Posted on 07/11/2023 9:26:18 PM PDT by Morgana
RNS) — U.S. Jews gathered in online forums across the country before sundown on Friday (June 23) to light a candle marking the one-year anniversary of the end of Roe v. Wade, and mourning those who have died because abortions were not available to them.
The Zoom meetings were called a yahrzeit, an ancient Jewish tradition marking the anniversary of a death of a loved one. A yahrzeit typically consists of lighting a special 24-hour candle and saying the Kaddish prayer.
The candles lit Friday are expected to burn into Saturday, June 24, the day last year that the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the constitutional right to abortion up to about 24 weeks of pregnancy in its Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health ruling.
About 250 people participated in the Yahrzeit of Roe Virtual Candle Lighting, sponsored by the National Council of Jewish Women. The 25-minute Zoom conference call was restrained. A candle was lit, a litany read, a prayer recited and a song was sung.
Most Jews, and especially liberal Jews, believe their faith permits and even requires an abortion when the life of the pregnant person is at stake.
“We knew that this was a time that we needed to mark Jewishly,” said Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, scholar in residence at the National Council of Jewish Women. “And we knew it was a time that demanded ritual because this is a big moment, and it felt that this was the correct moment for honoring and mourning everyone whose lives have been taken because of these horrific government policies.” A yahrzeit memorial candle. Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class James E. Foehl/U.S. Navy/Creative Commons
A yahrzeit memorial candle. Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class James E. Foehl/U.S. Navy/Creative Commons
Some 20 states have enacted laws banning or restricting abortion in the wake of Roe’s fall. At least 61 clinics, Planned Parenthood facilities and doctors’ offices stopped offering abortions in the last year, according to The New York Times.
In 2020, the National Council of Jewish Women created “Rabbis for Repro,” a coalition of some 2,500 U.S. rabbis and cantors committed to fighting for reproductive health rights, especially abortion. It has spawned other grassroots coalitions including a new “Jews for Repro NY” campaign. This week it celebrated passage of legislation in New York state that provides legal protection for New York doctors to prescribe and send abortion pills to patients in states that have outlawed abortion.
But on the Zoom conference call Friday, many were in a much more somber mood.
Asked what they needed to deepen their commitment to the fight for abortion rights, participants typed into the chat function: “patience,” “stamina,” “community,” “allies,” and “righteous anger.”
Nearly two-thirds of Americans support legal abortion, including majorities of religious Americans, according to a recent PRRI poll. Among the religious groups most supportive of abortion rights are Unitarian Universalists, religiously unaffiliated Americans and Jews.
Several religious groups have filed nearly a dozen challenges to abortion restrictions now making their way through state and federal courts, insisting abortion bans violate their religious freedom. They hope they can persuade courts to grant religious exemptions to abortion bans, if not strike them down altogether.
The online conferences made a point of mourning for people who died giving birth, either because they couldn’t terminate their medically risky pregnancies promptly or couldn’t travel out of state to get the care they needed.
“Forced birth takes lives, and it takes lives disproportionately of Black women, Indigenous women, those who are struggling to get by,” said Ruttenberg. “We’re never going to know everyone’s name, we’re never going to know everybody’s identity. But we need to honor them.” The yahrzeit candle, she said, was one way their memory can “illuminate our lives today.”
REVELATION 2:9
I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.
Horribly sick, even more so because they are Jews. They out of anyone should know well better.
Its a good lesson though. Even with their thousands of years of history and prior preferences by God, even with all the hard ways they had to learn lessons, it still doesn’t change the innate fallen nature of human beings. Even being preferred for so long, it doesn’t make any of them any better as people.
So it also means the hope of God and salvation is for all. None are better than any other.
I’m not Jewish, but I’ll explain the hard truth to you. Liberal Jews love abortion for the same reason that liberal Episcopalians love abortion. They’re profoundly convinced of the superiority of their own kind, and are very bothered by the fact that their own kind breeds at lower rates than the stupid unwashed masses.
It’s, of course, pure fantasy that post-Dobbs “forced births” are killing anything other than Planned Parenthood’s business in some places.
It impossible, they are insane just as much as any other leftist.
Think of the logic here: They are remembering those who died because they could not kill. Huh?
And while we are on the subject, just what are the stats of women who died because they could not get abortions? I’m betting the number is so miniscule that more people die from paper cuts.
I would assume a lot of these Jews are from New York which is the capital of the insane Jew.
This has to be the synagogue of Satan because I know Moses, Aaron, Daniel, Elijah, et al would have not been “Down” (as these young people say) with abortion on demand.
Let’s start by getting a count of persons in the last 12 months who died from “forced birth” (presumably a woman who desired an abortion, could no longer kill the baby in her state, somehow didn’t go to an abort state and have one, and then perished as a result of the pregnancy or birth.
That number is almost certainly zero because these people and the MSM would be ghoulishly campaigning on their deaths every day if there were any.
So, instead, these leftists just declare a slaughter of mothers that never happened and dare anyone to call them on it.
I'm not Jewish, but having lived in NYC and L.A. and worked in media, I have lived among (mostly secular) Jews my whole life.
I think many Jews instinctively hate anything they suspect of being "Christian." If Christians oppose X, then Jews will support X. And visa versa. It's one of the reasons Jews support abortion and gay rights, and why they oppose even nondenominational prayers in school or putting the Ten Commandments on courtroom walls.
Indeed.
This is a satanic celebration of death among some very deranged people who are in no way truly Jewish. However the fact that they identify as Jewish and may have had Jewish ancestors gets them sympathetic MSM attention and immunity from the criticism they deserve.
That is correct.
Sadly, you’re right.
These people are evil. Nothing more.
These are fake Jews. And women cannot be rabbis. Thankfully within 20 years these Marxist ghouls will be a minority to Orthodox Jews - who backed Trump 83%-15% over Biden.
They did skip it.
Just to contrast this travesty, here is something about the Japanese ceremony that an increasing number of women carry out after an abortion. Before WWII abortions were rare but now have increased in Japan but guilt, depression and extended grief came with this trend. They believe the ceremony honors the dead baby and helps him or her get to the next world.
Adopting A Buddhist Ritual To Mourn Miscarriage, Abortion
NPR
Aug 15, 2015 — More Americans are using mizuko kuyo to grieve the loss of a child, whether it be from a miscarriage or an abortion.
Mizuko Kuyo
By: Katherine Brind’Amour, Benjamin Garcia
Published: 2007-10-30
This ceremony was originally developed to honor Jizo, a god believed to be responsible for transporting dead fetuses or children to the other world. The practice has become more popular in the last half century due to the growing number of abortions taking place and the particular views that Japanese Buddhists have about fetuses and abortion.
Japanese Buddhists believe that honoring Jizo will ensure that their aborted fetus successfully makes it to the other world, where it can be reborn in the future. In a religious context, Mizuko Kuyo provides an example of one of the many ways that fetuses are viewed and treated both in natural death and in abortion.
Literally, Mizuko Kuyo is the “water child memorial service” and the ceremony is deeply meaningful for those who practice it. Traditionally, the mizuko were buried underneath the parents’ house since it was believed that the natural water would wash the mizuko to the natural springs under the earth’s surface. It was believed that these springs were part of the beginning of life. The mizuko, or water child, is said to go from the water of the womb to its original liquid state upon its death.
https://embryo.asu.edu/pages/mizuko-kuyo
My thought——Apparently without causing the woman to NOT have the abortion at all.
Tragic and sad for the babies.
FWICS, the largest anti-abortion forces in Israel are among the orthodox. Same applies in the USA, although that’s not universal.
Names... I want names. WHO had died in the U.S. since the overturn of RvW, due to the unavailability of abortions?
Names.
Or, at least, numbers.
Regards,
That is no more a valid Buddhist view than it is a valid Jewish view.
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