'Gentile sperm leads to barbaric offspring'

[azurnoir]

Rabbi Dov Lior, a senior authority on Jewish law in the Religious Zionism movement, asserted recently that a Jewish woman should never get pregnant using sperm donated by a non-Jewish man – even if it is the last option available

According to Lior, a baby born through such an insemination will have the "negative genetic traits that characterize non-Jews." Instead, he advised sterile couples to adopt.

Lior addressed the issue during a women's health conference held recently at the Puah Institute, a fertility clinic. His conservative stance negated a ruling widely accepted by rabbis, which states that sperm donated by a non-Jew is preferable to that of an anonymous Jew, who might pose a genealogical risk.

"Sefer HaChinuch (a book of Jewish law) states that the character traits of the father pass on to the son," he said in the lecture. "If the father in not Jewish, what character traits could he have? Traits of cruelty, of barbarism! These are not traits that characterize the people of Israel."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4006385,00.html

[aquart]

1. Oy.

[azurnoir]

9. for one I actually agree with you n/t

[Ken Burch]

11. Hell, even I agree with you on this one.

That rabbi is...uh, is there a term of greater magnitude than "schmeckel"?

[ensho]

16. religiously insane? racist?

nt

[bemildred]

14. +1. nt

[stevenleser]

2. There are nutcases everywhere in every group and every movement. n/t

[HereSince1628]

4. Well that makes it all ok then,

You've provided a disparaging label and broad brushed all of humanity
with a handy little meme sized myth attributing this to mentally illness.

[stevenleser]

6. LOL, I think you forgot the sarcasm tag.

Either way, your response is the funniest thing I've read in a while.

If this comment is really how you feel after reading my comment, its clear you were looking for a reason to be angry and I am glad I could help.

[azurnoir]

5. this partiular Rabbi has been part of other stories that have run here lately

suh as don't rent to Arabs his wife was one of the don't date Arabs folks, the religious right wing is becoming more vocal and possibly influential in Israel, but then again this story seemed so out there that my first reaction was to laugh

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[hayu_lol]

7. The major part of being considered a Jew...

is having a Jewish mother. The father's contribution doesn't count for anything. Sounds like this guy is reading Dobson and Robertson and Falwell.

Maybe he just forgot to mention that...or think about it...or even take the time to consider that.

Fundies of whatever pursuasion are totally bonkers.

[azurnoir]

8. That fact can be entirely politial as in the case of

Gabrielle Giffords, she did convert to reform
Judaism but this guy would most likely say that did not count either

[sabbat hunter]

10. there was an episode of

Law and Order on yesterday that covered a very similar topic. A Persian Jew, refused to allow his daughter to adopt a Chinese baby, because it would pollute their community and blood.

Unfortunately there are nuts out there from all religions.

Hopefully someone will ease Rabbi Lior in to retirement.

[Ken Burch]

12. Actually, in that episode, the guy's REAL reason for barring his daughter from adopting

was that she'd be taking care of the baby INSTEAD of him. The old bastard couldn't accept his daughter having a life.

[azurnoir]

13. It seems to me that the 'big 3' Abrahamic branches have all been

radicalizing for the last few years, maybe its always been but lately they've gotten loud

[LeftishBrit]

15. Yikes

Fortunately, most religious Jews do *not* take this view: in fact, most consider that if your mother is Jewish, you are Jewish, regardless of the father's ethnicity. And talk of 'barbaric offspring' is of course an example of the sort of racist, bigoted attitude that unfortunately is to be found in extremists from most ethnic and religious groups.

I've come across Lior before. He is pretty vile.

[ensho]

17. his remarks are making news - saw the article at 2 different sites this

a.m. besides DU