Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Forward 50 2014

Shmuel Lefkowitz

Shmuel Lefkowitz, 68, leads the Orthodox fight to allow Jewish people to die according to their religious beliefs. But as the Forward showed this year, Lefkowitz’s organization, Chayim Aruchim, also believes in challenging a patient’s or relative’s wishes if those wishes contravene Jewish law. In one case, a lawyer to whom Chayim Aruchim refers cases fought a health care proxy’s right to discontinue life support for his godmother who converted to Catholicism from Judaism 60 years earlier. In another case, the same lawyer challenged a Jewish brother’s right to decide his developmentally disabled sister’s end-of-life care.

Because Jewish law emphasizes the sanctity of life, ultra-Orthodox families often favor aggressive treatment and are wary of palliative care. In some cases, Chayim Aruchim helps families challenge doctors who advocate discontinuing aggressive treatment. But in others, Chayim Aruchim also helps reassure families that a palliative course of treatment is in accordance with Jewish law.

Chayim Aruchim’s reach is broad. And it’s growing. In recent years, the group pressured New York State legislators to amend a bill that forced doctors to discuss palliative options for dying patients. Doctors must now discuss aggressive treatment options, too. Under Lefkowitz’s leadership, Chayim Aruchim also persuaded a New York hospital group to alter its end-of-life protocols for brain-dead patients. Previously, brain-dead patients were kept on life support for 72 hours. Today, life support is removed only after the patient’s heart stops beating. At its most recent board meeting, Chayim Aruchim celebrated its successes and discussed expanding to Israel, Canada and the United Kingdom.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.