‘We are prioritizing women who need abortions,’ said Daphne Lazar Price, executive director of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance
ed note–Within certain neighborhoods whose claim to fame is their ‘expert-cy’ on all matters related to Judaica, it is now as much a ‘mainstay’ as the sheep of Orwell’s Animal Farm bleating ‘4 legs good, 2 legs bad’ that there is a ‘HUGE disparity’ between ‘religious’ Jews who (appear to) lean to the right vs ‘secular’ Jews who lean to the left.
These ‘experts’ point to ‘good’ Jews such as Mark Levin, Ben Shapiro and others who ‘break bread’ with conservative Christians and engage in all the necessary political theatrics in gaining not only entrance into the hallowed halls occupied by conservative Christians, but indeed, into the head office where all discussion takes place and all decisions of major importance are made.
Levin, Shapiro and the other pretenders, who were STALWART OPPONENTS AND ENEMIES OF DONALD TRUMP until he got elected in 2016 as ’45’, make sure to mix together all the main ingredients making up the political stew that conservative Christians ingest religiously, no pun intended–guns, ‘anti-wokeness’, guns, gays, guns, God, CRT, GUNS, and, of course, the ‘Holy of Holies,’ American support for Israel in ALL cases and at all times.
Besides the aforementioned topics near and dear to the hearts of conservative Christians, there is the BIG ONE, LA ENCHILADA GRANDISSIMA, namely the systematic murder of yet-to-be-born American children otherwise known as abortion on demand.
Now, in both the run-up to and aftermath of the SCOTUS decision to strike down RvW, Jewish groups–BOTH ON THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT AND ON THE SECULAR LEFT, have spoken in near-unanimity that Judah-ism AS AN ORGANIZED FAITH permits the slaughter of yet-to-be-born children, sourcing this permission from both the Torah and the Talmud, both of which do not consider a yet-to-be-born human being a ‘person’ but merely an extension of the body of the mother-to-be.
Both Levin and Shapiro, knowing full-well what it is that their Judah-ism teaches on this particular subject, nevertheless have ASSIDUOUSLY side-stepped discussing this fact–Judaic sanction permitting/commanding the grisly business of deliberate child-murder–and instead, for reasons rooted purely in both political expediency and in maintaining their ‘trusted’ positions within the ‘Christian right’, have instead talked about the ‘sanctity of life’ and how as followers of the Judaic cult they do indeed share ‘common cause’ with their ‘Judeo-Christian brethren’ on the political right and therefore why they should continue holding onto that ‘big seat’ at the ‘big table’ in the ‘big tent’.
HOWEVER, as the story below makes KRISTOL CLEAR, as far as the ‘children of Israel’ are concerned, the systematic murder of yet-to-be-born human beings is not a ‘left/right’ paradigm.
It is supported as much by ‘religious’ (Mosaic) Jews as it is by ‘secular’ (Marxist) Jews, and all the ‘sweet nothings’ whispered into the collective ear of the Christian right from pretenders such as Levin and Shapiro are exactly that–nothings–and all the seduction taking place on the part of those ‘good Jews’ who pretend to share ‘common cause’ with the ‘Christian right’ (whose money, military power and support for Israel this seduction is being propagated to maintain) needs to be seen for what it truly is and who its perpetrators truly are–
The Jewish Daily Forward
A prominent Orthodox feminist group is launching a project on Thursday to help Orthodox Jews access abortion, particularly those who live in states where the procedure is no longer legal or remains accessible in very few circumstances.
The Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance will refer women to groups that can facilitate abortions, educate rabbis on the topic and develop a network of Orthodox supporters who can guide women who want to end their pregnancies.
An ‘Abortion Access’ link now sits high on the group’s homepage.
‘Some other Jewish groups are working on legislation and doing awareness-raising, but we are prioritizing women who need abortions,’ said Daphne Lazar Price, JOFA’s executive director.
‘Our expertise is in the Orthodox community, but if someone else reaches out to us for help, we will not turn them away,’ she added.
The impetus for the project is the Supreme Court ruling in June that overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 federal case that established a federal right to an abortion. The end of Wade left about a third of the nation’s women of childbearing age nearly without access to an elective abortion in their home states.
JOFA, which has about 7,000 members in the U.S., said it will coordinate with Orthodox communities across the nation to implement its new project.
‘It is just as important in Texas as it is in Teaneck,’ she said. Texas bans abortions at all stages of pregnancy except for rape, incest or the health of the mother. Teaneck, with its sizable Orthodox population, is a township in New Jersey, a state that permits abortions at all stages of pregnancy.
JOFA’s abortion project is called the Rivka Isaacs SAFE plan, an acronym for support, advocacy, funding and education. It is named for JOFA board member Paula Eiselt’s great-grandmother, who almost died in the mid-1930s when she had a back-alley abortion.
‘Soon after the Depression they couldn’t afford another child and she had to have an abortion,’ Eiselt said of her great-grandmother, who was born in Queens. Isaacs waited until late in life to tell speak of her abortion.
‘It was such an horrific experience that when she talked about it, she started to cry,’ Eiselt said.
About 90% of American Jews are not Orthodox, and, surveys show, believe more than any other religious group that women should have the right to an abortion. The Orthodox stance, though, is more diverse and nuanced. Though some Orthodox rabbis hold that the procedure should be exceedingly rare, others are willing to accept it in virtually all circumstances.
However, Orthodox Jews who are opposed to abortion do not align with the Christian activists who pushed for the overturning of Roe. Agudath Israel, the Orthodox umbrella group, has weighed in against abortion bans.
‘A lot of people do not have all the information about what Jewish law says about abortion, Price said. ‘It is much more lenient than our Christian counterparts.’
She said JOFA intends to post on its website sources that explain what Jewish law permits.
As part of the project, JOFA aims to develop a network of Orthodox volunteers, so that when Jewish women choose abortion, they can be supported by someone ‘who understands them, knows of their needs for Shabbat and other cultural and religious considerations,’ Eiselt said.
JOFA has published on its website information to help women find abortion clinics and legal and medical advice on the topic, and it plans public rallies and sign-on letters in partnership with other organizations to raise awareness of bills and laws surrounding abortion. As a 501(c)(3) organization that is tax-exempt, it cannot support candidates or lobby for legislation.
‘But we can encourage people to register to vote and direct people to organizations that can lobby, such as the National Council of Jewish Women,’ Price said. ‘And we can reach out to our elected officials and thank them for a bill or encourage them to rethink their position on an issue.’
Another part of JOFA’s initiative is to make sure rabbis are educated about abortion. ‘It is part of health care in a community that is having a lot of children,’ Eiselt said. ‘You can’t encourage women to have large families and not talk about abortion because every pregnancy can’t be perfect.’