Moshe David Tendler

Moshe David Tendler received his B.A. degree from New York University (NYU) in 1947, and a Master's degree in 1950. He was ordained at Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 1949, and earned a Ph.D. in microbiology from Columbia University in 1957.[3]

He is the rabbi of the Community Synagogue of Monsey, New York. He is a senior Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University's RIETS and the Rabbi Isaac and Bella Tendler Professor of Jewish Medical Ethics and Professor of Biology at Yeshiva College. He is noted as an expert on Jewish medical ethics and their relationship to Halakha.[4]

Tendler is the son-in-law of Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, a world-renowned posek.[4] Some of Feinstein's "Iggerot Mosheh" responsa are addressed to his son-in-law. His wife, Shifra, died in October 2007.[5]

Community Synagogue of Monsey

Tendler has written and lectured widely on medical ethics. He translated various medical oriented responsa of Feinstein into English, even though Feinstein expressly forbade such translations.[6][7] Tendler advocates the theory that complete and irreversible cessation of function of the entire brain renders a person "physiologically decapitated", and is considered legally dead according to Jewish law.[8] Tendler asserts that once organ donation has been deemed permissible under the given conditions, it is indeed mandatory, falling under the rubric of the legal obligation of Jews to preserve the lives of others.[9] In addition, Tendler has written extensively on euthanasia, infertility, end of life issues, organ donation, and brit milah (Jewish circumcision). Tendler has been a strong advocate for the use of a tube when performing metzitzah, suction of blood during circumcision.[10] Serving on an RCA panel on stem cell research, Tendler expressed respectful disagreement with the Bush administration's position.[11]

Tendler is the posek for the Association of Orthodox Jewish Scientists and its past president.

Tendler has criticized Mendel Epstein, a rabbi convicted of leading a kidnapping gang focused on coercing gittin (religious divorces), saying, "The idea that a beth din can issue an order for coercion is baloney, a hoax," and called Epstein "unreliable."[12]

Tendler also criticized Steven Greenberg, an Orthodox Rabbi who came out as a homosexual in 1999, saying that "It is very sad that an individual who attended our yeshiva sunk to the depths of what we consider a depraved society."[13]

• Tendler's YU biography