Rodef Shalom Congregation's Kaplan Institute on Jewish Ethics will host Dr. Paul Roote Wolpe, a faculty member of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania and noted Jewish bioethicist. A Shabbat dinner will be held on Friday, December 2 at which Dr. Wolpe will discuss “Jewish Bioethics and the Bioethics of Jews.” On the following day, he will deliver a sermon entitled “If I am only my genes, what am I? Jews and the Genetic Self.” A luncheon will follow the service at which Dr. Wolpe will discuss “Cloning, Stem Cells, and the Meaning of Life.” The Shabbat Service is free and open to the public. There is a charge for the dinner and luncheon. Please contact JoAnn Ruffing at (412) 621-6566 for reservation details.

Paul Root Wolpe, Ph.D. is a faculty member of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, where he directs the Program in Psychiatry and Ethics.  He also holds appointments in the Department of Medical Ethics and the Department of Sociology, and is a Senior Fellow of Penn’s Center for Bioethics the Leonard Davis Institute for Health Economics.  Dr. Wolpe serves as the first Chief of Bioethics for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), where he is responsible for formulating policy on space ethics and safeguarding research subjects. Dr. Wolpe is also the first National Bioethics Advisor to the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, advising them on the reproductive implications of emerging reproductive technologies and changing social dynamics.

The Kaplan Institute on Jewish Ethics was established by Joan Kaplan in memory of her husband, Irving M. J. Kaplan with the support of The Frank R. S. Kaplan Endowment Fund of Rodef Shalom Congregation.  The Institute’s aim is to bring together the congregation and community with a Jewish academic who specializes in an area of ethics. Inaugurated in April 2001 by Dr. Eugene Borowitz, the institute has also featured Rabbi Jack Stern.

Dr. Wolpe is the author of over 60 articles and book chapters in sociology, medicine, and bioethics, and has contributed to a variety of encyclopedias on bioethical issues.  His research examines the role of ideology, religion, and culture in medical thought, especially in relation to emerging biotechnologies, including nanotechnology, reproductive and genetic technology, and neurotechnology, and end-of-life issues. He is the author of the textbook Sexuality and Gender in Society and the end-of-life guide Behoref Yamim: In the Winter of Life, and is currently writing a book on emerging technologies.

Dr. Wolpe comes from a rabbinic family (his father and two brothers are rabbis), and is very active in issues of Jewish Bioethics.  He sits on the Boards of the Academic Coalition for Jewish Bioethics, the Society for Jewish Ethics, The Finkelstein Institute of the Jewish Theological Seminary, and the Center for Jewish Ethics of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, and on working groups such as the “The Collaborative International Jewish Discourse on Genetics.”  The conference he founded, “Jewish Bioethics at the Crossroads,” has become the only interdenominational annual national conference on the topic.  He has delivered lectures such as the annual Isaac Franck Distinguished Memorial Lecture in Jewish Bioethics at The Kennedy Institute of Ethics at Georgetown, and has served as scholar in residence on Jewish bioethical issues for synagogues, hospitals, and universities.