Jews and money and babies, oh my! Our mission of destigmatization continues with a look at IVF, and some Jewish perspectives on fertility--and infertility--with Sarah Shah, Director of Operations for the Jewish Fertility Foundation.

Appropriately enough, this episode is late because I just had my own egg retrieval as part of my IVF journey; which was aided in part by a JFF grant, as well as by the Hebrew Free Loan Association, which you'll hear more about in another episode. So, after I took a little time to recover, it seemed right to pay it forward by sharing about these resources, including a bit about both of our journeys (Sarah too!), and the amazing support--not just financial--from the JFF and the HFL, resources individuals and organizations in the Jewish community have worked to provide for one another. Infertility and IVF are hard, but it's even harder alone. Glad you're here.

GLOSSARY

Mi Shebeirach: a Jewish prayer for healing

Kinahora: a Yiddish expression meaning "not the evil eye" said to ward off bad luck

Niddah: Purity laws restricting when couples can have sex around a woman’s menstrual cycle.

IUI: Intrauterine insemination, an infertility treatment that places sperm directly into the uterus.

More on the attacks outside the Capital Jewish Museum and in Boulder, CO.

In 2024, Alabama’s Supreme Court ruled that embryos created through IVF were to be treated as children under the state’s Wrongful Death of a Minor Act.

The maternal mortality rate in the U.S. is more than double other high-income countries, and twice that again for Black women.

NCJW: National Council of Jewish Women

The "Jews have horns" myth originated from a mis-translation of the Hebrew Bible into Latin by St. Jerome.

Jews in academia: While studies have shown Jews to be over-represented among intellectual elites, including Nobel laureates, we have also long been the target of antisemitic tropes attributing success to conspiracies rather than individual achievement, and a history of antisemitic actions in education, including quotas and conversion requirements.

IVF in Israel

Pres. Trump's executive order on IVF

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