# Schlesinger Institute

The Schlesinger Institute for Medical-Halachic Research, established in Israel in 1966 with support from the Shaare Zedek Medical Center, is named in honor of the hospital's second Director General. The institute addresses ethical and legal questions in medicine from a halachic (Jewish law) perspective. Its objectives include researching medical-Halacha intersections, analyzing emerging dilemmas in healthcare, and providing guidance based on Jewish legal principles.

## Principal activities

The Schlesinger Institute offers religious and academic programs in Jewish medical ethics, often featuring prominent figures in the field, to diverse audiences and student groups. These programs include a thirty-hour semester course at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, summer and winter seminars for medical and nursing students from other countries, lectures and tours of the Shaare Zedek for yeshiva and seminary students, as well as one-day seminars on selected topics for Israeli high school pupils.

## Publications

The Schlesinger Institute offers a number of books and journals on Jewish medical ethics.

### Journals

The Schlesinger Institute publishes two journals, ASSIA in Hebrew (which ceased publication in 2016) and JME in English. Both journals cover medical and ethical problems, solutions, and the ethical thought processes of rabbis and doctors who have addressed these problems.
Articles published in the journals deal with a variety of topics, including the scientific, legal, ethical and halachic aspects of cloning, the determination of time of death, heart transplantation, truth-telling to dangerously ill patients, halachic and medical aspects of AIDS virus, psychiatry and halacha, the selling of organs, the cessation of medical treatment and euthanasia, initial counselling for a juvenile with homosexual urges, smoking and life expectancy, coercive medical treatment, surrogacy, medical dilemmas that hospital nurses face and halachic principles that are connected to the obligation to save human life.

### Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics

By Avraham Steinberg, M.D.
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Medical Ethics covers topics in medical practice from the perspective of halacha and Jewish thought, drawing on sources from scripture through ancient, medieval, and modern rabbinic literature. It also includes systematic surveys of related medical, scientific, philosophical, ethical, and legal material, with references.
Articles in the encyclopedia cover a range of topics for both medical professionals and patients. It combines halachic principles and medical knowledge with references and includes medical, scientific, philosophical, ethical, and legal material from scripture and the Talmud through recent sources.
The articles include: Paternity, Suicide, Autonomy and Free Will, Hospitals, Genetics, Religion and Science, Consent, Abortions, IVF, Organ Transplantation, Conflict of Halacha and Science, Old Age, The Patient, Embalming, Malpractice, Pain, Kashrut and Shabbat, Birth, Medical Education, Human Sexuality, Limited Resources, Medical Experimentation on Humans, Surgery, Confidentiality, Fertility, Lifesaving, Causing Pain to Animals, Triage, Defining Death, Physicians, and General and Jewish Ethics.

### Nishmat Abraham

By A.S. Abraham, M.D., F.R.C.P
Published as a four-volume set, Nishmat Avraham on Medical Halacha consists of new responsa and medical halachic rulings. The Nishmat Abraham is a commentary on the four sections of the Shulchan Aruch with detailed references from the Talmud through Rishonim and Acharonim. It covers rulings from halachic literature, including up-to-date material from contemporary authorities such as Rav M. Feinstein, Rav Sh.Z. Auerbach, Rav Waldenberg, Rav Eliashiv, Rav Ovadia Yosef, Rav Wosner and Rav Neuwirth.
Topics covered include the doctor and patient on weekdays and Shabbat, Yom Kippur and Pesach, in the hospital or at home, hospice, end of life and brain death, pregnancy and assisted reproduction, contraception and abortion, brit milah and the medical problems of niddah, medical malpractice and claims, genetic engineering and cloning, DNA and stem cells, AIDS and herpes, the threatened doctor and the psychiatric patient, Hatzalah and preventive medicine and their attendant problems in halacha.
The views of leading authorities are summarized on each point, covering issues in medical halacha, and it contains indices.

### Additional books

The institute has published other books, including:
* Halachot for the Physician and Patient on the Sabbath and Festivals (English and Hebrew)
* Collections of essays and proceedings from the International Colloquiums on Medicine, Ethics, and Jewish Law (English and Hebrew)
* The Comprehensive Guide to Medical Halacha (English)
* New Horizons in Jewish Medical Ethics (English)
* Establishing the moment of death (Hebrew)
* Practical Aspects of Medicine and Halacha (Hebrew)

## International Responsa Project (IRP)

Questions regarding medical procedures, ranging from general theoretical inquiries to technical ones, are answered by rabbi-doctors at the institute, or, in certain cases, by a recognized rabbinical authority.

## The Chaim Kahn Library and Information Center

The Library and Information Center is a resource center for Jewish medical ethics in Israel. It houses texts of Jewish literature, as well as compendiums of halacha, medical and Jewish journals, and legal texts.
Computer facilities, a database of Jewish sources, and a bibliography of the library are available to the public. The information center is named after Chaim Kahn, the first chairman of the institute.

## International conferences

The international conferences organized by the Schlesinger Institute foster contributions to the halachic approach to medical or ethical questions. These conferences bring together rabbis, doctors, and others from around the world for lectures by experts on contemporary medical halachic issues. Conference proceedings and background materials have been published in both English and Hebrew.