Jewish and Christian Leaders Seek Joint Witness in
Defending the Sanctity of Human Life

Ave Maria School of Law and the Institute for Religious Values
Co-Sponsor a Day of Pro-Life Exchange

By Kathleen Sweeney

Jews and Christians together are a more powerful witness when they speak with one voice about God as the source of life, asserted Fr. Richard John Neuhaus at a Jewish-Christian conference April 24 in New York. This interfaith collaboration Fr. Neuhaus sees as the future of the pro-life movement.

The conference was sponsored jointly by the Ave Maria School of Law and the Institute for Religious Values. It took place at the Manhattan campus of Fordham University and drew a packed crowd. To some it seemed the late John Cardinal O'Connor, who was devoted to Jewish-Catholic dialogue, was present in spirit when his sister, Mary O'Connor Ward, gave a moving tribute to this hero of the pro-life movement.

Fr. Neuhaus, president of the Institute on Religion and Public Life and editor-in-chief of First Things, spoke of the deep cultural conflict we face in our society and urged that faith and reason be "powerfully conjoined" in the pro-life movement. These questions have been more difficult for the Jewish community, Fr. Neuhaus pointed out, since past experiences of anti-Semitism have led Jewish Americans to believe that a secular society would be more protective for Jews.

But today, Neuhaus said, many thinking people have seen that if there is no transcendent belief in higher values, there is no protection of the individual. He said that although he understood the Jewish community's rejection of comparisons with the Holocaust, he felt there are some parallels that are important to note, particularly the way doctors in the era preceding Nazism used the category of "life not worthy of life" to eliminate the mentally and physically handicapped and the elderly, paving the way for the extermination of the "undesirable" populations of Jews and gypsies.

When Fr. Neuhaus was pastor of St. John Evangelist parish in New York City, he came across a Princeton anthropologist Ashley Montague's description of 10 or 11 criteria for what constitutes a "life worthy of life." When he looked out at his congregation, he saw that most of them would not meet Montague's criteria.

It was then he realized what a great evil this lethal logic is. This danger makes it imperative that Jews and Christians together bear witness that there is no such thing as "life unworthy of life," Fr. Neuhaus urged. We must work together "until this is accepted by the public and ingrained in people's lives."

The four rabbis who spoke stimulated much discussion about similarities and differences between the Jewish and Christian approach to pro-life issues. Reform Rabbi Marc Gellman, the well- known TV co-host of The God Squad, said he felt that Judaism has a great spiritual and moral contribution to bring to the discussion of the abortion question.

Rabbi Gellman, who is president of the New York Board of Rabbis and the senior rabbi of Temple Beth Torah in Melville, New York, said that much more must be done to convince the Jewish community to oppose elective abortions. There are some nuanced differences about abortion between Christians and Jews, but about 99% of abortions are ones that Jewish law would not allow, he pointed out.

Rabbi Gellman found it unfortunate that some Reform rabbis have used a citation from the esteemed Bible and Talmud commentator Rashi that stated the fetus is not a person to infer that Jewish law permits abortion. But this statement referred only to a specific situation in which the mother's life was in danger and the fetus would need to be removed to save her life.

It ignores other statements protective of the unborn and forgets the widespread prohibition of abortion in Jewish tradition. However, Rabbi Gellman advised that it is better for Christian pro-lifers to not emphasize the personhood issue in abortion when addressing Jews. Rather, for Jews it will make more sense that abortion is wrong because one must not kill an innocent living being.

Rabbi Cliff Librach, the "other" pro-life Reform rabbi, introduced luncheon speaker Nat Hentoff, the well-known journalist whom Rabbi Gellman referred to as "the hero who gave us on the left courage" to be pro-life. Rabbi Librach commented that the integrity of our position is validated when someone who differs on many other issues is nevertheless convinced by pro-life arguments.

Mr. Hentoff is a rarity as a Jewish atheist libertarian pro- lifer. A staff writer for the New Yorker, the Village Voice, and a columnist for the Washington Times, Nat Hentoff has been a powerful witness to pro-life concerns in the midst of an antagonistic media. Commenting on problems in bioethics, Hentoff said many people are only dimly aware of the dangers. Unless we pay attention, we could repeat the history of eugenics in Germany, he warned. "Sunlight is the best disinfectant," he concluded.

Rabbi Moses Birnbaum, a Conservative Jew spiritual leader of the Plainview Jewish Center, joined Jeanne Head, R.N., National Right to Life's representative at the UN and a member of NRLC's executive committee, and Maria McFadden, editor of Human Life Review, to discuss the specific legislative issues of partial- birth abortion, parental notification, and informed consent. Rabbi Birnbaum was encouraged that many Conservative Jews have been galvanized by the partial-birth abortion issue.

Dr. Michael Kogan, a Jewish scholar who is chairman of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Montclair State University in New Jersey, chaired the panel on euthanasia and assisted suicide. The discussion included outstanding talks by Rabbi David Feldman, dean of the Jewish Institute of Bioethics; Richard Myers, professor of law at Ave Maria School of Law; and Fr. Frank Pavone, national director of Priests for Life.

A challenge for the future was raised by youth leaders presenting the final talks: Matt Dill, a second-year law student at the Western New England College of Law who is working as outreach and development director at New York State Right to Life, and Maria Giovine, a senior at Fordham University and president of its Respect Life Society. Even though pro-abortion groups do extensive marketing to youth, Dill felt the current generation of young people are shifting away from self-centered attitudes toward greater interest in family values.

Ms. Giovine also felt many youth are thirsty for real love and truth and are willing to give of themselves to change society. " Youth are our hope," she said. "They have within their grasp the opportunity to restore dignity to human life."