It's 2022 and antisemitism lives on. As part of our Hadassah community, we hope you'll want to join us in fighting it. One way you can do that? Report it! Moment Magazine has set up a hotline email specifically for Hadassah members to report incidents of antisemitism.
In its “Antisemitism Monitor,” Moment Magazine reports weekly on antisemitism worldwide -- and they want our help. Ira Forman, former Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Antisemitism at the US State Dept., edits the column and created this special video for Hadassah on how to recognize and report antisemitism as part of this effort.
This is an outstanding opportunity to proactively respond to unacceptable acts of antisemitism in your community!
A Message From New York's Central Synagogue Clergy: The Jewish Lens on Abortion Rights
"...While the anti-abortion position is often framed as a religious imperative to preserve life, that interpretation is incomplete to the point of inaccurate, especially when it comes to Jewish tradition.
"First, Judaism compels us to stand for all life, including and chiefly the life and health of a pregnant woman. Second, our tradition does not posit that life begins at conception. A fetus is considered “potential life” and treated with great significance, but not given higher status than the pregnant person. If the fetus endangers a woman’s life physically or through mental anguish, Jewish law views the fetus as a rodef, an endangerment ‘in pursuit’ of the pregnant person. Federal and state laws that ban abortions even in the case of physical threat to a pregnant person are an explicit violation of Jewish law and our principal value of pikuach nefesh—saving a life. This is not only the position of Reform Judaism, but of traditional Jewish law (halacha) throughout the centuries and across denominations, as reflected by the Orthodox Union statement last week.
"Historically, we know that abortion bans do not stop abortions; they only stop safe abortions. And we have already seen the disproportionate harm done by abortion bans on people of color, young people, people with disabilities, people living in poverty, and the uninsured.
"Even as Jewish law would unequivocally sanction abortion when a fetus imperils the life of a pregnant person, we would never coerce someone of another faith to abort because of our values and religious law, nor would we seek to enshrine our Jewish law as the law of the land. But we also cannot countenance the co-opting of God’s name to claim "religion” opposes abortion..."
Read the full message on Central's website here, which includes educational events and an invitation to join the national Jewish Rally for Abortion Justice on May 17, 2022, in Washington, D.C.
Ukraine Dispatch: Healing Meets Humanity
HADASSAH ON CALL: NEW FRONTIERS IN MEDICINE
The Ukraine war is now the largest refugee crisis since World War II. Hadassah Medical Organization is dispatching medical teams to meet the Ukrainians and provide assistance when they cross the border into Poland. In this episode, three Hadassah leaders discuss their medical involvement in this humanitarian mission.