Do Orthodox Jews Register For Draft In Us

By Philissa Cramer

The Jewish Telegraphic Bureau and our partner sites at 70 Faces Media accept answered the question many times over the years, a testament to its persistence in political life and its significance to American Jews: What exercise Jews believe virtually ballgame?

After a new written report that the Supreme Court reviewed a bulk opinion in February that would overturn Roe 5. Wade, the question is relevant yet again.

Here'south what we know: American Jews favor abortion rights, more than than any other religious group, according to public polling. And traditional Jewish law permits (and even requires) abortion in some circumstances, particularly when the life or wellness of the meaning person is at pale.

That means if the leaked Supreme Court ruling does get the police of the land, Jewish women in dozens of states will almost certainly become unable to admission intendance that they might well make up one's mind is required religiously.

"What Jewish community would want to continue to live in a place where they are potentially barred from following halacha (Jewish police force)?" Ephraim Sherman, an Orthodox Jew and health care professional, wrote in JTA in 2019. "Is a community fifty-fifty allowed past halacha to continue living in such a place?"

Liberal Jews in America have been advocating for reproductive rights as long as they have been contested — so, forever. Here are stories from 1967, pre-Roe; 1989, when American Jews attended a rally protesting calls to roll back abortion rights; and 1998, when Jewish groups responded to the murder of Dr. Barnett Slepian, a New York abortion provider who was killed but subsequently returning home from maxim Kaddish for his father.

Those groups have stepped up advocacy as threats to Roe v. Wade accept mounted. The National Quango of Jewish Women formed Rabbis for Repro to bring abortion talk to synagogues and other Jewish spaces; Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, the grouping's scholar in residence, has articulated Jewish views on abortion in essays and on national TV.

Meanwhile, Orthodox Jews in America have shifted rightward in recent decades. Our 2020 exploration of that shift suggests that 1 reason it didn't happen earlier was Republicans' focus on abortion in the 1980s, which didn't resonate with Orthodoxy. Merely recently, the alignment of Orthodoxy and Republican politics has led to more than song participation past Orthodox Jews in abortion discourse.

In 2019, when New York widened its abortion law, several Orthodox groups condemned the move. Some Orthodox women questioned why they would oppose a change that made it easier to follow rabbinic advice. At the time, an Orthodox leader argued in a JTA essay that "rights" are the wrong way to talk about the Jewish stance on abortion.

"Coating bans on abortion, to be sure, would deprive Jewish women of the power to deed responsibly in cases where abortion is halachically required," wrote the leader, Rabbi Avi Shafran. "And so, what Orthodox groups like Agudath Israel of America, for which I piece of work, have long promoted is the regulation of abortion through laws that generally prohibit the unjustifiable killing of fetuses while protecting the correct to abortion in exceptional cases."

An estimated quarter of American women will accept an abortion by historic period 45, many Jews among them. We've published first-person accounts from a few of them: Here'due south one that our partners at Kveller, the Jewish parenting site, published last year, from a rabbi and mother who desperately wanted the pregnancy she ended.

And hither's a self-described "very Jewish" story from a rabbi who says she had an abortion "only" because she didn't want to exist pregnant — a choice that she says Jewish tradition protects, too.

"If anyone tries to fence that abortion restrictions are justified under the prerogative of religious freedom, we can explain that our religious freedom demands that we take access to abortion intendance when information technology is needed and wanted," wrote the rabbi, Rachael Pass.

And a longtime Jewish feminist, Barbara Dobkin, recalled how she helped a friend become an illegal abortion in 1966. "What near the crisis of losing the right to make decisions about our ain bodies?" she asked. "Where is the communal outcry almost that?"

That outcry is being felt today, as the leaked Supreme Court stance resonates across the country. It remains to be seen whether the final decision matches the typhoon; the court mostly releases most of its rulings each year in June.

But nosotros know that legal analysts are already envisioning a Jewish woman every bit the perfect plaintiff for a case challenging a ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.

Nosotros know that the National Council of Jewish Women is planning a Jewish Rally for Abortion Justice in Washington, D.C., on May 17 and that Jewish reproductive-rights advocates are planning for a post-Roe world.

And we know that for Orthodox groups, the balancing act between bankroll Republicans and defending Jewish police and the right to follow it but got harder.

We programme to cover all of these angles, and more, in the coming days. Thank you lot for turning to u.s.a. in this moment and others, and as e'er, please let the states know what you desire to know.