>> williams: coming up, in jerusalem's old city, a charity with a colorful past helps palestinian children deal with trauma. plus, an obstetrician, a man of faith, who does things that few others would do for their patients. >> when you understand that there is another power in the world, and it is not just about you, then god gives you the ability sometimes to do things beyond what you particularly can do. >> williams: and, you can do more at a bar mitzvah with a lot less. captioning sponsored by the lilly endowment

>> williams: welcome. i'm mary alice williams, sitting in for bob abernethy. it's good to have you with us. president barack obama continued his push for health care reform, even as contentious town hall meetings were held across the country. obama will join people of faith for a nationwide call-in and audio webcast about health care next week. the event is part of a new interfaith campaign called "40 days for health reform." the initiative includes a national television commercial, and it encourages religious leaders to preach about the issue. a first-of-its-kind study of roman catholic priests and nuns

in american orders indicates an aging, predominantly white generation is being replaced by younger, more diverse and more conservative recruits. who are they? the georgetown university study, which did not include diocesan priests, found of those preparing to take vows 58 percent are white. 21% are hispanic, 14% are from asia and the pacific. and 6% are of african decent. of those, nearly half are millenials-- under 30 and anxious to don the traditional habits and clerical garb most religious discarded before this new generation was even born. muslims around the world are preparing for the holy month of ramadan, which will begin next week with the sighting of the new moon. it's a time of fasting and prayer from sunrise to sunset to celebrate the revelation of the koran to the prophet mohammed. in the u.s., the council on

american-islamic relations is encouraging muslims to invite people of all faiths to join the ramadan iftars, the meals that break the fast each evening. islamic charities are planning special fundraising campaigns throughout the holy month, which emphasizes giving. iranian muslims who've planned a pilgrimage to mecca during ramadan may have to change their plans. iran's health minister has banned pilgrimages to saudi arabia worried that crowds could increase the risk of spreading swine flu. the virus has killed more than 800 people worldwide since april. in india, hindu priests held a fire ritual to seek divine intervention to stop the spread of the h1n1 virus. and in israel, a group of rabbis and jewish mystics sought to do the same thing in an airplane service where they chanted prayers and blew rams' horns or shofars while flying over the country.

here in washington this week, president obama hosted a special medal of freedom ceremony at the white house. the president gave america's top civilian honor to sixteen people he called "agents of change." among the honorees were two prominent religious leaders. retired anglican archbishop desmond tutu was recognized for his fight against apartheid in south africa, and his efforts for reconciliation after apartheid ended. reverend joseph lowery was honored for his longtime civil rights work. obama called him "a giant of the moses generation of civil rights leaders." we have a special report today about the spafford children's center, a charity in jerusalem's old city. it's mission: caring for the physical and psychological well- being of palestinian children. the center has a fascinating history, with ties to a beloved christian hymn and a world famous hotel. kim lawton learned more on her recent trip to the holy land.

>> reporter: in jerusalem's old city, the spafford children's center is a welcome oasis from the turbulence that is all too present here. both israelis and palestinians claim jerusalem as their capital, and the ongoing conflict can take a heavy toll on the city's children. located in the arab section of jerusalem, the spafford children's center tries to help muslim and christian palestinian kids deal with the trauma. >> i always say there is hardly anyone in the palestinian society that is not traumatized. >> reporter: the center is run by dr. jantien dajani, a dutch pediatrician who came here 35 years ago. back then, the center provided medical services for east jerusalem's children, as it had since the 1920s. but center leaders realized they were dealing with problems that went beyond the physical. david duplantier, dean of christ church episcopal cathedral in new orleans, is on the spafford children's center board.

>> so it was a chance to really strengthen the health of the children, not just in the medical sense, but in the psychological and social sense. >> reporter: about 400 children up to age 18 come through the center every week for after- school activities and friday sessions. the center also sponsors summer camps and special cultural programs. the children learn skills to help them in future jobs-- things like computer and english. everything has an educational component, even the most uproarious game. there's play therapy, art therapy and drama therapy, all designed to help the children deal with trauma and stress they may not even realize they have. a psychologist comes in several times a week for one-on-one sessions, and there is also group counseling. >> and what we try to do is to create in the center several safe areas, safe rooms where they can say anything and it will not come back to them.

>> reporter: dajani's philosophy is to keep the kids busy with positive activities so they won't get pulled into drug abuse or violence, common problems among palestinian youths. she tries to teach them to make the best of their circumstances, no matter how difficult those circumstances are. >> i always say, i cannot change for you the situation we are living in. that's impossible. that needs political solutions from high up. but at least what i can try is to change a bit your perception of the situation. >> reporter: the center itself has a colorful past, tracing its roots to horatio and anna spafford, an evangelical couple from chicago. after suffering heavy losses in that city's great fire of 1871, horatio sent anna and their four daughters to europe. while en route, their steamship, the ville du havre, sank after colliding with another ship. >> before the titanic, i think it was the most significant

cruise ship disaster, and the daughters all perished. >> reporter: anna sent horatio a telegram which said, "saved alone. what shall i do." >> he's heartbroken to find out his daughters have perished and so he takes a boat over to meet anna. and when the captain shows him roughly the place where the shipwreck had taken place, he was inspired to write a poem that later became the hymn "it is well with my soul." >> ♪ when sorrows like sea billows roll... ♪ >> reporter: "it is well" remains one of the most popular christian hymns, sung in churches around the world and recorded by multiple gospel artists. >> ♪ it is well with my soul.

>> reporter: after their tragedies, the spaffords decided to move to the holy land. they believed the end of the world was near, and that jesus would soon come back to earth on jerusalem's mount of olives. the spaffords and a small group of fellow believers called the "overcomers" wanted to be close by when that happened. as they waited, they established a commune in east jerusalem that became known as "the american colony." >> they weren't there to try to convert people. that was one of the unique things about them. they didn't proselytize. they said their prayers, they welcomed people, they offered food when they had it. but they were not there to try to convert other people, which was very different than especially evangelical christianity in that period. >> reporter: the american colony eventually moved to the former palace of an arab pasha. jews, christians and muslims were all welcome there. >> from the absolute beginning, they were generous, they would... they were known to share their food. they really were thought to be a place of hospitality.

and you know, christianity at its core, it really is a faith of hospitality. >> reporter: but there was also controversy. after horatio died in 1888, anna took over leadership of the colony. her style was authoritarian, and she imposed a rigid set of rules. >> she kind of dictated how life would be. certainly, they were a unique and different than mainline christianity of today in how they lived. they were very disciplined. there was a period of time where men and women, even if they were married, apparently lived separately. >> reporter: duplantier says after anna died in 1923, the religious zeal of the colony changed. >> in any kind of community like that, it's always going to be a challenge to sustain that over a period of time. so i think partly that's why the religious fervor fell away in the next generation, because you know it was very much based around the personal faith of anna and horatio. >> reporter: but the charitable work of the colony continued. anna's daughter bertha focused on caring for children.

>> that began kind of the ministry that evolved from taking in orphans to helping with healthcare, and you know over a period of time turned into a hospital and then evolved over time into the spafford center as it is now. >> reporter: the spaffords' compound has become the famous american colony hotel, which has been named one of the leading small hotels of the world. the hotel provides key support to the children's center. the spafford children's center is just inside the walls of jerusalem's old city near the damascus gate. it's in the house where horatio and anna spafford settled after they arrived here from chicago in 1881. the house eventually became the headquarters for the spafford family's charitable works. today, the center is not explicitly religious, although it has many faith-based connections. dr. dajani says, like their predecessors, they serve people of all faiths. and they try to teach the children religious tolerance. >> we want them to be tolerant for each other and for different opinions.

we take them to the mosque, we take them to the holy sepulcher, and to other holy places. they are always amazed at each other's beauty. >> reporter: for duplantier, the lasting legacy of the colony is the joy he sees in the children who come to the center, a testament of hope, he says, that turmoil and tragedy need not prevail. >> to see the joy that is just prevalent in the folks really has renewed and continues to renew my knowledge that god finds a way, no matter what circumstances we find ourselves in, god finds a way to redeem them if we look. >> reporter: and that, he says, makes things well with his soul. i'm kim lawton in jerusalem. iñ >> williams: what does faith have to do with childbirth? for one atlanta doctor, the answer is plenty.

dr. joseph tate delivers babies the old-fashioned way-- using methods many obstetricians call risky. but his patients say he takes the risks guided by a higher power. here's the pay off. babies always surprise you. and most expectant mothers hoping for this joy and chaos fully expect to deliver a healthy baby naturally. >> thank you dr. tate. >> williams: the birth of sarah miller's two daughters surprised her and her husband bill. she was unable to dilate enough to allow for natural birth. they were delivered by cesarean section. >> it makes it very hard to breast feed. it makes it hard to do anything and bond with the baby. and i just want a vaginal birth. >> this baby is so good. >> williams: vaginal birth after c-section-- or vbac-- carries a rare but real risk of uterine rupture-- life-threatening to both mother and child.

most obstetricians won't risk it. >> she's going to do it this time. >> williams: dr. joseph tate risks vbacs all the time, even when the odds are against him. >> i didn't say to sarah... i could say to her, "look, you had two shots at it, and you didn't perform. tough. i'm going to do a cesarean." i got to look at it positively. i will give her a fair shot at it, as long as she and the baby are doing well. that's always the bottom line. >> williams: dr. tate, known as doc "t," is the sole practitioner of dekalb-gwinnett ob/gyn in atlanta. it's a family business. his wife phyllis and daughter elizabeth work in the office. he hasn't had a vacation in 13 years because he works a super- human schedule. >> we have... oh, another one, two, three, four that are within a week. another four that are two weeks within, another five that are at three weeks. >> williams: orthodox jewish women make up about 20% of dr. tate's practice.

the rest are women of all faiths. how many babies has he delivered? >> somewhere over 5,000. >> williams: sarah and bill are hoping to make it 5,001. >> well, i'm connected with a lot of mother groups online. and basically, dr. tate's name comes up over and over again, because there is nobody else. >> williams: that online mother's forum is the international cesarean awareness network: ican. >> doc "t" is the only actual o.b. who participates. this is a one-in-a-million doctor. this is not just any doctor. >> williams: kate sandhaus, just three weeks before delivering her second child, arrived on doctor tate's doorstep desperate for a vbac after her first was born by a frightening emergency c-section. doc "t" agreed to help her. >> he's available to all of us in a way that i just... i don't know any other doctors like that. i think that doc "t" is committed to doing what's right. he's not swayed by what's convenient. and the reason he practices

medicine the way he does is because of his faith. >> williams: doc "t" is an orthodox jew-- a faith that requires of men many obligations, including praying three times a day. what does prayer do for you? >> it's a communication with god. judaism is establishing your own relationship with god. it's a personal relationship. we don't believe that god just kind of sets things out here and then you willy-nilly go your own way. we believe he does take a personal interest. >> williams: dr. tate is a pillar of the men's study group at beth jacob synagogue in atlanta. his rabbi, ilan feldman, calls him his go-to guy and a stickler when establishing the religious calendar. >> he's got a clock which is connected to pueblo, colorado, an atomic clock because he's that precise. and no matter what the synagogue clock says, when his clock says it's time to begin, we begin. >> williams: on the sabbath and high holidays orthodox jews may not carry things outside the home.

so doc "t," a crack engineer long before he was called to obstetrics, constructed an eruv- - a religious boundary that binds the entire community into one household. >> so that for the purposes of jewish law, an individual would be able to carry or transport items outdoors on the sabbath on shabbat. >> williams: as for dr. tate using his cell phone and delivering babies on the sabbath, jewish law makes exceptions. >> jewish law does have adjustments, so to speak, for people who are serving matters of life and death. and certainly, a medical doctor like dr. tate would be governed by that exception. >> williams: do you suspect that his judaism makes him a better doctor? >> there's no question about it. in my opinion, the defining quality of a doctor beyond his training and his intelligence is his humility. and dr. tate is devoted and humbly in the service of his patients and of their creator.

>> people all around america, especially in the orthodox jewish community really know about him-- just a great asset to us. >> williams: michelle frank belongs to dr. tate's synagogue. three years ago in new york-- with 26 people descending for passover seder-- she went into premature labor. rachel was born by cesarean. >> physically, it was really atrocious. i actually couldn't even sit up for about 36 hours after she was born. it was just excruciatingly painful. >> williams: she'd been assured delivering naturally the next time would be no problem. she was in for a shock as are many women in her circumstances. >> they're absolutely not getting to do it. you have major hospitals in atlanta who deliver, say, 16,000 babies a year. and they have c-section rates close to 40%. >> williams: nationally, more than nine out of 10 births following a c-section are surgical deliveries. emory university hospital midtown, where dr. tate delivers, supports vbacs. but studies show more than a quarter of hospitals don't or if

they do can't find doctors to perform them. dr. "t" delivered michelle's new baby danielle by vbac. >> you're on cloud nine. it's so unbelievably amazing. it's just the way that a woman was made to deliver a baby. >> williams: do you think that his orthodox jewish faith makes him a better doctor? >> i think it makes him a better doctor, because i think it helps to instill a lot of confidence in him. he does things that no other obstetrician will do-- whether they can or can't, they just won't. and he'll tell you that he really feels like god just sort of guides his hands in his deliveries. and some of the things that he does, and some of the stories that have been told, there's just no way to do that on your own. i mean, you have to have help. and he attributes that help to god. >> when you understand that there is another power in the world and it is not just about you. then god gives you the ability sometimes to do things beyond what you particularly can do. >> williams: natural births mean

less blood loss and risk of infection for the mother and fewer respiratory problems for the newborn. but on this sabbath day, there's a problem with sarah. her tailbone is blocking her baby's birth. >> what i don't tell people always is when i'm in tough situation, i'll close my eyes and i'll say a silent prayer. and, i want him to let me know if this is something that can be done, let me do it, let me do it well. but if it's something that can't be done, well, let me know. and if i need to do a cesarean to, that's the right thing, then we'll do that. i need help. and i'm not ashamed to ask for it. >> williams: the result? a healthy seven-pound, two-ounce girl delivered naturally. this baby surprised everyone. >> thank you so much. >> williams: and before you know it, this tiny newborn will join this crowd-- every one of whom was delivered by dr. tate.

in genesis, god gave man dominion over the earth and commanded he take care of it. that was before the advent of the internal combustion engine, non-biodegradable party favors and non-recycled paper products. so as a bar mitzvah, jacob gelber and his mother, anna hackman, committed to greater stewardship of the environment. he had the big party. but with a very small carbon footprint. rabbi lawrence troster explains why. >> to be bar mitzvahed is to come of age in the jewish tradition. for women, it's bat mitzvah. many years ago, the rabbis had to create, what you might say, a legal definition of what it means to be an adult. and they picked 12 for a girl, and 13 for a boy. and in the last few hundred years, this has become really a rite of passage in our communities, a way to publicly proclaim that this person is now an adult member of our community. and we do that symbolically by

calling them to the torah to have them read a torah portion. it means that we are now fully responsible for our actions, that we are part of the covenanted community, that we are expected to live up to the jewish tradition. in other words, a child is not culpable for things they don't do or do wrong, but an adult is. i think it is a good fit that we use the bar mitzvah or the bat mitzvah as a way to inculcate environmental values. >> global warming is caused by humans abusing the earth. >> protecting the earth is a mitzvah. and i mean that in the sense of a commandment. in other words, that we are commanded, we are required, to take care of creation. it's not a choice. >> this is my third bar mitzvah. i have four sons, and i took a look at this bar mitzvah for more of a carbon footprint. like what was i doing that was impacting the earth, that i could make a difference?

one of the most important parts is the tallis. it's something that he wears during the service, it's something he's going to have his whole lifetime. it's made out of organic cotton, it was hand-woven, and it symbolizes things about him. and his yarmulke was made by guatemalan women that actually are paid fair-trade wages. and these wages help support their families. the other yarmulkes, i had them made out of hemp. and they're all lined with organic cotton. at the service, there's a program. it's all made out of 100% recycled paper. the invitation's a website, with places for people to r.s.v.p., it's got pictures of jacob, it's got polls and quizzes. and the best thing is there's no paper being used; there's nobody mailing things back and forth to me. on the invitation, i put a note on the bottom to please try and carpool to cut down on the consumption of natural resources. the theme is a movie theme. so what i did is i went and bought used dvds as placemarkers for everybody to pick up when

they come and look for their tables. so it's something that they could take home and watch. they're not going to throw it in the trash, like a little paper placecard. we chose to put on the tables soy candles that are a renewable source and they burn much cleaner. there's not toxic chemicals coming from, like, wax candles. the centerpieces are actual plants that are going to be planted in my garden. i made sure that they were ones that would live, so nothing's wasted. we're serving three different meals. everything was sourced either locally or was, and/or, organic. the leftover food is composted or the balance of the food is donated to a food pantry. the dress that you can see that i'm wearing, it's a consignment dress. people wear dresses once for bar mitzvahs and, to me, it's senseless. my goal to make this bar mitzvah greener is to let the world know that they can do it. being able to take my religion and say "yeah, i'm part of that." it's just another connection for me that makes me feel more

vibrant as a jew. >> williams: that's our program for now. i'm mary alice williams. there's much more on our web site. audio and video podcasts are also available. join us at pbs.org. as we leave you, gospel artist wintley phipps singing "it is well with my soul" from his dvd, "favorite hymns of billy graham." ♪ ♪ z. captioning sponsored by the lilly endowment w ? captioned by media access group at wgbh captioned by media access group at wgbh access.wgbh.org