Opinion

Jewish tradition ‘permits’ abortion. If you believe in bodily autonomy, that’s not enough.

By Michal Raucher

On May 3, Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz responded to the draft U.S. Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade, “A woman’s rights over her own body are hers alone.”

It might seem odd that the Israeli health minister was commenting on U.S. abortion law, but his response, contained in a tweet, addresses a theme common to the abortion discussion in Israel and America that I research as an ethicist and scholar of reproduction among Jews.

In the 1970s, the Israeli Knesset debated the legalization of abortion. After several years of discussions, it ultimately passed a law that permitted abortion in certain circumstances: 1. If a woman is younger than 17 or older than 40. 2. When pregnancy results from rape, incest or extra-marital relations. 3. Under the possibility that the baby will be born with a physical or mental deformity. 4. When the continuation of the pregnancy could endanger a woman’s life or mental health. This law allows for certain abortions to be performed until the 39th week of pregnancy.

When I teach Americans about abortion law in Israel, they often express shock that Israel seems much more progressive than America.

That’s because their frame of reference for religion and abortion is a particular strain of American antiabortion Christianity.

My students — college-age and adult, Jewish or not — are surprised to see a country so strongly influenced by religion that is not opposed to abortion.

Yet in one important way the Israeli and American attitudes toward abortion are similar. They both reflect the fundamental assumption that abortion is wrong, and one must have a “good enough” reason to do something that is otherwise wrong.

This is called the justification approach to abortion. Certain abortions are justified, while others are not. The justification approach to abortion also assumes that women were meant to be mothers. As a result, not wanting to be pregnant for nine months, give birth or raise a child are not considered good enough reasons to get an abortion.

In order to qualify for an abortion that is legal and paid for by the state, Israeli women have to sit in front of a committee and tell them why they are requesting an abortion. Although 98 percent of abortion requests are approved, the law reflects the belief that women cannot or should not make this decision on their own.

Consider the case of a pregnant 24-year-old married woman who is pregnant from consensual sex but does not want to be pregnant because of the potential harm to her career.

Or a 35-year-old married Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) woman who has eight children and who simply cannot care for one more. In Israel, both of these women must lie or otherwise mislead the committee to get their abortions.

Horowitz opposes these committees and has been advocating to get rid of them, at least through the first trimester. He says that women should not need to give any reason for their request, and that nobody should have to determine whether their request is valid.

While we don’t have these committees in America, we have heard a lot this spring about the legislation that many states have developed, each providing different circumstances under which they would permit abortion.

Some say that abortions will only be permitted if the woman’s life is in danger. Others allow abortion after rape or incest.

And of course one’s ability to terminate a pregnancy is already limited by where one lives, how far along one is in pregnancy, and the financial resources one has available.

Well-meaning Jewish groups often draw on rabbinic sources to claim that Judaism is supportive of abortion rights.

In a statement, the Orthodox Union explained that it cannot support an “absolute ban” on abortion because Jewish law requires abortion when “carrying the pregnancy to term poses real risk to the life of the mother.”

This popular argument is commonly also heard among more progressive Jewish groups.

But when you hear that “Jewish law permits and sometimes requires abortion,” you must also listen to the assumption underlying this statement: Women do not have the bodily autonomy to make that decision on their own. Jewish law must permit it — and sometimes demands it, regardless of what a woman prefers.

These statements, often used to express support for abortion rights, are ultimately stymied by the assumptions of rabbinic law, a system that does not support bodily autonomy or the ability to make decisions about one’s own body.

The statement by the Orthodox Union goes even further. It also explicitly prohibits what the group and others call “abortion on demand,” or abortion because someone doesn’t want to be pregnant.

By contrast, the Reform movement’s Religious Action Center bases its position on reproductive rights on “the core belief that each person should have agency and autonomy over their own bodies.”

Other progressive Jewish groups, including the National Council of Jewish Women, have gone on record highlighting the value of bodily autonomy over reproduction, but too few. Some non-Orthodox rabbis even expressly forbid it.

Unless you support a person’s right to bodily autonomy, then you are supporting a system wherein someone else determines what you or anyone else can do with their bodies.

It does not matter whether that person is a lawmaker, a judge, a contemporary rabbi or one from 2,000 years ago. It does not matter whether that person would permit most abortions or even require some.

There’s a temptation right now to say that restrictions on abortion rights in the United States violate the religious freedom of Jews.

That’s true, to an extent. But a religious argument based on Jewish law and rabbinic texts only goes so far.

Those of us who support reproductive health, rights, and justice ought to be honest about the connection between that and our rabbinic tradition.

I believe in the same bodily autonomy argument that Nitzan Horowitz makes. It may not be an argument rooted in Jewish law, but it is a Jewish argument — and it’s time to make it.

Michal Raucher is associate professor of Jewish Studies at Rutgers University and author of Conceiving Agency: Reproductive Authority Among Haredi Women.

Battling antisemitism, anti-Zionism at Duke

By Alexandra Ahdoot

I am a Persian Jew who has lived all of my life in America. Yet at the same time, Israel is my home. I get the chills every time I sing Hatikvah because even though I live thousands of miles away, my heart lies and will always lie in Israel. The small things in my daily life are a constant reminder of this: the mezuzah on my doorpost, the way I pray facing Jerusalem, the necklace I wear every day that bears my last name, meaning unity in Hebrew.

As a proud Jew and Zionist, Israel is not only part of my identity; it is also my duty to support it in any and every way. Especially upon beginning my college years, I realized that if I am not physically serving in the Israel Defense Forces like my 18-year-old Israeli counterparts, the least I can do is defend Israel my way — by receiving an amazing education and making it known that I will be a strong, unwavering pro-Israel voice on campus.

That is why when I started at Duke University last fall, I was so excited to be selected as a Zionist Organization of America Campus Fellow. As such, I work with the ZOA’s campus department to plan and host educational pro-Israel programs for Jewish and nonJewish students. Together, we work to challenge the anti-Israel falsehoods that some students and student groups promote on campus. Arming students with the facts about the Jewish state and its history, we encourage them to become informed advocates while at Duke and beyond.

One of my most impactful collegiate leadership activities has been the founding of Duke’s Students Supporting Israel chapter, a grassroots movement led by students for students. By starting SSI with a good friend of mine, I hoped to create an opportunity to help combat false narratives about Israel, educate those who don’t have any background knowledge of Israel, and help people understand why supporting this tiny country is so crucial to the world.

Last November, the Duke Student Government vetoed our SSI chapter a mere four days after the DSG Senate officially approved it. After making a social-media post calling out a student’s antisemitic remarks and inviting her to engage in a civil dialogue, our chapter was vetoed because we allegedly failed to engage in “good faith behavior.” DSG hadn’t exercised its veto power in over five years. After being gaslighted into believing we had done something wrong — though afterward digesting the extent of this double standard — my co-president and I realized with complete clarity that we had nothing to apologize for. Instead, we were more motivated than ever to put an end to anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric. “Good faith behavior” is a completely subjective term; in our eyes, we had, in fact, acted in good faith by standing up against antisemitism.

The days following the veto were a whirlwind; I was in and out of meetings with SSI National, news organizations, and concerned community members more than I attended class. I didn’t have a single free minute, and my phone was flooded with text notifications from outraged friends and family, as well as residents of Durham, N.C. Every single top headline of the Duke Chronicle, our school newspaper, involved SSI.

The tensions were high as I felt all eyes turn to me when I entered the DSG Senate for the second time in a week. I was given a few minutes to speak — the room

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PRESIDENTS DINNER 2022

Lela Klein, co-founder and co-executive director of Co-op Dayton, has been named to the fourth cohort of the Jewish Women’s Foundation of New York Collective. Established in 2019, the collective is an incubator for “Jewish women changemakers using a Jewish and gender lens to address critical

societal needs and issues, both existing and emerging, with the innovation and determination to make meaningful systemic change and inspire others.” As a member of the collective, Co-op Dayton will receive two years of general operating support, and Lela will receive immersive study of leadership and organizational growth with the other nine women from across the United States and Israel named to the cohort.

“I see it as a real broadening of my personal network and connecting our work here in Dayton to this incredible tradition of Jewish women’s leadership,” Lela says. “I’m mostly excited about the other women, being able to learn from them and participate in cohort gatherings.”

Now six years old, Co-op Dayton is an incubator for worker- and communityowned businesses that broaden economic opportunities and strengthen Dayton’s working- class and Black neighborhoods.

May 13 marked a year since the co-op’s Gem City Market officially opened at 324 Salem Ave. Supplychain issues brought about with the pandemic hit the grocery store hard, but Gem City Market made it through, and sales are now up 40 percent.

“We brought in some great industry expertise to guide us,” Lela says. “We changed our pricing on 7,500 items. Our produce department has tripled in terms of what we offer, and our meat and seafood have pretty much tripled also. I’m feeling really good about it right now.”

The co-op opened another incubator project April 2, the West Side Makerspace, started by African American engineers who graduated from UD. Its pilot location for the next year is at the new West Dayton Metro Library Branch.

“Right now, we’re experimenting to see what are the tools the folks in West Dayton will want, what kind of trainings can we offer,” Lela says. “It will add to the workforce development pipelines that already exist in the city.”

The co-op is also incubat-

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“They are mostly African American although it’s both an interfaith and also a very diverse group.”

The women focus on how they can make their one-on-one birth support services more available to women of color who are disproportionately impacted by poor birth and maternal outcomes, who experience racism in the healthcare system.

“By forming a cooperative, they can do more together, can share services — they’re going to share backgrounds for support, bookkeeping, marketing, and also they’ll be able to do cross-sensitization between their low-income and their more highermoderate-income clients,” Lela says. They’ll also pursue grant funding to support women who wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford their services.

Lela and Co-Op Dayton’s co-founder and co-executive director, Amaha Sellassie, were recipients earlier this year of the J.M.K. Innovation Prize given by the J.M. Kaplan Foundation in New York for their social innovation work.

“It’s nice to be part of a national ecosystem of folks who are working for social and economic justice,” Lela says.

Jennifer Caplan makes her return to the area with her appointment as the new Jewish Foundation of Cincinnati Chair in Judaic Studies with the University of Cincinnati. Most recently, Jennifer served as assistant professor in the department of philosophy and religious studies at Towson University.

She’s also held visiting professor positions at Wesleyan University, Western Illinois University, and Rollins College. Jennifer received her bachelor’s degree from Wellesley College, her master’s in theological studies from Harvard Divinity School, and her Ph.D. in religion from Syracuse University.

Jennifer is the author of the forthcoming book, Funny, You Don’t Look Funny: Judaism and Humor from the Silent Generation to Millennials. For the fall semester, she’ll teach Jews in American Film and Introduction to the Study of Religion. She’ll also teach courses about Jews in comics and humor, modern Jewish history, and several religious studies courses.

Adriane Miller 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, June 11. Proceeds support conservation, civic improvement, and beautification projects in the Dayton area. This year also marks the Garden Club of Dayton’s centennial.

Longtime Daytonian Rosalyn “Ro” Mosrow celebrated her 100th birthday May 6 at her home in Boulder, Colo. “She is in amazing shape for that age,” her daughter Sharon says. “Her mind is sharp as a tack. She still plays with a Scrabble group and does crossword puzzles. Mom lives independently and goes for walks every single day. Yes, she does use a walker and is on oxygen, which is mainly an ‘altitude thing,’ living at Boulder’s high elevation.” Ro moved to Boulder at age 92 to be near Sharon, who tells us her mom would love to receive birthday greetings from her old friends in Dayton. Send greetings to rozmos17@ gmail.com.

Jake Speller, who graduated from UD in 2021 with a major in sport management and minors in mathematics and business administration, has been named UD’s director of football operations. A native of St. Louis, Jake worked for UD’s football program all four years as an undergrad, including as equipment manager, head video coordinator, and assistant to the director of football operations. He returns to UD after a year as head video coordinator for Southeast Missouri State University. In an interview with the St. Louis Jewish Light, Jake described his job at UD: “Anything that doesn’t have to do with on-field coaching or active recruiting of players, it’s most likely something in which I have my hand in the pot.”

Adriane Miller, executive director of the National Conference for Community & Justice of Greater Dayton, received a 2022 Coretta Scott King Legacy Award from Antioch College’s Coretta Scott King Center for Cultural & Intellectual Freedom at the center’s Sixth Annual Legacy Luncheon, April 29. Adriane has expanded NCCJ’s youth and corporate programming to create individual and organizational change agents. She helped create and implement Diversity 101, a four-part training series that several organizations across the Miami Valley use. Sam Dorf, associate professor of musicology at the University of Dayton, has been named to the regional board of the AntiDefamation League, which encompasses Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania. Sam is president of UD’s academic senate, a member of the board of the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton, chair of Miami Valley Jewish Genealogy & History, and is an administrator of the Citizens for a Better Oakwood Facebook group.

Nora Sokol New-

sock chairs the Garden Club of Dayton’s Garden Gems Tour, a walking tour of six gardens in Dayton, Oakwood, and Kettering,

Rosalyn Mosrow Jake Speller Send your Mazel Tov announcements to mweiss@jfgd.net.

The Class of 2022

Celebrating our high school graduates

Benjamin Caruso

Parents: Patty and Michael Caruso Grandparents: Donna and the late Yale J. Holt, Joan Stack and the late Gary Caruso School: Oakwood Activities: Saxophone, Marching and Concert Band, Soccer, Speech and Debate, Student/ Superintendent Advisory Board, Student Leadership Activities, Political Engagement, GUCI Volunteering: Dayton Live, Ohio Democratic Party, Dayton History, Junior Leadership Dayton Philanthropy, Teacher’s Aide Honors: LaSertoma Club Award, High Honor Roll, Speech and Debate Placement, Bridges Scholar, Junior Leadership Dayton, National Honor Society, Oakwood Teen Court. Congregation: Temple Israel After Graduation: Miami University

Benjamin E. Char

Parents: Deborah and David Char Grandparents: Tony Char and Mark Chesler School: Kettering Fairmont Activities: Marching Band, Basketball, Men’s Choir, Symphonic Chorale, A Cappella Group Fusion, Varsity Track Honors: Cum Laude, Scholar Athlete, Outstanding Tenor I Congregation: Temple Beth Or After Graduation: Capital University, Zoology and Business

Julian Doninger

Parents: Sandra and Nicholas Doninger Grandparents: Armando Susmano, Joe and Ruth Doninger School: Fairmont Activities: Varsity Soccer, Class Council, Orchestra, Latin Club, Soccer Leadership Committee Volunteering: Special Olympics, Dorwood Optimist, Fairmont Buddy System, Dayton Blood Bank Donor and Volunteer, AIM Honors: Scholar Athlete, Academic Honors Congregation: Temple Israel After Graduation: University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering Faith Wagner

Parents: John and Julie Wagner School: Tecumseh Activities: Volleyball, Track Team, Junior Optimist President, National Honor Society Vice President, Class of 2022 Vice President Volunteering: Dayton VA Medical Center, Impact Bethel, Temple Israel Honors: Class Valedictorian Congregation: Temple Israel After Graduation: Purdue University, Engineering, Honors College

Ethan P. Zied

Parents: Eric Zied and Dr. Dena Mason-Zied Grandparents: Renee Mason and the late Howard Mason, Ernie and Marcia Zied School: Springboro Activities: Boy Scouts, Recreational Soccer, Academic Team, Ultimate Frisbee, City of Springboro Memorial Day Committee Member, Dungeons & Dragons Club, Temple Israel Madrich, Temple Israel Virtual Service Leader Volunteering: Decorating Veterans’ Graves, Honor Flight Dayton, JFS Mitzvah Day Volunteer, Teacher’s Aide Honors: Eagle Scout, National Honor Society, National Merit Scholarship Commended Student, AP Scholar Award With Distinction. Eagle Scout Project of the Year Award 2020, Sons of the American Revolution Eagle Scout Award Congregation: Temple Israel After Graduation: Stanford University, Physics

Kayla M. Zied

Parents: Eric Zied and Dr. Dena Mason-Zied Grandparents: Renee Mason and the late Howard Mason, Ernie and Marcia Zied School: Springboro Activities: Acrobatics, Recreational Soccer, Girl Scouts, Art Club, Spanish Club, Temple Israel Youth Group, Ohio Sports Academy Coach, Temple Israel Madricha Volunteering: Robyn’s Nest Rescue, Decorating Veterans’ Graves, Teacher’s Aide, JFS Mitzvah Day Volunteer Honors: National Honor Society, National Merit Scholarship Commended Student, Mark Twain Nonresident Scholarship Congregation: Temple Israel After Graduation: University of Missouri, Class of 2030 Veterinarian Medicine Student

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Search for The Dayton Jewish Observer in Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, or your favorite podcast app and subscribe. Or listen on the web at player.whooshkaa. com/shows/the-dayton-jewish-observer.

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The space between

The Power of Stories Series

Jerusalem’s tzadik. Early in the 20th century, the young Lithuanian rabbi, Aryeh Levin, arrived in Jerusalem. There he studied and taught Torah, visited the sick, comforted the bereaved, and visited Jewish dissidents imprisoned by the British. Humble, kind, and

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willing to extend himself to anyone in need, he was loved by the religious and the secular alike and came to be known as the Tzadik (righteous one) of Jerusalem.

To create a peaceful Shabbat experience for his entire neighborhood situated outside the city walls, he persuaded all the local shopkeepers to close their stores for Shabbat — all but one.

So one Friday eve, Rabbi Levin headed not to synagogue but to the shopkeeper’s store. Surprising the owner with a “Shabbat shalom,” the rabbi asked to rest in the store for a bit. After watching endless people come in for food and other items, he quietly left.

After Shabbat, the tzadik visited the puzzled shopkeeper to explain.

“Many times I have asked you to close your store on Shabbat. But I wanted to understand for myself — to see and feel with my heart — what I was asking you to give up. And I now realize how difficult it would be for you. Now that I truly understand, I can’t and won’t ask you to close your store on Shabbat.”

The next Friday night, and all the following Friday nights, all of the stores in the rabbi’s Jerusalem neighborhood were closed for Shabbat. Every one.

Like Moses, described in the Torah as “very humble,” Rabbi Levin was known for his humility. But Judaism does not define humility, anavah, in the typical manner as meek or submissive.

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“It does not mean holding yourself low; it means holding other people high,” explains Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. “It means honoring others and regarding them as important, no less important than you are.”

Rabbi David Jaffe suggests humility emerges between personality extremes. “True humility occupies a middle space between self-deprecation and arrogance.”

The focus of either extreme is not on others nor on the relationship between oneself and others, but solely on the self, “either a ‘woe is me’ mentality or illusions of personal grandeur,” explains Jewish educator Kate Hennessey. “But true humility calls for us to fill the space we are called to fill.”

There are times when we are called to fill a significant space and other times when we are called to step back and allow space for others. Moses was called to fill more space when facing Pharaoh and less when listening to Jethro’s advice to delegate.

Rabbi Levin was called to fill more space when persuading the shopkeepers and less when observing the shopkeeper’s store.

Rabbi Jeffery Saxe concludes, “Humility is about having a clear vision of where we fit into to the events taking place around us; of how we can be most helpful in achieving a worthy outcome; and of when to remind ourselves that it is not about us.”

How do the individuals in the these stories illustrate Jewish views of humility? What spaces are they called to fill?

Two houses. For three years, Beit Shammai (the house or followers of Shammai) and Beit Hillel disagreed on the proper understanding and application of laws in the Torah. Each side would argue that the halacha (Jewish law) was in accordance with their position.

Finally, a Heavenly Voice proclaimed that both sides’ arguments accorded with God’s Word. However, the halacha would follow the position of Beit Hillel, because the followers of Hillel were agreeable, considerate, and restrained when provoked. Furthermore, when teaching, they not only taught the arguments of both sides, but they presented the arguments of Beit Shammai before their own out of respect for Beit Shammai.

Lives in a jar. During World War II, Polish social worker Irena Sendlerowa was permitted to enter every Warsaw

neighborhood. While inside the ghetto, she used her position to smuggle out Jewish children, provide them with false papers, and place them with Polish families, orphanages or convents. Her careful records, written on small slips of paper hidden in jars buried in a nearby garden prove she saved nearly 2,500 children from certain death. Arrested, brutally tortured by the Gestapo, and condemned to death, she was rescued moments before her execution. She assumed a false identity and continued to help underground rescue operations while remaining out of sight for the remainder of the war. In 2007, when finally honored by the Polish government, Humility is she didn’t relish the accolades but rather shared her regrets filling just the about not accomplishing more. When reporters pressed her space we are for a comment about being a called to fill in hero, Sendlerowa responded, “Every child saved with my the moment. help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers… is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory.” The mountains. Before God gave the Torah to Israel, each of the mountains offered arguments for why it would be the perfect site for the revelation. Mt. Tabor claimed it was higher than all the other mountains, untouched by the Flood. Mt. Carmel bragged it was used for crossing the sea. Another, adorned with magnificent wildflowers, proclaimed its regal beauty. Only one neither boasted about its qualities nor denied its worth, and for its humility God chose Mt. Sinai. An essential trait for serving God and one another, humility is filling just the space we are called to fill in the moment, the space between the Talmud’s dictum, “I am but dust and ashes”and “The entire world was created just for me.”

Irena Sendlerowa, 1944