The notion that religious views regarding the moral status of embryos must entail a restrictive, “pro-life” stance was effectively challenged in recent litigation in Indiana, where it was asserted that Jewish religious teachings allow and may even require abortion in certain circumstances. The talk will trace the roots of these teachings in the ancient Jewish debate about the biblical law on reckless feticide, expressing competing understandings of the idea that humans are created in the divine image.

Noam Zohar is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Bar Ilan University and a Senior Research Fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem. He has taught and published extensively in the fields of rabbinics, philosophy of Halakhah, moral and political philosophy, and applied ethics, with an emphasis on bioethics.

Sponsored by the Center for Jewish Studies. Learn more about our Center, upcoming events, and programs exploring the history, religion, philosophy, literatures, languages, and the complex, many-faceted, and heterogeneous dimensions of the Jewish experience by visiting our website: https://www.sas.rochester.edu/jst/about/index.html

Cosponsored by the Department of Religion & Classics, the Department of Health Humanities and Bioethics, the Department of History, and the Department of Philosophy.