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The topic of Hebraic political thought is usually not one mentioned in everyday conversation.

But its unique approach of tracing the Jewish roots of politics makes for an interesting idea for a publication. That's exactly what Professor Gordon Schochet decided to do once he discovered the body of interest - and works - that resulted from a conference of scholars in Hebraic political thought.

Schochet, an Edison resident who is retiring from Rutgers University in the spring, began to edit the new journal, Hebraic Political Studies, in 2006, and has seen a successful issue come to fruition every season since.

The idea for a journal came about after the idea for a conference on early Hebraic political thought was developed during a meeting between Schochet and one of his graduate students, Yoram Hazani, who later founded the Shalem Center, Jerusalem.

"He pulled out a great big Xerox copy of a 17th-century work," Schochet said. "He handed it to me and asked, 'what do you think of this?' About one-third of it was in Hebrew, and the rest was in Latin. I knew what it was about and I knew that it exists; I never paid attention to it, though."

Among other books that Hazani brought to that initial meeting was a book written by a Dutchman in the 17th century entitled "The Republic of the Hebrews". The argument of the book is that the Jews served as a suitable model for the Protestant Dutch government, who won their independence from Catholic Spain and needed to establish its own system. Hazani believed that the books were worth exploring and suggested to have a conference around these documents.

"The pitch that we made is that, 'is it good for the Jews?'" Schochet said. "And the response was that of course it's good for the Jews, because what we're doing is taking back and establishing our tradition."

Schochet believed that there has been a pressed reliance upon biblical, rabbinic, and talmudic writings as the sole source of Jewish tradition. Exploring other documents that trace early political theory to Jewish roots would be another place from which to draw Jewish thought. Additionally, Schochet said that two areas of scholarly thought are developing in early Hebraic politics: the reconstruction of Jewish political tradition from biblical times to today, and the Christian interest in Hebrew themes, ideas, and texts.

Bringing attention to the areas of study in Hebraic political thought excited professors and scholars around the globe. The network of political theorists built from the conference collected enough material to publish a scholarly journal. Schochet was immediately asked to be editor, along with the Hague resident Arthur Eyffinger.

Eyffinger, a Christian who is an expert in the 17th century Dutch political philosopher Hugo Grotius, noted the Hebraic sources of Grotius' most famous work, "The Law of War and Peace," "but nobody did very much with these sources," Schochet said. "Arthur had called attention to them, but didn't do much with them either because he's not a Hebrew scholar."

Matching Schochet's vast Hebraic knowledge and political thought expertise with Eyffinger's extensive work with Grotius and in translation and interpretation proved successful for the journal: the journal now publishes four times a year.

"When we put the journal together, we were looking for a combination of multiple skills and fields of knowledge as well as professional visibility," Schochet said. "You don't put someone in charge [of a scholarly journal] that nobody's ever heard of. I've been doing this for a long time, I know lots of people, and I'm well known in my field."

Schochet holds his colleague in high regard as well.

"Arthur was appealing because he had worked on one of the important Christian figures in the history of Hebraism," Schochet said. "He also is well known; has lots and lots of contacts. He has worked as a translator, as a scholar, and has done a lot of work with the National Court of Justice (which is based in the Hague)."

Each issue of "Hebraic Political Studies" features five to seven scholarly articles by researchers, scholars, and professors from around the world. The editorial board alone includes 30 men and women from the United States, Israel, England, France, Germany, and Italy.