Discussion: Genes to Genesis

As we celebrate the high holidays we look both backwards and forwards, thinking about where we have been and where we will go.

How can this approach help us understand not just ourselves but our technologies? Bringing centuries of Jewish ethics on health, the body, and the self, this workshop will consider how biohacking and genomic editing change our understandings of genetics and inheritance and will introduce you to new ways in which this technology is being employed in science, health, and in the arts. In this public discussion, Genspace scientist and instructor Brendan Camellato, artist Lior Zalmanson, and Rabbi Geoffrey Mitelman will address the history of Jewish ethics around health policy, genetics, rapidly changing scientific technology, and the origins of life in this season of the Jewish New Year.

Twenty years ago, when CRISPR-Cas9 genomic editing was first invented, the prospect sounded like science fiction: how can you open…