Schlesinger Institute

The Schlesinger Institute for Medical-Halachic Research was founded in 1966 under the auspices of Shaare Zedek Medical Center, imbuing its professional pursuits with the spirit of Torah. This was the philosophy of the hospital's second director-general, after whom the Institute is named, and it remains the Institute's guiding principle.

The Schlesinger Institute is dedicated to the halachic approach of medical ethics. Through the scholarship and expertise of leading rabbis, doctors and others, the Institute aims to research and resolve the halachic issues that emerge as medicine progresses, to consider their medical, halachic, legal and ethical ramifications, and to present practical responses.

The Schlesinger Institute offers a variety of religious and academic programs in Jewish medical ethics, enabling diverse audiences and student groups to learn from some of the most prominent Jewish medical ethicists of our time. Among these programs are a thirty-hour semester course at the Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School, summer and winter seminars for medical and nursing students from abroad, lectures and tours of Shaare Zedek for yeshiva and seminary students, and one-day seminars on selected topics for Israeli high school pupils.

A number of important books and journals on Jewish medical ethics are available through the Schlesinger Institute.

The Schlesinger Institute publish two prestigious journals, ASSIA in Hebrew and JME in English. Both journals geared to provide those interested and connected to this field, medical and ethical problems, solutions and ethical thought processes of those Rabbis and doctors that have dealt with these problems. Article published in the journals deal with a variety of topics, including: scientific, legal, ethical and halachic aspects of cloning, determining time of death, heart transplantations, truth-telling to the dangerously ill patient, halachic and medical aspects of the AIDS virus, psychiatry and halacha, the selling of organs, the cessation of medical treatment and euthanasia, initial counseling for a juvenile with homosexual urges, smoking and life expectancy, coercive medical treatment, the surrogate mother, medical dilemmas of hospital nurses and naturally, practical halachic principles connected to the obligation to save human life.

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