opinions & letters
The Fight Isn’t Over
BY ELEANOR LEVIE
W e knew this day would come — even
as friends and relatives on both sides
of the abortion issue said, “Oh, Roe v. Wade
will never be overturned: Most Americans
support it.”
But as an active member of the National
Council of Jewish Women for more than three
decades, I have long recognized the fragility
of our hard-won abortion rights. Volunteer
advocates like me have fully expected that
the Supreme Court would decimate Roe the
first chance it got. With the recent majority
installed on the Supreme Court, we recog-
nized that Roe would soon fall.

I was 21 when Roe was passed in 1973.

Before that time, I knew of college students,
looking to finish their studies and embark on
careers and lives of economic self-sufficiency,
finding the means to travel to New York City
for a costly but legal abortion. I knew of
mothers who had all the children they could
handle and afford who subjected themselves
to questioning by judges and psychiatrists so
they could get a legal abortion.

Meanwhile, anyone struggling to make
ends meet but desperate to secretly end a
pregnancy risked life, health and infertility
by taking matters into their own hands or
undergoing an unsafe, illegal abortion. Many
of them died.

Now the high court has opened the flood-
gates to state legislatures to ban abortion
outright. This will not end abortion. Pregnant
people will always strive to maintain control
over their own bodies and lives, in consulta-
tion with their doctors, their loved ones, their
clergy. Judges and lawmakers have no busi-
ness intruding on individuals’ private lives and
making personal health decisions for them.

Jews like me are profoundly aware that
reproductive rights are inextricably bound
with religious freedom. As protected by the
First Amendment of the Constitution, no one
should be able to impose their religious views
on others. Included in that principle: beliefs
about when life begins or the rights of the
so-called “unborn” that some folks see as
equivalent to the rights of the pregnant per-
son. The Jewish view is that the life of the
mother supersedes the risk to a fetus.

I recall when Samuel Alito, the author of
the majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson
Women’s Health, was nominated in 2005.

We felt great alarm that he was to replace
retiring Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who
had been the crucial deciding vote to save
Roe in Planned Parenthood of Southeastern
Pennsylvania v. Casey.

Alito’s track record was clear. As a judge on
the Third Circuit Court of Appeals — which
serves Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware
and the U.S. Virgin Islands — he was the one
voice to argue that women should have to
notify their husbands before having an abor-
tion. Our fears about his views were realized
as soon as he got on the high court.

As part of NCJW’s BenchMark campaign
to save Roe, I worked to mobilize a protest to
reject Alito’s elevation to the Supreme Court.

Since moving to Pennsylvania in 1996, I have
also led local NCJW campaigns to oppose Neil
Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney
Barrett, whose votes were pivotal in the Dobbs
decision. With these additions to the court, con-
servatives have succeeded in their long game to
roll back the clock to a time when women and all
marginalized individuals had few rights.

There is no satisfaction in saying “I told you
so.” NCJW will continue the fight with our
allies to ensure that one’s zip code, citizen-
ship status, social and economic level, race,
religion or personal circumstances will not
prevent individuals from accessing reproduc-
tive rights.

Educated and strengthened by the leader-
ship, advocacy tools and support of NCJW,
we have long been speaking out to defend
all our rights and freedoms. Time and again,
we have stressed the importance of electing
a president who would nominate only fair and
independent individuals for lifetime positions
on the Supreme Court — and the lower fed-
eral courts as well.

We have sounded the call to action, galvaniz-
ing the Jewish community and those who share
our values to contact our senators and urge
them to confirm only those judges and justices
who will defend our constitutional rights.

We of NCJW continue to loudly declare that
courts matter. We live by our mission to improve
the lives of women, children and families and
to safeguard individual rights and freedom. To
that end, and in partnership with the National
Abortion Federation, NCJW has established
the Jewish Fund for Abortion Access, which will
help provide support and resources to any indi-
vidual unable to access abortion care.

It may take decades to reverse this rep-
rehensible decision in the courts. But we
pledge to do all we can to ensure that all peo-
ple can still exercise their own reproductive
choices. JE
Eleanor Levie is a longtime NCJW volunteer
and chair of federal judiciary nominations for
NCJW in Pennsylvania.

Rabbis Should Stick to Torah
The focus of Parshat B’midbar is the census of the 12
of Israel, but the published D’var Torah (“Escaping the
Wilderness,” June 2) quickly pivoted to Uvalde and yielded a
coda that inter alia advocated gun control. In contrast, online
commentaries branch into discussion of flags and ritual,
absent polemics.

Your rabbinic authors should discuss the religious
messages without obscuring their universal relevance by
adding contemporary progressivism.

Robert B. Sklaroff
Rydal Gratz a Trailblazer
As an alumnus of Gratz College, I was pleased to read the
feature article about the college in the Exponent (“Gratz
Refocuses, Ahead of the Curve with Online Classes,” May
25). Gratz has another distinction. It is the first Jewish institution
of higher learning in world history to have admitted women
as equal students. When it opened in 1895, this was
unprecedented. In fact, many of the most famed colleges and universities
did not admit women until much later. Yale, for example, first
admitted women in the 1960s. The first graduating class of
Gratz included both men and women. This reflects well on
Gratz and on the Jewish community of Philadelphia.

Saul P. Wachs
Rosaline B. Feinstein Professor Emeritus, Gratz College
Ethiopian Jews Story Warranted the Cover
Your report on Ethiopian Jews (“Ethiopian Jews Make
Aliyah as Part of Operation Zur Israel,” June 16) should have
been on your front cover. I am very concerned with Israel’s
portrayal in the media. Exponent pages often report on
increasing antisemitism and decreasing support for Israel.

This is especially true of “pro-Palestinian” younger Jews.

Why this is happening is not such a mystery. Anti-Israel
propaganda is nonstop. Pro-Israel information is rarely
reported. There is so much that is positive and good about Israel,
but it stays “in the tent.” Every opportunity to open the tent’s
door should be taken. JE
Roberta E. Dzubow
Plymouth Meeting
Letters should be related to articles that have run in the
print or online editions of the JE, and may be edited for
space and clarity prior to publication. Please include your
first and last name, as well your town/neighborhood of
residence. Send letters to letters@jewishexponent.com.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM 11