“A Grieving Ritual Following Termination of Pregnancy”: Ritual at the Intersection of Jewish Healing, Women’s Leadership, and Abortion Politics in Conservative Judaism
Rachel Florman, Harvard Divinity School

How did the 1998 manual for Conservative rabbis come to include a ritual for abortion? Who wrote it, and what was its significance? This paper aims to shed light on a critical (and understudied) piece of liturgy by tracing the historical context, creation, and reception of “A Grieving Ritual Following Termination of Pregnancy” as it was published in Moreh Derekh: The Rabbis Manual of The Rabbinical Assembly (1998). The ritual was written by Rabbi Amy Eilberg, the first woman to be ordained in the Conservative movement and a pioneer in the Jewish healing movement. Eilberg’s “Grieving Ritual” represented a watershed moment for women’s inclusion in Jewish ritual. Its inclusion in Moreh Derekh also signified a growing desire among American Jews for spiritual engagement throughout all parts of life, as well as broad acceptance of abortion within Conservative Judaism. In grappling with the tensions between grief, autonomy, and the Jewish commandment to "choose life," the ritual directly contradicts the normative political dichotomy of pro-life vs. pro-choice and complicates the widely-held assumption that religion and abortion are inherently at odds. Ultimately, this paper seeks to address a gap in the archive, to begin telling the story of Jewish women’s complicated relationship to organized religion, ritual, and the intimate yet politicized topic of abortion.