Ask us anything. Families always do.

This is the central question, and it deserves an honest answer: contemporary poskim discuss whether motherhood in halacha follows the genetic mother, the birth mother, or both. Because responsible practice must satisfy every view, Naviva plans each journey so the child’s status is unambiguous — through the choice of donor and surrogate, supervision of the lab work, and, where a community’s standard calls for it, geirus l’chumra (a conversion performed to remove any doubt).

The result is a child whose Jewish status is documented and defensible in any community — not a question mark your family carries for a generation.

Many leading halachic authorities permit gestational surrogacy for couples facing infertility, with conditions — and it is practiced today in observant communities worldwide, including in Israel under rabbinic supervision. Others are more restrictive. Naviva’s rabbinic program builds a pathway consistent with the rulings your community relies on, and we always encourage families to involve their own rav; our poskim are happy to speak with him directly.

No — and in practice most gestational surrogates are not Jewish. Depending on the halachic pathway chosen for your family, the surrogate’s background is weighed by our rabbinic team as part of status planning. Every consideration is decided before matching, so nothing about your match is halachically improvised.

Trained supervisors (mashgichot) maintain a witnessed chain of custody over eggs, sperm, and embryos: at retrieval, during fertilization and freezing, and at transfer. Tanks and straws are sealed and labeled under supervision, and every hand-off is logged. It is the same discipline that stands behind kashrus certification — applied, with fitting gravity, to the beginning of a life. You receive the supervision record as part of your child’s file.

Plan on 15 to 24 months from first consultation to birth: a few months for screening, halachic planning, and matching; two to three months for agreements and medical preparation; then the pregnancy itself. Embryos already created and vetted can shorten the front of that timeline considerably.

In the United States, a complete gestational surrogacy journey — agency coordination, surrogate compensation and expenses, medical care, legal work, insurance, and escrow — commonly runs well into six figures. The honest version of the answer is a line-item budget for your situation, which we build with you before you commit to anything.

We also connect families to Jewish fertility grant programs and interest-free gemach loans, and structure payment schedules around escrow milestones so money is never handed over blindly.

It depends on the state. Some states are strongly surrogacy-friendly with clean pre-birth parentage orders; a few remain restrictive. Our attorneys — subject-matter specialists in ART law — place each match in a favorable jurisdiction and set the parentage strategy before any embryo transfer, so your names are on the birth certificate from day one wherever the law allows it.

Yes. Single intended parents by choice, parents in their forties and fifties, and international families — including Israelis pursuing surrogacy in the U.S. — are all families we serve. Each situation has its own halachic and legal contours, which is exactly why the journey starts with a private consultation rather than a form letter.

When egg donation is part of the plan, the donor’s selection is guided by halachic criteria set by our poskim — because the donor’s identity can bear directly on the child’s status and future questions (including for a kohen’s family). Supervision covers the donation cycle itself, and the status plan — including geirus l’chumra where appropriate — is settled in writing before you proceed.

The legal work concludes (birth certificate, and passports or citizenship papers where needed), and the halachic record is completed and handed to you — supervision logs, status documentation, and letters for your community. Then comes the good part: the bris or simchat bat. We’ll help you plan it; the kvelling is all yours.