JERUSALEM (VINnews) — For 23 years, Bar Hershkowitz was sure that her family consisted only of herself, her mother and an unknown donor through whom her mother had conceived her. Hershkowitz, a career soldier, decided a year and a half ago to undergo a DNA test and see if she had any other relatives. “During the first weeks I would check the site twice a day and slowly I realized that nothing spectacular would happen,” Hershkowitz told Israel’s Channel N12.
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A week ago she received an e-mail stating that a close match had been found. Roni Cohen, a 26-year-old, had also been born from the same donor. Until a week ago she was certain that she was an only child but a week ago she received a tag from a Facebook group for children born from donors. “I discovered Bar, a new sister who resembled me,” Roni said.
“The click was immediate, the next day we already had a video call on Whatsapp,” Bar said. The two arranged to meet one another and at the meeting captured by N12, they discovered amazing similarities between them in looks and behavior.
אחותי, הנס שלי: בגיל 26 ואחרי חיפושים ותהיות גילתה רוני שהיא לא בת יחידה ויש לה אחות קטנה, בת 23. אחיות מאותה תרומת זרע | @deanf19 עם תיעוד המפגש המרגש והסיפור המלא הערב במהדורה המרכזית ב-20:00 pic.twitter.com/k2wyn2cEPQ
— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) June 28, 2020
Another reason to ban unknown donors. It could lead to incest, G-d forbid.
This is one of the reasons that conceiving via an anonymous donor is so problematic.
A half-brother might end up marrying his half-sister.
AFAIK, according to Halacha, they are not sisters, not even half-sisters from a common father.
Chaim
Scary….. why is VIN waisting time and money on reporting something that’s is purely against the Torah?
Usually VIN is just a copy paste from Anti Semitic AP news, but this is straight reporting. Shame Shame
WOW! amazing how they look so alike!
what if a donor is not even Jewish? Does that make them halachically not Jewish even if the women that bore them are Jewish?
How wonderful! Just by looking at them, you know they are sisters from a common parent.
The mothers were Jewish, and that is all that matters.