Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on October 2, 2021

MONSEY Rabbi Moshe (Moses) DovidTendler, a world leader in Jewish medical ethicsand professor at Yeshiva University, has died. The Monsey resident and founding rabbi of the Community Synagogue of Monsey was 95.

Tendler wasRosh Yeshiva or dean at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary at Yeshiva University and professor of biology and the Rabbi Isaac and Bella Tendler Professor of Jewish Medical Ethics at Yeshiva College. He held degrees from New York University and a doctorate in microbiology from Columbia University.

"As a renowned scientist, beloved communal leader, and preeminent rabbinic decisor, Rabbi Dr. Moshe Tendler embodied the Torah values of our community and successfully lived a life of deep learning, commitment to others and spiritual authenticity," Yeshiva University President Dr. Ari Berman said Thursday. "The Jewish community and the broader society were elevated by his leadership, and his absence is a loss for us all."

Yoel Oz now lives in Israel but grew up in the Bronx and studied for his rabbinic ordination with Tendler at Yeshiva University from 2002-2005. "He was one of a kind. A master of Torah and a scientist who did not see any contradiction between the two; a caring person for every single individual he encountered; having a sharp sense of humor and a certain twinkle in his eye," Oz said. "He was the person you went to with the hardest Jewish legal questions of life and death."

Tendler wrote extensively about medical ethics in Jewish law. His work had important and lifesaving daily applications.

A vocal supporterof organ donation, Tendler developed key criteria under Jewish law about death and transplantation.

Tendler had supported vaccinations."It has nothing to do with religion, it has to do with ignorance," he said in a 2015 interview with The Journal News/lohud as concern spread duringa measles outbreak.

Tendler also spoke outagainst the practice of Metzizah bi peh, an ancient ritual still used by some in the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Themouth-suctionprocedure during circumcision that had been linked to fatal cases of herpes in infants. The ritual, he said, was not a mandate of Jewish law, which "has recognized there has been an increase in knowledge of hygiene and medical advances over the centuries."

Rabbi Jesse Shore of Tenafly, New Jersey, studied with Tendler at Yeshiva University from 2014-17 while earning his rabbinic ordination and remained in touch with him over the years, calling him for advice and asking him questions. Tendlerwas warm, friendly and approachable, making him feel like he could ask questions that he couldnt ask anyone else, Shore said.

In a Facebook post on Thursday morning, Shore eulogized his mentor:

He taught me by example that our pursuits in science and our pursuits in Torah can both be animated by the same desire for an intellectual and spiritual life of savor and spice. When the New Atheism was enjoying its heyday, he once casually remarked that, 'Richard Dawkins is an atheist only because he has not studied enough science.'At first I thought he only said this for the shock value. But after several semesters observing him learn, teach, and publish, I realized that the remark was not at all intended to be provocative."

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Tendler also was apast president of the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and chair ofthe bioethical commission of the Rabbinical Council of America and the Medical Ethics Task Force of UJA-Federation of Greater New York.

Decades ago, as young Orthodox Jewish families joined his synagogue, Tendler and his father-in-law, the late Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, a world-renowned authority on Jewish law, worked together to establishRockland's main eruv, thought to be the largest in North America. An eruv isan unobtrusive perimeter attached to utility poles and fences that extends a boundary so Jews can performtasks prohibited outside the home on the Sabbath, such as carrying items or pushing strollers.

Rabbi Tendler was a Talmud instructor when Joseph Kaplan, a retired attorney from Teaneck,was a student at Yeshiva University high school for boys in Manhattan in the early 1960s,

He taught biology and Talmud and was also involved in cancer trials - he would often run into class with his lab coat on," Kaplan said."He wasnt just a teacher, he was getting his hands dirty with the subjects he was teaching.

Kaplan called Tendler the perfect role model for the universitys motto, Torah Umaddah, orTorah combined with secular studies

Most of the other teachers were older, European-born rabbis. He was this young American born scientist and yet he was a serious Talmudist," Kaplan said."Back in the 1960s, it was very unusual to have this combination of science and Torah in one person. He was absolutely brilliant.

A funeral for Rabbi Tendler was held Thursday at Community Synagogue of Monsey, with burial at the Monsey Cemetery.

Nancy Cutler writes about People & Policy. Click here for her latest stories. Follow her on Twitter at@nancyrockland.

Read more:

Jewish medical ethicist and Rabbi Moshe Tendler of Monsey - The Journal News

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