NRLC 2000
Most Abortions Forbidden by Jewish Law, Says Rabbi Freundel
Pro-Life Jewish Leaders Describe Ways Jews and Christians Can Work Together on Life Issues

By Kathleen Sweeney, Outreach Department

Although the Jewish position on abortion is not the same as the Christian position, there is nevertheless "a lot of room to be able to work together," according to Rabbi Barry Freundel, a widely respected Jewish leader who addressed the NRL Convention workshop entitled, "Building a Pro-Life Outreach to the Jewish Community."

According to the Mishnah, which is a record of oral interpretations of the Hebrew Scriptures, abortion is only permitted when a woman is in "hard travail" and her life is in danger. This is a very limiting position, Freundel pointed out, since there must be serious danger to the mother.

This would not include the vast majority of abortions actually performed in the United States. Not even in the most lenient interpretations, Rabbi Freundel stressed, is there anything that allows abortion on demand.

Rabbi Freundel of the Kesher Israel Congregation, Georgetown Synagogue, in Washington, D.C., is currently vice president and Ethics Committee Chairman of the Rabbinical Council of America. He is an adjunct professor at American University, University of Maryland, Georgetown University, and Yeshiva University.

Freundel suggested that the cooperative effort between Jews and Christians to reduce the tragedy of abortion in our country could be directed initially toward those abortions that Jewish law would clearly say are not permitted. Partial-birth abortion is a prime example.

Jewish law, Rabbi Freundel explained, says that if the head of the child, or if the majority of the body has emerged, you cannot kill the child because at that point Jewish teaching considers there are two souls.

For this reason, once Jewish rabbis understand what the partial-birth abortion procedure is, they will immediately agree that it must be opposed, he said. A statement sponsored by the Institute for Religious Values in 1998 supporting the ban on partial-birth abortion was signed by nearly 200 rabbis from Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox traditions.

Some realities within the Jewish community, however, present difficulties that need to be faced and overcome, he said.

Rabbi Freundel then emphasized that he felt people of good will overcome obstacles to fuller cooperation.

Chris Gersten, president of the Institute for Religious Values, provided workshop attendees with specific steps to build and extend the coalition to which Rabbi Freundel referred. Some of this coalition building was begun two years ago when Gersten, a Reform Jew, started working with several Christian and pro-life groups, including Catholic Campaign for America, National Right to Life Committee, Priests for Life, and Catholic University, and more recently the Ave Maria School of Law.

Gersten said the campaign to ban partial-birth abortions created an opportunity to bring "a significant part, though still a minority" of the Jewish community into a dialogue and an alliance with the pro-life movement. He was encouraged that, instead of one or two rabbis agreeing to sign on for the ban, he discovered a small national movement in the rabbinic community interested in expanding the opposition to partial-birth abortions.

In fact, Gersten expressed confidence that, if serious resources were available to make an all-out effort, a couple of thousand rabbis could be found to support the ban. However, he said, it is important to make clear when requesting support in the Jewish community for the ban on partial-birth abortion that this does not in any way imply support for any other efforts to reduce or end abortions. This enables Reform and Conservative rabbis to join.

Once this dialogue and/or cooperative action is established, there are a number of pro- life issues that Jewish and Christian leaders can coalesce around. Gersten felt that if unity can be developed on these issues, the debate over Roe v. Wade will take care of itself.

"We must look for that part of the Jewish community that is willing to stand up and be counted," Gersten declared. "As we work to communicate what traditional Jewish teaching is, we make it easier for Jewish leaders to come out [on this issue]."

Speakers, specific materials, and advice for outreach to the Jewish community can be obtained by contacting Chris Gersten at the Institute for Religious Values, 540-668-6610 or gersten1@aol.com.