jewish bioethics essay

Jewish Bioethics 101

By My Jewish Learning

Judaism does not categorically approve or disapprove of abortion. Jewish law does not consider a fetus to be a human being ; thus it actually requires abortions when a pregnant woman’s life is in danger. Jewish authorities disagree on whether to extend the permissibility of abortion to situations where the pregnancy or birth is psychologically but not physically dangerous. Those who allow for abortion in suchcases disagree on how far to extend this permissibility. Most of these authorities allow abortion in cases of incest or rape and cases where the fetus is affected with a terminal genetic disease such as Tay-Sachs. Other authorities extend permissibility further and may include cases where the fetus has a non-terminal genetic defect or even situations where the mere fact of pregnancy and anticipated childbirth is a threat to the mother’s mental health .

Organ Donation

A slew of ethical and halakhic questions arose when organ transplants first became viable. Ultimately, however, most of these problems were neutralized by a single legal and ethical concept– pikuach nefesh , the Jewish obligation to save lives . Except in those cases where one of two parallel organs, e.g. kidneys, can be donated by a living individual, it is imperative that an organ donor be halakhically dead before her vital organs are removed; thus, defining the moment of death is essential. Today, most rabbinic authorities accept brain stem death–as opposed to cessation of heartbeat–as halakhic death, thus allowing organ transplantation under Jewish law.

Genetic Issues

According to the Talmud , a goses , a dying person, is considered no different than any other human being. Not only does the Talmud consider one who kills a goses to be a murderer, it prohibits any actions that may speed up her death. Thus, traditionally , euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide are prohibited by Jewish law. Nevertheless, most Jewish authorities object to any actions that impede the death of a sufferer. Additionally, modern authorities like Reform rabbi Peter Knobel support the termination of life in situations of extreme suffering, when a person’s tzelem elohim , or divine image, is compromised. Conservative rabbi Elliot Dorff has also questioned the relevance of the goses category, and in doing so comes to more liberal conclusions about end-of-life issues.

Fertility Technologies

A host of options now exist for couples and individuals who have difficulty conceiving through conventional means. “Artificial” insemination , in vitro fertilization (IVF), and surrogate motherhood all raise ethical and legal questions. Could insemination with donor sperm be considered adultery? Is the child born from such procedures illegitimate? What is the status of unused embryos after IVF is completed? Who is the mother–and what is the Jewish status–of a child born to a surrogate mother? There are few unanimous answers to such questions. However, procreation is a mitzvah , a fundamental Jewish obligation, and so these procedures are often permitted, particularly when the egg and sperm are those of husband and wife .

Pronounced: TALL-mud, Origin: Hebrew, the set of teachings and commentaries on the Torah that form the basis for Jewish law. Comprised of the Mishnah and the Gemara, it contains the opinions of thousands of rabbis from different periods in Jewish history.

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In This Article Expand or collapse the "in this article" section Jewish Ethics

Introduction, general overviews and anthologies.

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Jewish Ethics by Jonathan Crane LAST REVIEWED: 30 June 2014 LAST MODIFIED: 30 June 2014 DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780199840731-0087

Jewish ethics investigates both theoretical and practical questions of what Jews can and should do in the world. It involves weaving together theology, philosophy, and law—the classic triumvirate for religious ethics—as well as lore, history, science, and sociology, among other facets of human knowledge and experience. With these tools in hand, some Jewish ethicists have wrestled with such questions as the relationship between law and ethics; the role of external, non-Jewish influences and thinkers; and the relationship between science, medicine, and revelation. Others contend with theories of the good and the right, with theology and ethics. And still other Jewish ethicists hone in on the minutiae of lived life, such as the pragmatics of behavior and policy. Though both ethics and morality can certainly be extracted from biblical and early rabbinic materials, it was not until the 9th century that Saadia Gaon discussed ethics as a subject matter worthy of distinct and extended consideration. For the next thousand years, only a few handfuls of volumes were exclusively devoted to ethics and morality, usually embedded in legal, philosophical, and theological texts. Increasing intellectual exposure to Western thinkers and society, especially to Immanuel Kant’s universal rationalistic philosophy and ethics, challenged and inspired Jews to clarify and explain Jewish ethics and morality. Hermann Cohen’s fin-de-siècle neo-Kantian revisioning of Judaism as ethical monotheism catapulted 20th-century Jewish ethical and moral thought from occasional meditations to central conversations across the streams of modern Jewry. Indeed, the last century’s incomprehensible tragedies and awesome technological advancements provided much fodder for Jewish ethical and moral consideration. Jewish bioethical discourse budded and bloomed after World War II; tracts on social, environmental, warfare, and political moral issues exploded in the 1960s and 1970s; first generations of feminist and covenantal ethics emerged in the 1980s and 1990s; a return to virtue ethics took root in the 1990s and early 2000s; and a renewed concern with business morality responded to embarrassing scandals and economic turmoil in the 2000s. Historically, Jewish ethics has been dominated by male voices and by contributors from North America and Israel, but the field is becoming increasingly diverse, as evidenced by the membership and leadership in the Society of Jewish Ethics, the premier, if not only, independent academic society devoted to this field. To be sure, Jewish ethicists will continue to wrestle with the most perplexing and enduring questions of human civility and creativity.

The first wave of anthologies in this field, comprising Fox 1975 and Kellner 1978 , included both theoretical and practical issues, and each focused on the ethics of military power—an understandable theme given the recent wars in Vietnam and Israel. The second generation is perhaps best exemplified by Dorff and Newman 1995 , which broadened the voices contributing to both methodological and practical debates. The third generation divides into the more pragmatic volumes of Dorff, et al. 2008–2010 , and the more comprehensive dual focused (theoretical and pragmatic) collection Dorff and Crane 2013 . Kolatch 1985 and Sherwin and Cohen 2001 reflect the emerging self-help ethos with a collection of short answers to or instructional essays on questions of ethical and moral concern. Newman 1998 surveys the breadth of the field and offers a taxonomy of its features.

Dorff, Elliot N., and Jonathan K. Crane, eds. The Oxford Handbook of Jewish Ethics and Morality . New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

The most comprehensive anthology to date, complete with original essays from scholars throughout the Jewish world. The volume covers historical, thematic, denominational, and practical issues. Each essay includes suggested readings, and the index identifies classic texts, themes, and figures.

Dorff, Elliot N., and Louis E. Newman, eds. Contemporary Jewish Ethics and Morality . New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.

A diverse collection of previously published—and classic—essays (many edited for length) addressing metaethical concerns, methodological issues, virtue ethics, and sexuality and gender, as well as social, economic, and ecological issues, medical ethics, and the political exercise of power.

Dorff, Elliot N., Louis E. Newman, and Danya Rutenberg, eds. Jewish Choices, Jewish Voices . 6 vols. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society, 2008–2010.

This series of slim volumes, designed for college students, integrates case studies and questions with classic sources and contemporary essays. Each volume includes suggested readings. Volumes address Body ; Sex and Intimacy ; Power ; Social Justice ; War and National Security ; and Money .

Fox, Marvin, ed. Modern Jewish Ethics: Theory and Practice . Columbus: Ohio University Press, 1975.

Now considered a classic, the volume includes presentations and responses from a 1971 conference in Israel that wrestle with the legal and philosophical bases of Jewish ethics, in addition to essays on the political exercise of power. The index points to traditional sources as well as themes and names.

Kellner, Menachem M., ed. Contemporary Jewish Ethics . New York: Sanhedrin, 1978.

Perhaps the first collected edition in this field, its essays confront the questions of whether Kantian autonomy can countenance religious ethics, and whether Judaism and its legalism can countenance ethics beyond law. The volume includes classic pieces on political and medical ethics, capital punishment, business ethics, sexual ethics, and the Holocaust. Includes suggested readings and a brief glossary.

Kolatch, Alfred J. The Second Jewish Book of Why . Middle Village, NY: Jonathan David, 1985.

The second volume in this series is an introductory book using a Socratic method to cover social, personal, bioethical, gender, and dietary issues. The index is helpful.

Newman, Louis E. Past Imperatives: Studies in the History and Theory of Jewish Ethics . Albany: State University of New York Press, 1998.

Perhaps the best overall descriptive survey of the field of Jewish ethics, examining the tensions between ethics and law, ethics and theology, and methodological issues. One of the chapters, “Woodchoppers and Respirators: The Problem of Interpretation in Contemporary Jewish Ethics,” is now a classic in the field, especially for bioethics and euthanasia.

Sherwin, Byron L., and Seymour J. Cohen. Creating an Ethical Jewish Life: A Practical Introduction to Classic Teaching on How to Be a Jew . Woodstock, VT: Jewish Lights Publishing, 2001.

A creative “how-to” book integrating classic sources on the three fundamental relationships of Judaism: relations with God, relations to the self, and relations with others. Helpful notes, bibliography, and index.

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Method in jewish bioethics: an overview.

Dena S. Davis , Cleveland State University Follow

Document Type

Publication date.

Summer 1994

Publication Title

Journal of Contemporary Law

bioethics, Jewish thought

This essay introduces the reader to the processes by which Jewish ethical-legal reasoning brings old insights to bear on new problems generated by advances in science and medicine. There are at least four reasons why Jewish legal thinking in this area is important to the wider community of Western legal scholars. First, because the law often strives to consider different religious beliefs, it is important to understand these beliefs, the history of these beliefs, and how they function within their religious community.

Second, Jewish legal thinking is important because representatives of religious traditions frequently serve on policy and law-making bodies. Clergy are often asked to serve as “outside members” of groups such as the Institutional Review Boards for the Protection of Human Subjects of Medical Research and Experimentation Rabbi J. David Bleich, one of the best known writers in English on Jewish bioethics, and Rabbi James Rudin serve on the New York Task Force on Life and the Law, which has produced advisory documents on the determination of death, the procurement and distribution of organs for transplant, and surrogate parenting, among other topics. Bleich was also a member of the panel of consultants to the National Institutes of Health on the subject of medical research with human fetal tissue. Immanuel Jakobovits, until recently Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth, is a member of the British House of Lords, where he sees his task as bringing a Jewish point of view to debates on issues ranging from the definition of death to artificial insemination.

Third, Jewish legal thinking is important to bioethics because bioethics has always thrived on a discourse in which religious and secular ethics play equally lively roles. An Episcopal theologian, Joseph Fletcher, inaugurated the modern era of bioethics with his book Morals and Medicine. Other founding figures include James Gustafson, Richard McCormick, and Paul Ramsey, all Christian ethicists. Until recently, Jewish religious ethicists were notably absent from this conversation, engaging in discussions primarily within their own communities. Now, however, we are beginning to see a more robust Jewish presence in public, cross-denominational discourse. As David Novak says: “(B)ioethics (has) raised the whole field of normative Jewish ethics to a level of public prestige it has not enjoyed since premodern times.” Finally, legal and ethical systems can always benefit from knowledge about other, parallel, systems of thought. That is why law schools offer courses and produce journals on Islamic, Jewish, and canon (Roman Catholic) law, and on comparative law generally.Part II of this essay introduces the reader to the different branches of Jewish religious thought, in order to provide some context for the discussion to follow. In Part III, I identify and discuss three principles that “anchor” any Jewish bioethics discussion. In Part IV, the heart of the essay, I show the analogical, case-oriented method of Jewish argument, and use two bioethical issues--abortion, and the surgical separation of Siamese twins-- to illustrate the discussion.

Finally, in Part V, I introduce some controversial issues: The immutability, interpretation, and relevance of the law, the role of women in shaping the law, and the extent to which the law influences the health care choices and behavior of American Jews.

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Dena S. Davis, Method in Jewish Bioethics: An Overview, 20 Journal of Contemporary Law 325 (Summer 1994)

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This anthology of original essays by leading thinkers in the field gathers together in one place voices from diverse theological and practical commitments. Unlike other publications on Jewish bioethics, it adopts an explicitly pluralistic stance. The book addresses tension between the "quality of life" and the "sanctity of life" issues, and will be of interest to lay readers, undergraduate students of bioethics, and rabbis. Purchase this book from Amazon

This book thoughtfully addresses a number of hot-button issues. Is euthanasia ever permissible? How should we make decisions on behalf of an incapacitated patient? When is abortion a valid ethical choice? And ultimately, is it only the individual patient who is responsible for maintaining health, or should society assume some of the burden? Purchase this book from RRC’s Center for Jewish Ethics

Behoref Hayamim: In the Winter of Life: A Values-Based Jewish Guide for Decision-Making at the End of Life Edited by David Teutsch

An anthology of articles addressing the common medical questions that families face at the end of life, and offering insights into what the spirit needs at such times. Purchase this book from Amazon.

Matters of Life and Death: A Jewish Approach to Modern Medical Ethics By Elliot Dorff

In this book, Dorff, a Conservative Jew who has participated in the Ethics Committee of the UCLA Medical Center, argues that "moral values [are] an integral part of the Jewish legal process by which contemporary decisions should be made. Though this and other of Dorff's positions are likely to be controversial within and without Judaism, his book is a thorough introduction to Jewish medical ethics. Purchase this book from Amazon

Jewish Medical Directives - The Living Will The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards The Rabbinical Assembly

These directives are to be used to guide medical treatment and gain a sense of Jewish teachings concerning medical decisions, and give you the opportunity to think about some of the choices people must make about their health care. Read this document.

Life & Death Responsibilities in Jewish Biomedical Ethics Aaron L. Mackler, Editor

Purchase this book from Amazon.

A Time To Prepare: A Practical Guide for Individuals and Families in Determining One's Wishes for Extraordinary Medical Treatment and Financial Arrangements Edited by Rabbi Richard F. Address, DMin, URJ Press, 1994

Purchase this book from URJ Press.

The Academic Coalition for Jewish Bioethics www.Jewishethics.org

The Academic Coalition for Jewish Bioethics seeks to engage the Jewish community in considering biomedical decisions. While recognizing that any coherent Jewish bioethics rests on the legacy of our inherited norms, values, and experience, the Coalition advocates the development of a variety of methodologies that bring clarity and authenticityto difficult life choices. The ACJB strives to broaden and deepen biomedical conversation in Jewish life and to create models of cooperation across the spectrum of Jewish practice.

University of Pennsylvania Center for Bioethics http://www.bioethics.upenn.edu/

The Center's mission is to advance scholarly and public understanding of ethical, legal, social and public policy issues in health care. Center faculty carry appointments in departments of the University of Pennsylvania, including philosophy, medicine, nursing, law, social science, public policy, the Wharton School, communications, andthe allied health professions. Faculty teach courses and seminars in the Medical School, and teach bioethics in other professional schools at Penn and in various graduate departments of the University.

The Hastings Center www.thehastingscenter.org

The Hastings Center is an independent, nonpartisan, and nonprofit bioethics research institute founded in 1969 to explore fundamental and emerging questions in health care, biotechnology, and the environment.

Partial Guide to Jewish Bioethics Concerns Rabbi William Cutter March 2008 PDF

Ten thoughts on jewish bioethics and public policy rabbi peter s. knobel rabbi peter knobel is a kalsman partner and has been the senior rabbi of temple beth emet, the free synagogue, in evanston, illinois since 1980. he shared ten thoughts on jewish bioethics and public policy in an address delivered at the first kalsman institute partner gathering at the brandeis-bardin institute in march 2001. pdf.

End of Life matters
Medical Directives
Genetic Science
Organ Donation

Infertility and Assisted ReproductionComplete Sets or Individual Guides are available at: http://urj.org/jfc/bioethics/studyguides/ or by calling (212) 650-4294.

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Second Texts and Second Opinions: Essays Towards a Jewish Bioethics

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ISBN-10 0197632130
ISBN-13 978-0197632130
Publisher Oxford University Press
Publication date October 4, 2022
Language English
Dimensions 6.13 x 0.86 x 9.25 inches
Print length 310 pages
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Publisher ‏ : ‎ Oxford University Press (October 4, 2022)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 310 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0197632130
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0197632130
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.28 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.13 x 0.86 x 9.25 inches
#2,115 in Judaism (Books)
#6,486 in Ethics
#18,429 in Religious Philosophy (Books)

About the author

Laurie zoloth.

Laurie Zoloth, Ph.D. is the Margaret E. Burton Professor of Religion and Ethics and Senior Advisor to the Provost for Social Ethics, at the University of Chicago and former Dean of the Divinity School. She was President of the American Academy of Religion and the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities, and Vice President of the Society for Jewish Ethics. She was the founding chair of the HHMI Ethics Advisory Board and a member of the founding boards of the International Society for Stem Cell Research,the Society for Neuroethics, the Society for Scriptural Reasoning. As a Charles McCormick Deering Professor of Teaching Excellence at Northwestern University, she was the Brady Program in Ethics and Civic Life. Her books include Health Care & The Ethics of Encounter, Notes From a Narrow Ridge: Religion& Bioethics; Margin of Error: The Ethics of Mistakes in Medicine; The Human Embryonic Stem Cell Debate: Ethics, Religion, & Policy, Oncofertiility: Ethical, Social, Legal & Medical Issues, Jews and Genes: Jewish Thought & the Genetic Future. and forthcoming, Second Text and Second Opinions: Jewish Bioethics. She was a member the NIH National Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, (RAC,)the Ethics Committee of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine well as 3 NIH DSMBs, the NASA Flight IACUC, and NSF Synthetic Biology and Nanotechnology National Centers and the California Stem Cell Research Advisory Board. She is currently a member of the Engineering Biology Research Consortium Board of Advisors, the NASA National Bioethics Committee, and the Ethics Advisory Board of the American Heart Association. She received both ASBH’s award for Service to the Field and the NASA National Public Service Award as the first ethicist on NASA’s National Advisory Board. In 2005 she was the Graduate Theological Union’s Alumni of the Year and was awarded an honorary doctorate from the American Jewish University.

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A Jewish-Catholic Bioethics?

Published May 18, 2005

First Things, June/July 2005, No. 154

By Eric Cohen

The term “Judeo-Christian” has entered our civic vocabulary for good reason. On many of the deepest issues of human life—the meaning of sex, the dignity of the family, the creation of human beings—Jews and Christians stand together against the secular image of man.

But occasionally, even close friends have disagreements. In a March 2005 essay in the online magazine Slate , William Saletan observed that traditional Catholics and conservative Jews do not always think alike when they gather at meetings like those of the President’s Council on Bioethics. According to Saletan, Catholics raise deep questions and then presume to answer them with divinely confident reason. Jews raise those same deep questions but seem less certain that reason can ever finally settle them. Catholics oppose clear evils like embryo destruction. Jews worry about diffuse evils like the “corruption of our sensibilities.”

There’s a genuine truth in Saletan’s claim, though of course matters are much more complicated. The particular Jews he discusses—Leon Kass, Charles Krauthammer, Yuval Levin, and even me—are hardly representative of Jewish bioethics. In many respects, we are outcasts. We oppose most or all forms of embryo research, for instance, and vehemently oppose the creation of embryos solely for research and destruction. By contrast, with all the division among the branches of Judaism—about keeping Kosher, intermarriage, driving on the Sabbath—destroying embryos for research is a point of remarkable theological agreement. The preeminent Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Jewish organizations in America have all given their ethical endorsement, seeing embryonic stem-cell research as not only permissible under Jewish law but an embodiment of Jewish values. Reverence for life means seeking cures for disease; ex vivo embryos are a justified sacrifice—or little sacrifice at all—in the sacred cause of medicine.

A few prominent Jewish ethicists and halakhic experts dissent, seeing embryo destruction as potentially a prohibited form of feticide. But these voices are in the Jewish minority. Most Jewish thinkers support embryo research with few qualms, and many Jews see opposition to embryo research—or even the denial of federal funding for such research—as an illegitimate imposition of Christian values.

Rabbi Elliot Dorff is a typical example. His guidelines on embryonic stem cell research—adopted nearly unanimously by Conservative Judaism’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards—begin by describing, at great length, the cutting edge of stem-cell science: the various methods and sources for deriving embryonic stem cells, the potential to test new drugs and develop new cellular therapies, the state of research at different American laboratories. The document revels in its scientific sophistication before turning to the fundamental ethical question: Should Jews support the destruction of human embryos for research?

To answer this, Dorff turns to Jewish law on abortion, and especially the Jewish understanding of what embryos and fetuses are as they develop. After forty days, he says, the fetus is classified by the ancient rabbis as “the thigh of its mother”; before forty days, he says, the embryo is “simply water.” Dorff says that it makes sense to follow such teachings only if they cohere with the truths of modern science. And then, inexplicably, he concludes that they do, ignoring the significance of what we now know biologically: that a new organism exists from the moment of conception; that the very first cell divisions are orderly and purposeful; that forty days is a meaningless moment from the standpoint of continuous embryological development; that by forty days the primordial head, arms, and legs have already formed, the primitive heart tube is present, the nerves of the face are developing. The notion that “simply water” is the best metaphor for understanding the unfolding human being in our care is absurd. It is morally and theologically irresponsible to seek the fruits of modern science in the form of stem-cell research without confronting the facts of modern embryology in order to understand what embryos really are.

Jewish thinkers like Rabbi Dorff commit two errors simultaneously. They embrace modern biomedical science as a faith in itself, and thus lose the mystical vision that might allow them to see embryos as more than simply microscopic cells. And they appeal—often selectively—to ancient religious sources without confronting the new scientific facts that make some of these sources a problem. They are, at once, too attached to modern biology and too removed from modern biology. And one wonders whether some of Dorff’s confusions—like describing gametes and embryos in the same breath as “potential building blocks of life,” or equating embryos with other cells of the body, or describing the destruction of an embryo as “taking a part of an object”—are not deliberate efforts to make embryo research seem more innocent than it is.

Perhaps the problem is simply that most Jewish thinkers have chosen one Jewish value—the good of healing—as the prism through which to see the old sources. Other considerations—like the law against deliberate killing or the belief in the sanctity of every life as created in the image of God—might lead to different conclusions. The Jewish sources themselves pull in many directions: the Zohar declares that “he who causes the fetus to be destroyed in the womb . . . destroys the artifice of the Holy One. . . . For these abominations the Spirit of Holiness weeps.” R. Meir Simchah says that the killing of a fetus is punishable by “death at the hands of heaven.” Nachmanides finds that the Sabbath may be violated to save an unborn child, even in the first forty days of development. Sanhedrin 57b interprets the biblical text “Whoso sheddeth the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed” to include “Whoso sheddeth the blood of man, within man shall his blood be shed.” And who is a “man within man,” the rabbis ask? “A fetus within the womb.”

To be sure, there are many Jewish sources that cut in other directions, especially in the standing they accord to embryos in the first forty days. But these sources deal mostly with the laws of purity for potentially pregnant women or for women who miscarry; they do not deal directly with the moral meaning of deliberately killing early embryos. Likewise, the key text in Exodus, which requires a man who causes a miscarriage by colliding with a pregnant woman to pay a monetary fine, does not deal with the meaning of deliberate killing. Deliberate killing, however, is what embryo research necessarily requires, especially research that creates embryos solely for exploitation and destruction.

Some Jewish thinkers, including Dorff, argue that the embryo ex vivo has limited moral standing because it cannot develop to term outside the womb. But surely all human beings deprived of the environment they need to flourish have “limited potential for life.” A bird trapped in a cage may never learn to fly, but it is no less a bird for the harm we caused by putting it there. A grown woman without food or water will surely die, but this lack of sustenance does not make the doomed person less than human. If anything, it challenges the humanity of those who left her there to die in the first place.

Perhaps the one great Halakhic exception to the pro-embryo research consensus in modern Judaism is Rabbi J. David Bleich, a giant of ethical and legal scholarship in the Orthodox Jewish world. Bleich rejects the argument that embryos and fetuses in utero possess greater moral standing than embryos and fetuses ex utero . He reminds Jews to stand more humbly before the mystery of new life, by reminding them of Ecclesiastes: “As thou knowest not what is the way of the wind, Nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child; Even so thou knowest not the work of God Who doeth all things.” And Bleich concludes his meditation on the ethics of stem-cell research by praising the Catholic Church for its witness in defense of nascent human life: “The Catholic Church now uniquely fulfills a different role in the transcendental divine plan, i.e., it tenaciously promulgates the notion of the sanctity of fetal life and the teaching that abortion constitutes homicide. Non-Jews who engage in that endeavor do so with divine approbation. Non-Jews engaged in fulfilling a sacred mission are surely deserving of commendation, applause, and support.”

Bleich is not convinced, as Catholics are, that early embryos are the moral equivalent of full human persons. Neither are some of the Jewish conservatives involved with the President’s Council on Bioethics. Bleich’s questions are grounded in the mystery of Jewish sources, and the chairman of the council, Leon Kass, sees a possible tension between our moral intuitions about early embryos and the rational account of early embryos as full persons; he opposes embryo destruction but is not convinced that ex vivo embryos are necessarily equal. My own view is that the Catholic arguments are indeed the most rational, but accepting them in a moment of trial—such as choosing between the child who is dying and the embryo who might save him—would require a faith that is truly other-worldly and thus seemingly absurd to this-worldly eyes.

But whatever fine philosophical differences may exist in theory, Jewish conservatives who engage publicly on these issues have spent the past several years fighting for prohibitions on embryo destruction. As Jews, we know well what it means to treat some human lives as less than human, or some human beings as there for experimentation. We know the moral hazards of justifying such violations on the grounds that embryos are “going to die anyway,” just the way some Nazi doctors justified their inhuman experiments. Embryo destruction is not the moral equivalent of the Holocaust, but the lessons of the Holocaust should give us the wisdom to oppose making embryo destruction the new foundation of modern medicine. That, it seems to me, is the heart of Jewish wisdom.

But it is also only part of the story. In the post-Holocaust age, the Jewish mind is not only keenly aware of the dangers of mistreating innocent life. Jews are also afraid of the demographic death of the Jewish people. The pathos of infertility—a continual theme in the Hebrew Bible—is more powerful than ever, while the place of procreation remains central to the Jewish idea of holiness, to Jewish self-understanding as a sacred people, to the Jewish obligation of passing down God’s way from one generation to the next. As it says in Yevamot :

“…Should the number of Israelites happen to be two thousand and two myriads less one, and any particular person has not engaged in the propagation of the race, does he not thereby cause the Divine Presence to depart from Israel!” Abba Hanan said in the name of Rabbi Eliezar: “He deserves the penalty of death; for it is said, ‘And they had no children, but if they had children they would not have died.’” Others say: “He causes the Divine Presence to depart from Israel; for it is said: ‘To be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee’; where there exists ‘seed after thee’, the Divine Presence dwells among them; but where no ‘seed after thee’ exists, among whom should it dwell! Among the trees or among the stones?

With this in mind, think about how human embryos came to exist outside the body at all, to be seen with human eyes and held with human hands. We produced embryos outside the protective darkness of the womb in order to give those whom nature made barren a natural child. In vitro fertilization was a technological answer to Sarah’s laughter and Hannah’s cry: “O Lord of Hosts, if You will look upon the suffering of Your maidservant and will remember me and not forget Your maidservant, and if You will grant Your maidservant a male child, I will dedicate him to the Lord for all the days of his life.” To give birth is to be eternally remembered; to be childless is to be eternally forgotten.

Many orthodox Jews see this as grounds for defending even reproductive cloning in certain situations if it were possible and safe. As Yitzchok Breitowitz, one of Orthodox Judaism’s finest ethicists and halakhic experts, has argued: “Let us assume that the individual is the last survivor of a family that was decimated in the Holocaust and let us assume that he was castrated in a concentration camp. If he dies, there will be no perpetuation of his family line. . . . Cloning is as close as the couple in this scenario could possibly come to producing a child that is on some level the genetic product of both of them. One clearly could defend, I think, the morality of the use of reproductive cloning for that limited purpose.” To some degree, every Jew after the Holocaust feels like a Holocaust survivor. And while Breitowitz explores the many dilemmas raised by reproductive cloning, he believes that cloning to produce children presents no inherent problem from the standpoint of Jewish ethics and Jewish law. The wisdom of engaging in human cloning should be judged case by case, he says, and surely not banned by the state.

And so here we have yet another great Jewish irony and internal Jewish conflict: For decades Leon Kass has been the most eloquent and most passionate opponent of human reproductive cloning, seeing it as a violation of the dignity of human procreation, a violation of the relationship between the generations, a violation of the uniqueness of new human life, a violation of the sexual character of human reproduction. And yet, it is Orthodox Jews who make the ethical case for cloning with greatest force—as a way to perpetuate a holy people when it is the only biological alternative.

The Jewish defense of cloning strikes me as woefully misguided—a deep misunderstanding of what it means to participate as husband and wife in the creation of new life. But the Jewish defense of cloning is a perversion of something more genuine: the special meaning of procreation within Judaism, and what it means not only for the human family in general but for this particular human family. As Kass himself has explained, children are part of the Jewish answer to mortality, a Jewish way of participating in the immortal. Children connect Jews directly to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—to those blood relatives chosen by God to bring God’s new way into the world. In prayer, Jews sing l’dor v’dor : “from generation to generation.” In law, Judaism passes down through birth, not baptism. This is why in vitro fertilization finds nearly universal support within all branches of Judaism—as permissible, never obligatory—and why even those Jews who oppose embryo research often reluctantly embrace in vitro fertilization.

Catholics, in their more universalistic wisdom, do not. They oppose in vitro fertilization precisely because it corrupts rather than fulfills the dignity of human procreation; because it separates the unitive and procreative purposes of marriage; because it turns the mysterious birth of new life into a technological project; because it paves the way for the age of human cloning and genetic engineering; and because it destroys thousands of embryos as “byproducts” and abandons thousands more as “spares.” Most deeply, the practice of in vitro fertilization compromises the connection between sex and holiness: the way the sexual encounter of man and wife, created in the image of God, gives them a glimpse of the divine communion of the Trinitarian God and the mysteries of Creation itself.

The good that in vitro fertilization has produced—the many lives now living—is undeniable. But so are the moral hazards. As a universal ethic, the Catholic position is compelling, certainly in its prudence about the many evils in vitro fertilization has already caused (like mass embryo destruction) or will likely facilitate in the future (like growing genetic manipulation of our offspring). But as a particularistic ethics—as a practice engaged in by God’s Chosen People, confronted with the suffering of Sarah and Hannah— in vitro fertilization may have a theological purpose and thus a moral justification, if done within marriage and without producing excess embryos. It may be that Jews and Catholics—who share so much in their understanding of the dignity of procreation and marriage—must part ways in their understanding of what holiness in action requires in certain tragic cases of infertility.

As a Jew, I respect the Catholic position deeply and tremble at the practice of initiating new life in the laboratory, even as I wonder at the magnificence of giving new life—flesh of the couple’s flesh—when in vitro fertilization is the only way to do so. And I hope that Catholics tremble when they tell an infertile couple—including an infertile Jewish couple—that having a biological child should not be done even if it could be done, even as they wonder at the magnificence of the Catholic vision of human sexuality and its connection to the mystery of God’s inner life. This is a disagreement among friends mutually devoted to holiness; it is a disagreement that God will surely settle in His own way and in His own time.

But on most things that count—including embryo research—faithful Jews should stand alongside their Catholic friends as Judeo-Christians, opposing together the imageless image of man that secularism offers. I only hope that my Jewish friends, for Jewish reasons, will become more reasonable than they sometimes are.

— Eric Cohen is editor of The New Atlantis and resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

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Live Updates: Campus Unrest Engulfs Street Near the White House

Police officers shut down the street as protesters pitched tents in front of the president’s residence at George Washington University. In Pennsylvania, Gov. Josh Shapiro called the demonstration on Penn’s campus “out of control.”

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Minho Kim , Mattathias Schwartz and Shawn Hubler

Minho Kim reported from Washington, Mattathias Schwartz from Philadelphia, and Shawn Hubler from Los Angeles.

Here’s the latest on campus protests.

Police officers in the nation’s capital shut down a street blocks from the White House late Thursday as scores of protesters shouted pro-Palestinian slogans and pitched tents in front of the historic home of George Washington University’s president.

The raucous scene was the latest outbreak of unrest over the war in Gaza that has roiled campuses across the country, upending commencement plans and frustrating administrators. Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania became the latest public official to call for a crackdown, saying a demonstration at the University of Pennsylvania, which expanded overnight , had grown “unstable and out of control.”

“More rules have been violated. More laws have been broken,” Mr. Shapiro, a Democrat who is a nonvoting member of Penn’s board of trustees, said of the growing protest in Philadelphia. “That is absolutely unacceptable.”

More than 2,700 people have been arrested since April 18 at demonstrations on American college campuses, according to New York Times tracking data .

Here are the details:

Instead of holding its usual universitywide commencement ceremony, the University of Southern California has invited this year’s 18,000 graduating students and their families to a hastily arranged party on Thursday night at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The school has faced harsh criticism over its handling of the protests on its lush quad, and the academic senate voted on Wednesday to censure its president, Carol Folt .

The author Colson Whitehead posted on social media that he had withdrawn from speaking at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, after more than 130 demonstrators were arrested there this week. “Calling the cops on peaceful protesters is a shameful act,” Mr. Whitehead wrote.

The president of Cornell University, Martha E. Pollack, said on Thursday that she was resigning , making Cornell the fourth of eight Ivy League universities now undergoing a leadership change. Though there has been controversy on campus over disciplinary action Cornell has taken against pro-Palestinian student protesters, she said the decision was “mine and mine alone.”

The campus arrests this week include 33 in the nation’s capital at George Washington University, which happened hours before the mayor of Washington, D.C., was to be called before Congress on Wednesday to answers questions about the handling of the pro-Palestinian encampment there. The hearing was canceled.

Two blocks west of the White House, hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters at George Washington University are occupying the street in front of the residence of the school’s president, Ellen Granberg. They are demanding a sit-down with the university to discuss a potential divestment of the school endowment from companies they believe have been abetting Israel’s war in Gaza.

Jonathan Wolfe

After canceling its main commencement, the University of Southern California hastily organized a party for tonight at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in an attempt to offer its 18,000 graduates and their relatives a taste of a traditional graduation. The doors just opened at the Coliseum and students and their families are streaming inside.

Anemona Hartocollis and Shawn Hubler

Union Theological Seminary will divest from holdings that profit from the war in Gaza.

Union Theological Seminary in New York will instruct its financial managers to divest from companies that are profiting from the war in Gaza, a move intended to show support for a cease-fire, the seminary’s president, the Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, said on Thursday. But, Dr. Jones added, the seminary has not taken a political position on the conflict, nor has it endorsed a boycott of Israel.

At about $101 million, the seminary’s endowment is far smaller than those of larger schools; Harvard’s, for instance, is $51 billion. The seminary’s direct investments in Israel amount to a tiny part of the total, and its investments related to the war are even smaller than that, Dr. Jones said.

The seminary, in Manhattan’s Morningside Heights, is a historically Christian but increasingly interreligious institution with a reputation for being devoted to social justice. It is adjacent to the main campus of Columbia University, where police were called to clear away protesters and the main graduation ceremony was canceled for security reasons. The seminary was one of a few Columbia affiliates to condemn Nemat Shafik, the university’s president, for bringing the police to campus, and for suspending more than 100 student protesters.

“We want this war to stop, and we want the killing to stop, the massive crushing violence to end,” Dr. Jones said in an interview Thursday. “We’re trying very clearly not to weigh in on, not to make statements that are explicitly anti-Zionist.”

The seminary trustees voted on the new policy on Thursday and said that they were “revising the section of our investment policy statement section pertaining to responsible investing to include an overt reference to the Israel-Palestine hostilities.”

The trustees said they have “have taken steps to identify all investments, both domestic and global, that support and profit from the present killing of innocent civilians in Palestine.” Dr. Jones said that holdings in companies doing business in Israel but not profiting from the war — like, she suggested, a restaurant chain — would not be affected.

She said that the seminary had been working on the decision and researching its portfolio since November. Students would be part of the process, the trustees said. They did not offer a timetable, but parsing companies can be complex and divestment generally takes time.

The demand for schools to disclose their holdings with Israel has been a rallying cry at the pro-Palestinian encampments that have emerged on campuses across the country. Demonstrators have chanted, “Disclose, divest, we will not stop, we will not rest.”

Officials at California State University, Sacramento, updated campus policies this week to review investments and divest from any that appear to profit from “genocide, ethnic cleansing and activities that violate fundamental human rights.” The agreement was hailed as a victory by demonstrators who have been camped for a week on campus and who announced on social media after the decision that they would end their encampment and clean up the site.

Under the decision, Sacramento State, which is one of 23 campuses in the larger California State University system, instructed the finance committees of its campus foundation, student union and other campus-specific sources of auxiliary funding to ensure that they were avoiding investments in companies, and index and mutual funds, that were not considered “socially responsible.” The policy change noted that so far, Sacramento State had no direct investments that the new policy would outlaw.

Union has espoused social responsibility as a policy for years. The seminary was early to divest from apartheid South Africa and fossil fuels, and it also has banned investment in for-profit prisons and armament companies.

“With respect to both Palestine and Israel, we affirm their right to secure existence and self-determination,” the trustees said. “We hope that our action today to divest will bring needed pressure to bear against agents of war to stop the killing and find a peaceful future for all.”

Elizabeth A. Harris

Colson Whitehead cancels his commencement speech at UMass Amherst after arrests of protesters.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning author Colson Whitehead said Thursday that he would not give the commencement address at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on May 18 as planned, citing the administration’s decision to call the police on campus protesters.

“I was looking forward to speaking next week at UMass Amherst,” Mr. Whitehead wrote on the social network Bluesky. “But calling the cops on peaceful protesters is a shameful act. I have to withdraw as your commencement speaker. I give all my best wishes and congratulations to the class of ’24 and pray for the safety of the Palestinian people, the return of the hostages, and an end to this terrible war.”

Michael Goldsmith, a representative for Mr. Whitehead, said the author had no further comment.

The school said that the ceremony would proceed without a commencement speaker.

“We respect Mr. Whitehead’s position and regret that he will not be addressing the Class of 2024,” Ed Blaguszewski, a spokesman for the University of Massachusetts Amherst, said in a statement.

The police arrested about 130 people at the University of Massachusetts Amherst on Tuesday night after pro-Palestinian protesters refused to remove their encampments.

Mr. Whitehead, whose novels include “The Underground Railroad” and “The Nickel Boys,” is an extraordinarily decorated author. He has won the Pulitzer Prize twice, in 2020 and 2017, and was a finalist in 2002. He also won the National Book Award, a MacArthur Fellowship and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

He is also something of shape-shifter, moving easily between disparate genres. His book “Sag Harbor” was a coming-of-age novel, “Zone One” was a postapocalyptic zombie story, and “The Underground Railroad” followed a young enslaved woman who escapes from a Georgia plantation.

C Pam Zhang, the author of “How Much of These Hills Is Gold,” and Safiya Umoja Noble, author of “Algorithms of Oppression” and a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, have also withdrawn from commencement speeches this year, according to the website LitHub . Both were scheduled to speak at the University of Southern California’s Rossier School of Education.

Matthew Eadie and Jenna Russell

Police arrest protesters at M.I.T., where suspensions have ramped up tension.

Several protesters at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology were arrested on Thursday after blocking access to a parking garage on campus, a day after some students involved in the pro-Palestinian encampment there received notices of suspension from the university.

University police arrested “fewer than 10” people, according to a statement posted Thursday night on M.I.T.’s emergency management website . It was unclear what charges they would face, and a university spokesperson declined to comment further.

The university had set a Monday deadline for protesters to vacate the encampment on the Cambridge campus or face suspension. Since then, the M.I.T. administration has begun sending notices of suspension to students who it says defied the deadline. Administrators would not say how many students had been suspended.

“This means you will be prohibited from participating in any academic activities — including classes, exams or research — for the remainder of the semester,” said a letter received by one student and viewed by a reporter. “You will also be prohibited from participating in commencement activities or any cocurricular or extracurricular activities.”

The university had detailed the consequences of suspension in a letter to student protesters before the Monday deadline , making clear that those who had previously been disciplined “related to events since Oct. 7” would also be barred from university housing and dining halls.

As an additional condition of suspension, some students also lost their eligibility to be employed by the university, a penalty that cut off the income of graduate student employees who were suspended.

“I don’t know what comes next,” said Prahlad Iyengar, a first-year graduate student who said he had lost his income and housing as a result of his suspension. “I have friends and a community, and I can find a place, but there are people affected who are housing- and food-insecure, some with children.”

M.I.T.’s president, Sally Kornbluth, was one of three university leaders who were harshly criticized last year for their testimony in a congressional hearing about campus antisemitism. The other two, Claudine Gay of Harvard and Elizabeth Magill of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned in the fallout.

Although Ms. Kornbluth did not face the same level of criticism, hundreds of M.I.T. alumni signed a letter calling for the university to take stronger actions to combat campus antisemitism.

In a letter to the campus on Monday, she wrote: “This prolonged use of M.I.T. property as a venue for protest, without permission, especially on an issue with such sharp disagreement, is no longer safely sustainable.”

Mattathias Schwartz

Reporting from Philadelphia

A pro-Palestinian encampment at Penn grows as commencement nears.

A pro-Palestinian encampment at the University of Pennsylvania has expanded, as students wrap up exams and the university finalizes its plans for graduation ceremonies on May 20.

A post on social media by an account associated with the Penn encampment said the expansion on Wednesday night was in response to “the administration’s continued bad-faith negotiations” over demands that the university divest from financial support for Israel.

Steve Silverman, a spokesman for Penn, declined to comment on the activists’ assertion that the university was not negotiating in good faith.

For nearly two weeks, the protesters have been occupying the west side of a green space in front of College Hall, the oldest building on campus. On Wednesday night, after a march that brought a large group of students and Philadelphia activists to College Hall, protesters expanded the encampment to the east side of the green space, moving the metal barriers that had been erected to mark the boundaries of the protest space.

Penn’s administration has largely taken a hands-off approach to the encampment. But on Thursday afternoon, the university announced actions against six students in connection with the “unauthorized encampment.”

In a statement posted on Penn’s website , the university said it had imposed “mandatory temporary leaves of absence” on the students pending “disciplinary investigations.”

When asked on Thursday about the protests, Gov. Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania said that it was “past time” for Penn’s administration to clear the encampment. “Over the last 24 hours at the University of Pennsylvania, the situation has gotten even more unstable and out of control,” he said, speaking at an unrelated news conference near Pittsburgh.

The governor, who is a nonvoting member of Penn’s board of trustees, demurred when asked whether he would take independent action, saying that the matter was best left to campus administrators and local police.

On Thursday, the scene around the encampment was subdued. Some protesters rested on a plinth beneath a statue of Benjamin Franklin. Others walked around the encampment with the chief of Penn’s fire and emergency services, who was surveying the grounds for potential hazards. Outside the barriers were small groups of police officers, college administrators and pro-Israel counterprotesters.

This week, Penn announced special security measures for commencement, including no bags and “airport-style security screening.”

Stephanie Saul

In a surprise, Cornell’s president resigns.

Martha E. Pollack, Cornell University’s president for the past seven years, announced in a surprise email on Thursday afternoon that she is resigning.

“I understand that there will be lots of speculation about my decision, so let me be as clear as I can: This decision is mine and mine alone,” she wrote in her email, addressed to “Cornellians.” “After seven fruitful and gratifying years as Cornell’s president — and after a career in research and academia spanning five decades — I’m ready for a new chapter in my life.”

Dr. Pollack, a computer scientist, said she would remain in office until July 1.

In a separate announcement, Kraig H. Kayser, the chairman of Cornell’s board of trustees, said the board had asked the university provost, Michael I. Kotlikoff, to serve as interim president for two years. Dr. Kotlikoff was previously dean of Cornell’s College of Veterinary Medicine, among other posts.

Dr. Pollack’s resignation means that four of the eight Ivy League universities — Harvard, Yale, the University of Pennsylvania and Cornell — will now be in various stages of leadership transition, three of them with interim presidents already in charge or presidential searches underway. The presidents of Harvard and Penn resigned in the last six months, in part because of fallout over their testimony at a December congressional hearing investigating campus antisemitism.

Mr. Kayser said that Cornell’s trustees would wait to begin a search for a new permanent president until about six to nine months before the end of Dr. Kotlikoff’s two-year term, an unusually long delay.

Dr. Pollack, 65, leaves at a time of controversy over disciplinary action Cornell has taken against pro-Palestinian student protesters. While Cornell has not summoned outside police forces to its campus in Ithaca, N.Y., it has taken what some professors called draconian measures against six protesters. Critics have found the disciplinary actions particularly disturbing coming in a school year when Dr. Pollack launched a campus free-expression initiative .

Though the students’ protest remained peaceful, the university invoked a provision calling for “immediate temporary suspension,” a measure intended for situations where the safety and health of the community were threatened, according to Risa L. Lieberwitz, a Cornell professor and the campus president of the American Association of University Professors.

“It is not intended to be used where the university is unhappy about the fact that you have an encampment and chanting,” she said.

Professor Lieberwitz called on Dr. Pollack to revoke the students’ suspensions — penalties that could erase their academic credits for the semester — as a parting presidential act that would ease tensions on campus.

Mr. Kayser called Dr. Pollack a “transformational leader” who increased financial aid and created new academic programs at Cornell.

Shawn Hubler , Stephanie Saul and Jill Cowan

Shawn Hubler and Jill Cowan reported from Los Angeles, and Stephanie Saul from New York.

U.S.C.’s president is censured by the university’s academic senate.

The University of Southern California’s academic senate voted on Wednesday to censure Carol Folt, the school’s president, after several tumultuous weeks in which the administration canceled the valedictory address of a Muslim student, cleared a protest encampment within hours and called in police last month to arrest dozens of protesters.

The academic senate, which consists primarily of faculty members, also endorsed calls for an investigation into the administration’s actions. Its resolution, which passed by a wide margin after a several hourslong meeting on Wednesday afternoon, cited “widespread dissatisfaction and concern among the faculty” about the decision making of Dr. Folt and Andrew T. Guzman, the provost, who was also censured.

The vote represented only a fraction of the university's 4,700 faculty members, and the senate stopped short of taking a vote of no-confidence in the administrators, which would have been a harsher rebuke. Despite criticism, Dr. Folt has maintained considerable support from the university’s trustees, and some faculty members have quietly sympathized with her.

Still, the vote was “significant” with “far-reaching implications,” said William G. Tierney, a professor emeritus of higher education at U.S.C., who has written about the response to campus protests across the nation.

“The petition from the faculty was thoughtful and the discussion was serious,” said Dr. Tierney, a past president of the senate who has criticized Dr. Folt’s handling of the protest and who confirmed the vote. “No faculty wants to rebuke their president and provost. But this was warranted.”

Christina Dunbar-Hester, the acting president of the university’s chapter of the American Association of University Professors, who watched the meeting, said that faculty members have been particularly frustrated by a lack of communication from administrators and the speed with which the Los Angeles Police Department was called on protesters who were not violent.

“The administrators keep leaning on ‘safety’ without consulting or sharing their thinking with the Senate or wider faculty,” she said. “We do not necessarily doubt that there were safety concerns, but some question whether this series of decisions harmed and endangered members of the campus community while also sending a message to anyone threatening the campus that those threats work.”

The recent disruptions have once again put the university, in South Los Angeles, under an unflattering spotlight.

Dr. Folt’s hiring in 2019 was hailed as a kind of fresh start following a series of highly publicized missteps, which included playing a central part in the “Varsity Blues” admissions scandal. The past several years have largely been a period of calm for U.S.C.

Several top university officials said last week that many members of the faculty and board had understood the difficulty Dr. Folt faced in handling the protests. And many in the broader community noted that U.S.C.’s experience was relatively mild compared to the violence that rocked the University of California, Los Angeles, campus as pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters clashed recently.

But many parents and students were distressed at the cancellation of the school’s main commencement ceremony, and angry at the high security accompanying what remained this week of the celebration.

On Wednesday evening, Dr. Folt said in a statement that she would work with faculty members going forward, and that she and Dr. Guzman welcomed engagement with a task force being created to investigate the decisions made by administrators.

“I understand there are many different viewpoints among members of the Trojan Community regarding our recent decisions,” she said. “I’m committed to working with the academic senate, and the wider faculty who weren’t present at today’s session.”

Then, alluding to graduation ceremonies that have been cut back , with tight security and the loss of celebrity speakers, Dr. Folt said, “For now, our focus is on celebrating the 19,000 graduates of USC’s Class of 2024.”

Jonathan Wolfe contributed reporting from Los Angeles.

Reporting from Los Angeles

Police officials say that U.C.L.A. protesters had metal pipes, bolt cutters and an occupation manual.

Police officials at the University of California, Los Angeles, said on Wednesday that the dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters who were arrested in a parking garage on campus earlier this week had tools and other items that were intended to help occupy a campus building.

Members of the group had several metal pipes, a pair of bolt cutters, super glue, padlocks and a long chain, according to a statement from the U.C.L.A. Police Department. They also had literature that included “The Do-It-Yourself Occupation Guide” and the “De-Arrest Primer.”

Police officers initially arrested 44 people and charged most of them with conspiracy to commit a crime, according to the statement. Two local journalists were among those detained, but they were released without charges after being taken to a Los Angeles Police Department jail. The police said they did not have press credentials. A third person was also released without charges.

Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, a freelance journalist who has been covering the U.C.L.A. protests, was one of the two journalists arrested. He said he stumbled across the students in the parking lot after they were detained and began filming. His arrest “came out of nowhere,” he said.

“The idea that someone who quite clearly was just there to film, being guilty of a conspiracy, is absolutely cuckoo bananas,” he added.

Of those arrested, 35 were U.C.L.A. students, the police said. Four of the people arrested on Monday had also been arrested on May 2 when the police shut down a pro-Palestinian encampment at the campus. The 41 who face charges were released after being booked and cited, the police said.

The pro-Palestinian protesters who led the encampment at U.C.L.A. were unavailable for comment on Wednesday. In a statement after the arrests on Monday, the U.C.L.A. Palestine Solidarity Encampment said, “These unlawful arrests constitute harassment and abuse of power by law enforcement, and serve solely as an intimidation tactic.”

“The Do-It Yourself Occupation Guide” contains techniques for circumventing alarm systems, breaking into buildings and securing doors. The original manual, which was written more than a decade ago, was updated this year “in light of a nationwide resurgence of student occupations in 2024, beginning with Columbia University in New York, in response to an ongoing genocide in Palestine,” according to an editor’s note.

The U.C.L.A. Police Department said that as the 44 individuals were detained, a demonstration was occurring inside Moore Hall, a campus building that students were being encouraged on social media to occupy. The police said that it “became apparent” that the arrested protesters were planning to use their supplies to take over Moore Hall.

Another guide taken as evidence during the mass arrest was “Fight to Win: Protest Tactics and Staying Safe.” It describes police formations and contains advice on how to remain safe during a protest. It also has sections on protest tools like umbrellas and fire extinguishers, both of which were used by protesters last week at U.C.L.A. when the police raided their encampment.

While many of the pro-Palestinian encampments at colleges have been established in central quads or campus lawns, some demonstrators have gone further by taking over buildings and vandalizing property. The police last week quickly shut down a takeover of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University in New York, and law enforcement officers also ended a weeklong occupation of the administration building at the California Polytechnic State University, Humboldt.

U.C.L.A. administrators originally took a relatively tolerant approach to the encampment at their school, even as protesters were arrested within hours at some universities, including the University of Southern California. But after several days, the school chancellor, Gene Block, declared the encampment illegal on April 30 and told demonstrators to leave.

Later that night, counterprotesters attacked the demonstration site, and some beat pro-Palestinian protesters with sticks, used chemical sprays and launched fireworks as weapons. The police and security guards did not break up the melee for hours, and have not made any arrests. On the early morning of May 2, the police broke up the encampment and arrested more than 200 protesters.

Sharon Otterman

Maintenance workers offer an inside look at the student takeover of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall.

Mariano Torres, a maintenance worker at Columbia University, was cleaning on the third floor of Hamilton Hall in his signature Yankees cap one night last week, when he heard a commotion downstairs. He said he figured it had something to do with the pro-Palestinian encampment on the lawn outside and kept working.

He was shocked, he said, when he suddenly saw five or six protesters, their faces covered by scarves or masks, picking up chairs and bringing them into the stairway.

“I’m like, what the hell is going on? Put it back. What are you doing?” he recalled.

He said he tried to block them and they tried to reason with him to get out of the way, telling him “this is bigger than you.” One person, he recalled, told him he didn’t get paid enough to deal with this. Someone tried to offer him “a fistful of cash.”

He said he replied: “I don’t want your money, dude. Just get out of the building.”

It was the beginning of what would be a frightening time for Mr. Torres, who goes by Mario, and two other maintenance workers in Hamilton Hall, who were inside when pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia took over the building.

Just as upsetting as their encounters with the protesters, the three workers recounted in interviews this week, was their feeling that the university had not done enough to prevent the attack or to help them once the building was under siege.

“I cannot believe they let this happen,” Mr. Torres said.

Only one security guard was posted at the building when the demonstrators entered, despite heightened tensions from the growing encampment nearby, witnesses said.

Mr. Torres and his colleagues called for help from the police and the school’s public safety officers, but no one arrived in time to assist them. The university eventually asked the police to clear the building and other protesters around campus, but they did not come until nearly 20 hours later.

That meant the workers, who were briefly trapped inside, had to make their own way out.

“They failed to protect us,” said Mr. Torres, 45, whose scuffle with a male protester was captured by a freelance photojournalist inside the building. The image, showing Mr. Torres pushing a man against a wall, ricocheted around social media.

When the police eventually raided the building, nearly 50 people were arrested, according to prosecutors. Many of them were students at Columbia or its affiliated colleges, but a New York Times review of police records found that nine appeared to be unaffiliated with the university.

The union that represents the workers, Local 241 of the Transport Workers Union, has requested more information from Columbia about what the police had told the school before the occupation.

John Samuelsen, the international president of the union, wrote Monday to Nemat Shafik, the president of Columbia, saying she had “epically failed to protect the safety of these university employees, who were forced to fight their way out of the building.”

Mr. Samuelsen added that though Columbia had briefings with the police about the possibility that the protests could escalate, “they conveyed none of that information to the union.”

In a statement, Samantha Slater, a university spokeswoman, said that the “employees who were in Hamilton Hall are valued members of the Columbia community, and we appreciate their dedication and service.”

“When protesters chose to escalate the situation by occupying Hamilton Hall, they committed egregious violations of both University policy and the law, which is why we made the decision to bring in the N.Y.P.D.,” she said. “We are committed to ongoing work to help our entire University community heal.”

On April 30, at about 12:30 a.m., a crowd of students had surrounded Hamilton Hall, cheering, as dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators entered. The building, on Columbia’s central Morningside Heights campus, has symbolic significance as a place of student protest and had been occupied five times by student protesters since 1968.

For months, pro-Palestinian students had protested to urge the university to divest from Israel, among other demands, over the country’s offensive in Gaza, eventually setting up a tent encampment. But the takeover of Hamilton Hall was a marked escalation.

Dr. Shafik, who also goes by Minouche, wrote in a letter to the police that before protesters entered the hall, “an individual hid in the building until after it closed and let the other individuals in.”

Mr. Torres was not surprised: He said he had caught a woman hiding under tables or behind doors “three or four times” over the last several weeks. And five days before the occupation, Lester Wilson, another longtime facilities worker in the building, had opened the door to a third floor closet just before midnight and found a surprise.

He said a woman was crouching in the slop sink, hiding and holding the door shut. Mr. Wilson said he brought her to university safety officers, and was not sure what happened next.

Both Mr. Torres and Mr. Wilson said they believed the occupiers had been highly organized, with knowledge of the location of the security cameras and exits, and backpacks full of supplies like rope, chains and zip ties.

The sole public safety officer in the lobby left when confronted by the occupiers and called for backup, several witness said. The protesters then quickly began barricading the main doors with furniture and chains. The occupiers appear to have timed their break-in with the midnight shift change, and the woman on duty was coming off her shift, the union said.

Mr. Torres, who had worked there for five years, confronted some of the protesters, trying to protect what he saw as “his building.”

But as he saw the number of protesters grow to “maybe 15 or 20,” he said, he realized he could not fight them. He asked to be let out, but someone said the doors downstairs were already barricaded and that he couldn’t leave.

He thought of his two young sons at home. He had no idea if other buildings were being taken over, too. Fear made him “crazy,” he said. He grabbed an older protester and ripped off his sweatshirt and mask, demanding to be let out.

The man said he could bring 20 people up to back him. “I was terrified,” Mr. Torres said. “I did what I had to do.” Mr. Torres then grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher and pulled the pin before someone persuaded him to calm down.

Mr. Wilson, 47, saw Mr. Torres facing off with protesters in the stairwell. He radioed his supervisors for help. Then he made his way down to the main doors. They were fastened shut with zip ties.

“So I begged them,” Mr. Wilson said. “I said, I work here, let me out, let me out.” Eventually, someone cut the zip ties and pushed him outside, he said, then secured the doors again. He found the public safety officer and told her that his co-workers were stuck inside.

“God knows what could have happened,” he said.

At about 1:10 a.m., roughly 30 minutes after Mr. Torres first encountered the protesters, a student protester in the lobby finally cut the cluster of zip ties on the front door handle and let him out along with the third worker, who spoke with The Times but asked not to be identified because he was concerned about privacy.

Mr. Torres filed a university accident report that day showing a raw wound on his knuckles and stating he had bruises on his neck. It also stated that he had been “assaulted and battered, and wrongfully imprisoned.”

“I had no protection whatsoever from campus police or N.Y.P.D. and felt abandoned by those whose duty it is to protect me,” he wrote in a document shared with The New York Times.

Alex Molina, the president of the local union chapter, which represents both the facilities workers and the security guards, said that the guard on duty was not allowed to detain anyone and was unarmed.

Both Mr. Torres and Mr. Wilson said they strongly objected to the tactics of the occupiers, which they said had taken a toll on them. Neither man ever wants to work in Hamilton Hall again.

“What do you accomplish from that?” Mr. Wilson said. “You’re giving people traumatic episodes over this stuff. I understand your protest, but why you got to take over a building? Why you got to take workers against their will?”

Campbell Robertson

The Washington police broke up a protest encampment, sparing the mayor a House grilling.

Police use pepper spray on protesters on g.w.u.’s campus, police officers arrested 33 pro-palestinian protesters and cleared a tent encampment on the campus of george washingon university..

“The Metropolitan Police Department. If you are currently on George Washington University property, you are in violation of D.C. Code 22-3302, unlawful entry on property.” “Back up, dude, back up. You’re going to get locked up tonight — back up.” “Free, free Palestine.” “What the [expletive] are you doing?” [expletives] “I can’t stop — [expletives].”

Another House panel was scheduled to question the mayor of Washington, D.C., on Wednesday over the city’s handling of a pro-Palestinian protest encampment at George Washington University. But the police moved in overnight to break up the encampment, and that hearing was called off.

Chief Pamela Smith of the Metropolitan Police Department said at a news conference Wednesday morning that while the campus protest had begun peacefully on April 26, there had been a recent “escalation in the volatility” that warranted dispersing the protest.

Asked about the timing of the operation, only a few hours before the scheduled hearing, Chief Smith said that the decision to clear the camp was made on Monday “based on public safety.”

Mayor Muriel Bowser said at the news conference that she had spoken with Representative James Comer, Republican of Kentucky, who had scheduled the hearing about the city’s response to the encampment, and said she believed the hearing would be canceled, which it was.

The mayor defended the city’s actions, saying that the police had “maintained a presence” at the university throughout the protests and that the city had “demonstrated and upheld our values and constitutional responsibilities.”

Chief Smith said the trouble that led to the clearance began last Thursday when a campus police officer “was pushed by protesters, and an item was grabbed out of the police officer’s hand.” On Monday, she continued, police learned of a “simple assault” that had been reported to campus police, as well as indications that counterprotesters were “covertly in the encampment,” that protesters were studying ways to get inside campus buildings, and that items were being gathered at the camp “that could potentially be used for offensive and defensive weapons.”

As police cleared the encampment, she said, more protesters arrived from outside the area and “engaged the officers,” leading the police to use pepper spray, Chief Smith said. Thirty-three people were arrested, 29 of them for unlawful entry to the campus, she said, adding that several people were also arrested on charges of assault on a police officer. No one was seriously injured, she said.

Police officials said they were still on campus while the university cleared away tents and other items left behind by protesters.

Because of an editing error, an earlier version of a summary with this article misspelled the mayor of Washington’s surname. She is Muriel Bowser, not Bowers.

How we handle corrections

Shawn Hubler and Stephanie Saul

Shawn Hubler reported from the campus of the University of Southern California.

U.S.C.’s graduation is in shambles.

Few West Coast universities rival the pomp of the University of Southern California’s commencements. Flags fly. Trumpets blare. Tens of thousands of relatives from around the world fill the Los Angeles campus, cheering for newly minted alumni. There are catered luncheons under chandeliers and Very Important Speakers: Kevin Feige, the president of Marvel Studios, took the stage last year to the “Avengers” theme song before delivering the commencement address .

This week, however, the pageantry has been sorely tested, barraged by weeks of campus protest and controversy. The Class of 2024 will have no grand main-stage commencement, no Hollywood executive dispensing wisdom to graduates from across the university.

While smaller celebrations will go on at the university’s 23 schools and academic units, at least two keynote speakers have publicly withdrawn from the school of education’s commencement, and others have quietly pulled out at the last minute.

The school of dramatic arts confirmed Monday that Liza Colón-Zayas, who plays Tina on the FX series “The Bear,” “is no longer able to join us.” The actor Jaren Lewison, of the Netflix series “Never Have I Ever,” withdrew this week from his commitment to address thousands of graduates at two large commencements for the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, the school confirmed Wednesday. Two of three speakers at the engineering school’s ceremony disappeared abruptly from the school’s graduation website.

The verdant campus — ordinarily covered with rows of folding chairs at this time of year, as if for a mass wedding — has been closed to noncredentialed visitors behind a system of T.S.A.-like checkpoints. Movement will be tightly controlled at commencement. Families of graduates will need special digital tickets to move among venues. Bags will be searched and banners, beach umbrellas, selfie sticks and other equipment that might be repurposed for political protest will be confiscated.

A hastily arranged party at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum will offer some semblance of the usual grandeur, but just how many of the 18,000 graduates and their relatives will attend the weeknight event is unclear.

“Some of my friends say they’re just going to go and boo the administration,” said Ella Blain, 23, who blamed senior university leaders for upending her graduation from the School of Dramatic Arts. A self-described “fourth-generation Trojan” from Pasadena, Ms. Blain, who has spent much of her life imagining her own U.S.C. commencement, called this year’s graduation “a joke.”

As student protests over Israel’s war in Gaza collide with commencements around the country, universities are scrambling to preserve some shred of the time-honored rite of passage. In this globally conflicted moment, that aspiration is turning out to be a tall order: a ceremony that somehow honors a sea of capped-and-gowned young people and thousands of their loved ones without violating free speech, stifling jubilation or enabling rogue protests.

At some schools, that challenge has been daunting. Last weekend, demonstrators disrupted ceremonies at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Indiana University at Bloomington and Northeastern University in Boston.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, dropped out as the University of Vermont’s commencement speaker under pressure from student groups that objected to the Biden administration’s support of Israel. Arizona’s public universities ramped up security and barricaded fields in advance of this week’s ceremonies. On Monday, Columbia University canceled its main commencement ceremony , leaving only smaller, individual school events.

At U.S.C., where commencement ceremonies are set to begin on Wednesday, university leaders are straining to hold the school’s renowned graduation together amid backlash to a series of moves that were aimed, paradoxically, at heading off potential conflict and unrest.

In mid-April, U.S.C. canceled the speech by its valedictorian, Asna Tabassum, after pro-Israel groups complained about a pro-Palestinian link on her social media bio. Four days later, the university announced that it was “redesigning the commencement” and canceled its keynote speech by an alumnus, Jon M. Chu, the director of “Crazy Rich Asians.”

“The provost at U.S.C. called me at work,” said Marcia McNutt, the president of the National Academy of Sciences, who had been slated to receive an honorary degree. “They just said that, given all the turmoil, they thought it was best to postpone the honorary degrees, and I said I completely agreed.”

The decision only escalated the uproar. Pro-Palestinian students tried to set up an encampment on campus days later, and university officials summoned the Los Angeles police. The ensuing demonstration ended in the arrest of 93 people, of whom more than a third were unaffiliated with the campus. The university announced the next day that it was canceling its main commencement entirely.

Since then, U.S.C. has struggled to manage the fallout.

“This has just been a train wreck,” said Ms. Blain’s mother, Annette Ricchiazzi, 52, a U.S.C. alumna and former university employee, referring to the university leadership’s “inconsistent and confusing” handling of the cancellations and protests. “Many parents are disgusted and up in arms.”

In messages to the campus, President Carol Folt has underscored the university’s respect for free speech and its responsibility to protect students. Missives have alternately announced that protesters would be referred for disciplinary action and that plans for some 47 satellite commencement ceremonies are “in full swing.”

And normalcy has prevailed, in some corners of the 47,000-student campus.

A representative of the actor Sean Penn — known for his progressive stances on international issues — confirmed that he remained on track to address graduates of the pharmacy school, which worked with Community Organized Relief Effort, a nonprofit that he co-founded, to distribute Covid-19 vaccinations at Dodger Stadium during the pandemic.

Justice Goodwin Liu of the California Supreme Court, who is one of the state’s best-known liberal jurists, remained committed to delivering the keynote address at the law school, according to Merrill Balassone, a spokeswoman.

Phil Chan, co-founder of Final Bow for Yellowface, an organization that pushes to eliminate demeaning depictions of Asians in ballet, said that he would keep his commitment to the school of dance to promote his message of inclusion.

And yet, he acknowledged, “it’s a very uncomfortable position to be in.”

By contrast, the writers C Pam Zhang and Safiya Umoja Noble, a MacArthur fellow, dropped out as keynote speakers for the commencement ceremonies at the Rossier School of Education — citing the invitation of police to campus, the arrest of dozens of protesters, and the decision to censor Ms. Tabassum. And Mr. Lewison, who is Jewish, postponed his engagement as the keynote for two Dornsife College commencements. The college said Wednesday that the new speaker would be Jane Coaston, a fellow with U.S.C.’s Center for the Political Future and a contributing writer to The New York Times.

At the engineering school, where Ms. Tabassum, the valedictorian, will be graduating, professors were trying to resurrect her chance to speak.

A resolution by the executive council of the engineering school’s faculty asked that she address its commencement ceremony. The school’s dean, Yannis C. Yortsos, did not respond to questions about whether the request would be approved.

And a petition, signed by 400 professors and expected to be discussed by the faculty Senate on Wednesday, demands that the university apologize to Ms. Tabassum and also calls for the censure of both Dr. Folt and the university provost.

Adding to the drama: the engineering school’s website is no longer listing two previously announced graduation speakers: Kevin Crawford Knight, chief scientist for the ride-hailing company Didi Global, and Zohreh Khademi, a Microsoft executive. A spokesman for the school did not respond to questions about whether Ms. Khademi and Mr. Knight had withdrawn, and neither of them could be reached for comment.

A university committee had picked Ms. Tabassum, who is Muslim and of South Asian ancestry, from about 100 undergraduates with near 4.0 grade point averages. Her selection as graduation speaker sparked a bitter backlash from several pro-Israel groups. who objected to a pro-Palestinian site that she had linked to in a social media account.

Citing threats of a “disruption,” the university canceled the valedictory speech, a campus tradition.

Ms. Tabassum, who grew up east of Los Angeles in suburban San Bernardino County, said in a statement that she was “profoundly disappointed” and questioned the school’s motivation. She now faces harassment. An organization called Accuracy in Media, known for doxxing students, put up a web page calling her U.S.C.s “leading antisemite.”

Hossein Hashemi, a professor of engineering, said that Ms. Tabassum, an aspiring physician, is widely respected by faculty. “At this point, she probably wishes she was not even elected as valedictorian,” said Dr. Hashemi, who is leading a campaign on her behalf.

Not all the pomp has been lost. The last-minute party being thrown by the school on Thursday night will include the Trojan Marching Band, fireworks and drone shows.

“Not going to lie, it sounds like a cool event,” said Dustin Jeffords, 37, who will receive a master’s degree in communications management. He, his wife, his parents, his in-laws and two siblings are planning to be there.

Still, he said, having come to college late, after military service, he had been especially excited about the big U.S.C. commencement, with its bells and whistles, given the sacrifice that earned it.

“As great as these convocation ceremonies are, the big one with the pomp and circumstance is such a big deal and something I was looking forward to,” he said. “To have the finish line disappear in front of your eyes is disappointing.”

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The decision to undergo mastectomy in order to reduce risk poses some interesting bioethical question for Jewish law. Jun 4, 2013, 7:00 AM. In a powerful essay, Angelina Jolie recently informed ...
On the Bioethics of Jewish Law: The Case of Karen Quinlan
After failing in the lower court, In the Matter of Karen Quinlan, 137 N.J. Super. 227, 348 A.2d 801 (1975), the Quinlans were successful in the New Jersey Supreme Court, 70 N.J. 10, 355 A.2d 651 (1976). Shortly thereafter, the Quinlans directed that the respirator be removed; much to their surprise (and undoubtedly that of the Court), Karen ...
An Outline of "Jewish Bioethics" (Chapter 2)
Jewish Bioethics - December 2013. We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites.
Messages from the Margins: Lessons from Feminist Bioethics
This essay refutes the charge of relativism levied against religious approaches to bioethics by using Jewish bioethics as a case study. I demonstrate how an approach to ethics that includes particular spiritualities need not be essentialist but can better respect a patient's values, goals, and priorities. Recognizing the value of listening to silenced voices and showing how the identification ...
A Jewish-Catholic Bioethics?
A Jewish-Catholic Bioethics? Published May 18, 2005. First Things, June/July 2005, No. 154. By Eric Cohen. The term "Judeo-Christian" has entered our civic vocabulary for good reason. On many of the deepest issues of human life—the meaning of sex, the dignity of the family, the creation of human beings—Jews and Christians stand together ...
Jewish Ethical Bioethics
Explain the Jewish Ethical Teachings on Bioethics As the Macquarie dictionary defines, ethics are "the justification for and formal reasoning behind human moral behaviour." Therefore bioethics are ethics which deal with issues to do with life, medicine, science, law and religion, this vast mix of subjects often making it difficult to have ...
Jewish Ethics—A Bibliographical Essay
JEWISH ETHICS- A BIBLIOGRAPHICAL ESSAY. Byron L. Sherwin. AA bibliographical essay on a given subject assumes a prior understand- ing of the nature and the parameters of that subject. However, as the ceding contributions to this volume indicate, there is no unanimity as nature and the appropriate parameters of Jewish ethics. Indeed, for.
In Medicine, the Morally Unthinkable Too Easily Comes to Seem Normal
Major academic medical centers began establishing bioethics centers and programs throughout the 1980s and '90s, and today virtually every medical school in the country requires ethics training ...
Speaker Mike Johnson Says U.S. Universities Are 'Hostile' to Jews
At a Holocaust Remembrance Ceremony, the Louisiana Republican compared the protests on U.S. campuses to what happened at institutions of higher learning in Germany before World War II.
Iran and Israel Weren't Always Enemies
Guest Essay. How Iran and Israel Are Unnatural Adversaries. May 8, 2024. ... He went on to cite the case of a "troublesome" Jewish tribe in Medina that he said was "eliminated" by the ...
Live Updates: Campus Unrest Engulfs Street Near the White House
Campus Protests Penn Encampment Expands as Tense U.S.C. Graduation Arrives. May 9, 2024Updated 3:08 p.m. ET. The University of Southern California has added extra layers of security around campus ...

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