Oldest First-Time Jewish Mother
By Debra Nussbaum Cohen June 15, 2009
According to a story on the religious website Vos Iz Neias (What’s News?), a 60-year-old woman in Kfar Chabad, Israel, gave birth to her first child earlier this month.
Oy.
Now, this couple had been trying to conceive, and undergoing fertility treatments, for 40 years. That’s a long time to put your body and soul through such procedures. They apparently had this baby boy with the help of a donor egg.
Fertility treatments raise some interesting halachic issues, an introduction to which can be read here.
But I understand the deep desire to have a child (we have three of our own and, if we could have afforded more day school tuition and larger housing, might have had more). Added to the internal, one might say biological drive that most of us feel, this fervently Orthodox couple had the religious imperative to “be fruitful and multiply” driving their effort.
Haredi birth rates, while according to this Ha’aretz article last year are falling in Israel, are still several multiples of those of non-Orthodox Jews, in Israel and in the Diaspora. Families with 10 children are not at all uncommon in haredi communities like Kfar Chabad, Crown Heights and Borough Park.
Women also tend to start younger (as soon as they’re married, often at 19 or 20) and continue having babies longer than those of us who are not haredi. At frum weddings I’ve occasionally seen mothers-of-the-bride who are pregnant or holding their own infant themselves.
So mazal tov, 60-year-old first time mom in Kfar Chabad. Hey, you’re at an age when some start having trouble sleeping anyway, so the middle-of-the-night feedings hopefully aren’t bothering you too much.
And while you may be the oldest first-time Jewish mother we’ve heard about, someone’s got you beat. The oldest known birth mother in the world is an Indian who last year delivered twins at age 70.
What does “Oy” sound like in Hindi?
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
