By Janis Siegel, JTNews Columnist
Although the hot August summer evening drew the audience at Congregation Ezra Bessaroth outdoors to hear Rabbi Richard Weiss, M.D., discuss Jewish law and abortion, series organizers agreed that the last session of their “A Matter of Life and Death” series was a success.
The synagogue introduced the medical series to start a dialogue in the Jewish community so participants could learn what the Jewish teachings are on subjects of stem cell research, euthanasia, abortion, and organ transplantation.
While the debate over the future of legal abortion continues to rage in the United States, the adjunct assistant professor of Biology at Stern College for Women at Yeshiva University said that the rabbinic sources have always disagreed about when to allow the procedure. In Israel, he added, they convene a three-person lay panel to decide in each situation.
“I was surprised to learn that while many of the lifecycle events in Israel are overseen by the rabbis, they don’t with abortion,” Ezra Bessaroth president Reuben Owen told JTNews. “And that there’s almost nothing in the Torah about abortion. It seems that there are differing views from the rabbis over the centuries.”
Women in Israel can fill out forms at a hospital, and a committee “gives it a rubber stamp,” according to a social worker speaking to IsraelNationalNews.com. “Ninety-five percent of public hospital abortion requests are granted.”
Talmudic sources do not ban the procedure, but it is only allowed when a problem pregnancy endangers the life of the mother, because the priority is the life of the woman.
In 1990, the Rabbinical Council of America called on the Jewish community to accept the idea that “abortion is not an option, except in extreme circumstances and in consultation with proper halachic authority.”
However, the procedure commonly called “partial-birth abortion” is not allowed in traditional Jewish law. Rabbis agree that anytime a part of the baby’s body has begun to emerge, the lives of the mother and baby have equal rights, according to a statement on the issue by the ultra-Orthodox organization Agudath Israel of America.
Israel does not have a cut-off point for performing late-term abortions.
Last week in Nahariya, Israel, doctors found no signs of life in the fetus of a 26-week pregnant woman who was bleeding internally and aborted the pregnancy. However, after saving the mother’s life, the baby was found barely breathing five hours later in the cooler of the Western Galilee Hospital.
In planning the entire series, Ezra Bessaroth’s Adult Education Committee hoped to help people form their opinions and ideas about abortion and other controversial medical topics.
“We took some risks with this series,” said Hank Finesilver, head of the Adult Education Committee. “We hadn’t done this before and we didn’t know how effective they would be as public speakers. But the number of people attending grew each time.”
Finesilver sent invitations to the Jewish and non-Jewish clergy throughout Seattle, hoping they would attend.
“What disappointed me was that I sent letters to every rabbi at every synagogue in the city to come for free,” said Finesilver. “We also sent letters to Catholic churches and various denominations of Christianity. There was not one single one of them there. Even the Orthodox [Jewish] clergy — no one was there.”
According to Finesilver, the lecture series was not meant to promote Orthodox Jewish legal views as much as to educate the community on the baseline of Jewish thinking.
“I considered it an outstanding series because they are all experts in their fields,” said Owen, the congregation’s president, though he noted that the costs to line up the speakers for the four events were quite expensive.
Finesilver is already setting his sights on the future of the series and is lining up his list of topics.
“We have contacts with the Jerusalem Post to come and talk about Israel,” he said. “We have plans to continue this next year.”