Status: 05.06.2022 2:54 p.m
–
–
–
The US debate about the right to abortion is strongly religiously charged – by evangelical Christians. In New York’s Jewish community, however, many advocate the preservation of Roe vs Wade.
Von Antje Passenheim, ARD-Studio New York
–
–
–
–
Praying with your feet – that’s what Sarah Seltzer calls it when she demonstrates for abortion rights. “We have this very strong connection from our Jewish religion to our identity and our social values,” she says. The editor-in-chief of the Jewish women’s magazine “Lilith” still remembers how her mother went to such demonstrations decades ago – with a sign: “Every child is a wanted child.” Today, Seltzer’s New York synagogue charters buses to support women in such protests.
–
Antje Passenheim
ARD-Studio New York
–
–
–
–
–
This is no exception, says Seltzer. According to surveys by the Jewish Electorate Institute, three-quarters of Jewish voters want the right to have an abortion. For them, abortion is a Jewish issue. One that is more about religious freedom than personal, says the liberal Jewess Seltzer: “According to Jewish teaching, the woman’s well-being comes first when pregnancy threatens her health – and that includes mental health. If So if abortion is banned, it makes it harder for Jews to practice their faith and follow their doctrine.”
The key question: Which life matters more?
After that, an abortion is not only allowed in certain situations – it is even necessary when it comes to the well-being of the pregnant woman. “This decision is one for life and not against it. It’s just a question: which life matters more?” she says.
That of the woman – so says the Jewish religion. But opinions differ, especially when it comes to the interpretation of religious law, halacha. The International Association of Conservative Rabbis, Rabbinical Assembly, in New York expressed concern about the Supreme Court’s alleged plans. Jewish tradition honors the sanctity of life – including that of the unborn. However, the Association does not believe that existence as a person begins at conception.
The ultra-orthodox Rabbi Avi Shafran sees it differently. In Judaism there is no concept of choice, only that of right and wrong. And abortion is wrong: “My community is against it. For legal reasons, because it creates a right that doesn’t exist in the constitution. But also because it devalues the meaning of developing life,” he says.
Jews should decide for themselves
Rabbi Shafran also represents the Orthodox Jews in the organization Agudath Israel of America. His community sees everything through the eyes of Jewish religious law, he says: “And that’s why abortion is something that must be avoided at all costs – unless the mother’s life is in immediate danger.” The women in his orthodox community also see it that way: no one has the right to vote. Jewish religious law makes this very clear.
But Ephraim Sherman sees it differently. He, too, is ultra-Orthodox. The Hasidic Jew works as a nurse in the state capital of Albany. “Judaism has an ancient history of abortion. It explicitly supports pregnant women having access to it” — and has done so for thousands of years, he says. The fact that the woman is doing well is a fundamentally religious reason, says Sherman. This is where his faith differs from that of devout Christians.
But even in his faith there are women who deny this – not out of religiosity, but out of deeply conservative conviction. Just now, Sherman was shocked by a case: a woman who was diagnosed with thyroid cancer shortly after beginning her pregnancy. With the child in her stomach, she could not be treated. But she kept it and surrendered to her cancer.
Nurse Sherman couldn’t understand the decision. “Every second from getting up to going to bed is pervaded by Jewish teaching and spirituality,” he says. “And the fact that she decided differently on this big issue shows to me that she was more influenced by US politics. Believe me: In a Jewish context, such a decision is very strange.”
–
