ed note–as we begin this little discussion, let us get one ‘protocol’ established here that needs to be understood in Kristol-clear clarity viz what has been the legalized murder of as many as ONE HUNDRED MILLION unborn children in America for the last half-century, which is that those on the ‘Christian right’ who champion Israel, champion the Old Testament and champion the Jews as ‘God’s chosen people’ are primarily to blame for it.
If someone willingly invites a deadly, poisonous and aggressive viper into his home–as a pet, a ‘friend’ or what-the-hell-ever–and this viper does what it is biologically and zoologically designed to do, which is to bite people and kill them, who is to blame?
Not the viper. He’s doing exactly what he was built to do, no different than fish swimming or birds flying.
This is precisely what the leaders of the ‘Christian right’ have done with their incessant and intolerable quoting of ‘Genesis 12’ and all that ‘I will bless those who bless thee and curse those who curse thee’ nonsense–invited the viper into our national home, given him (and his children) free reign over everything and protected them from both criticism and prosecution via the ‘protocols’ of that ‘old time religion’, rather than viewing these dangerous creatures, these ‘vipers’–the exact words that Jesus Christ Himself used in describing them–as the existential threat to us all that they are.
Yes, the ‘Christian right’ spoke out against child murder/infanticide for the horrendous crime against God, nature and mankind that it is–
But then, when the same thing happened in places such as Palestine, Iraq, Lebanon and everywhere else that the vipers were free to roam and free to do what vipers are biologically and zoologically ‘built’ to do–
It was championed as ‘God’s will’ and as the ‘fulfillment of prophecy’ and something that Jesus Himself wants to see happen.
And it is not just the nutty evangelicals who play with poisonous snakes in their church services, do a lot of hollering and yelling and all the other theatrics and ‘Jrama’ that have come to typify any Protestant church in America and the West who are to blame.
Shamed to say, it is Christendom itself that is to blame.
2,000 years ago when the fateful decision was made to co-mix the narrative of the person of Jesus Christ–the Prince of Peace–in with the gangsters of La Kosher Nostra (as their biblical CVs describe them) i.e. Abraham, Lott, Moses, Joshua, David, etc, what the world is witnessing right now became an inevitability. Rather than listening CAREFULLY AND CRITICALLY to what Jesus was saying concerning these ‘vipers’ and these ‘children of their father, the devil’, the ‘easy’ (and completely unwarranted) line was drawn between them and JC, when in fact the 2 were/are/always will be as different from each other as wolves and sheep, again, using the exact same comparison that Jesus Himself used.
As the reader will plainly see, the murder of America’s children through the process of abortion on demand is indeed a ‘Judaic’ commodity, not just in the fact that it was the followers of Judah-ism, the ‘children of Israel’ as they love to refer to themselves, who did the ‘heavy work’ in pushing it through the legal system in America, just as they did with pornography, gay marriage and all the rest of our national social ills, but indeed, a ‘Judaic’ commodity in the sense that this is what Judah-ism demands, and therefore, the followers of this bloody cult can be considered pious, devout and stalwart practitioners of their faith, in effect, ‘good Jews’.
After all, lest we forget–
When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are to possess and hands over to you the many peoples living there, you shall then slaughter them all and utterly destroy them…You shall save nothing alive that breathes…You shall show them no mercy. For you are a holy people unto the LORD thy God and He has chosen you to be a special people above all others upon the face of the earth…–Book of Deuteronomy
By Ephraim Sherman
Abortions happen regularly in Jewish communities, even Orthodox ones, but often go undiscussed. Jewish law allows for abortion in many cases, and requires it if the mother’s life or quality of life is in danger.
This ruling is the culmination of a decades-long political organizing campaign by Christian conservatives, many of whom believe that abortion is murder, even if the procedure is done to save the life of the mother or in the very early stages of pregnancy.
Republican politicians since 1973 have used the promise of banning abortion to get Christian voters out to the polls, and this has been key to many of the GOP’s electoral successes. A 2015 poll found that 23% of anti-abortion voters would only vote for a candidate that was also anti-abortion, and Donald Trump’s 2016 victory can be largely attributed to his promises that he would only appoint Supreme Court nominees who would overturn Roe v. Wade.
The fundamentalist Christian position is the exact opposite of the halachic approach to abortions. The success of this Republican-Christian strategy should strike terror in the hearts of frum (Orthodox Jewish) communities across America. It should also motivate us to action.
The Orthodox Vote
The Orthodox Jewish community, in recent years, has become overwhelmingly aligned with conservative politics and politicians. Large communal organizations make efforts to remain officially nonpartisan, but it is plainly clear where the political sentiments of the majority of community members rest.
For some, U.S. policy on Israel is the deciding factor above and beyond all others, and increasingly, that has meant that Republican politicians win Orthodox communities in a landslide.
While some Orthodox views of the world are conservative ones, a law that is against abortion in all cases would prevent many Jewish women from fulfilling Jewish law.
Jews who live in Florida, Ohio, Texas, Georgia and other states with Republican controlled governments will soon lose access to legal abortion, even when their rabbi has told them that Jewish law requires them to receive one, thus violating their religious liberty.
Worse, Georgia and other states have already attempted to pass laws that would criminalize traveling to another state for the abortion, and even criminalize helping a woman travel to another state for one.
The law in Texas, which bans all abortions after about 4 weeks, explicitly says that religious leaders can be prosecuted for supporting and helping a woman get an abortion.
There has been no significant national outcry from Orthodox Jewish communal organizations. We are running out of time to organize our political power and communal voice in defense of abortion laws that allow us to worship our faith.
New York and several states have recently passed laws protecting safe and legal abortions no matter what the federal law is, but the looming threat is significant.
Are we prepared to see parents from Brooklyn arrested by Florida State Police because they helped their daughter in Miami get the abortion that her rabbi and doctor agreed she needed? Are we prepared to see rabbis arrested for making halachic rulings? Are we prepared to see Jewish doctors convicted of crimes for performing abortions?
When a woman is told the crushing news by her infertility doctor that one of her twin fetuses is thriving but one is not, and neither fetus will be born alive if the second fetus is not aborted, do we want a politician telling her rabbi and medical team that they must not intervene to save her viable fetus?
We cannot accept any of that. The time to organize and prevent this disaster was a decade ago, but the next best time to organize is now.
When laws are proposed that could hinder circumcision, or Shabbat observance, or even public menorah lightings, every Orthodox communal organization has lobbied with passion and fire. Are the literal lives of women less important to protect?
The story I related at the beginning is a straightforward one, as far as Jewish law is concerned. The woman had a significant chance of dying if her fetus was not removed, and the fetus had zero chance of survival: abortion was the only ethical option, and also the only halachically acceptable one.
But soon in many states, this woman’s medical team would have had to wait and let the infection worsen. Their choice would have been between risking the woman’s life or facing jail time.
That is not a world American Jews should tolerate.