular lecturer on trusts in Israel and abroad. He constructed the academic program for the Trusts Diploma of STEP in Israel. Throughout his professional career, he has written numerous professional articles in legal journals, on matters of trusts, intergenerational asset transfers and selected commercial law topics such as agent and distributor laws, a topic which he researched for his LL.M. thesis. Dr. Kaplan has been a regular contributor of articles to Trusts & Trustees by Oxford University Press. He has written and edited numerous professional books, among these on doing business in Israel, on trusts in Israel, and on international trusts laws. His book, Trusts and Estate Planning in Israel, is a professional and comprehensive guidebook for practitioners in this area in Israel. Another important book in English is Trusts in Prime Jurisdictions, fifth edition, 2020 which reviews trusts in various jurisdictions by 19 authors from various jurisdictions. In December 2020 he was the co-editor of the book, Life Cycle of a Family Business, published in London. Meytal Liberman, Advocate and Notary, TEP, advises private clients in Israel and internationally on trusts and estate planning. Her services include legal structuring for the long-term holding, ownership, and management of assets, addressing legal incapacity, division of marital property, wills, and trusts. She has practiced in this field since 2012, combining legal work, academic study, and active participation in professional organizations, publications, lectures, and continuing legal education.
Ms. Liberman was admitted to the Israel Bar in 2013 and licensed as a notary in 2024. She holds an LL.B. from Bar Ilan University (2012) and an LL.M. in Commercial Law from Tel Aviv University (2015). She is a full member of STEP, having earned a Diploma in International Trust Management following two years of study. Since 2018, she has been authorized by the Administrator General and the Israel Bar Association to draft and execute legal instruments for future incapacity planning, including the Enduring Power of Attorney, Expression of Wishes Document, and Preliminary Instructions for the Appointment of a Guardian. Her writing includes chapters in Asia-Pacific Trusts Law, Volume 2 (Bloomsbury, 2022), Trusts in Prime Jurisdictions (5th ed., Globe Law and Business, 2019), and Trust in Israel: Theory and Practice (2017, in Hebrew). Her work has also appeared in Trusts & Trustees, The International Family Office Journal, and STEP Journal. She lectures regularly at seminars and conferences, including events hosted by the Israel Bar Association and STEP.
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