Councilmen Vow To Join Suit on Circumcision Rite
Two New York City councilmen have announced that they would be active participants in any lawsuit against the city of New York, after the board of health yesterday approved a measure that required parents to sign a consent form before allowing a mohel to perform a controversial circumcision ritual.
Councilmen David Greenfield and Lewis Fidler said the decision regarding metztizah b’peh, in which a mohel orally sucks blood from an infant, infringes on religious freedoms. The Central Rabbinical Congress also called the decision “unconstitutional.”
“I really think this is a real invasion into people’s religious freedom,” Fidler said Friday morning. “It lacks a sufficient basis and justification. The evidence here supporting this decision is just not strong enough.”
Fidler also said that the regulations would be “next to impossible to enforce,” and that the ultra-Orthodox community’s efforts to work together with the mayor’s office “fell on deaf ears.”
Earlier in the week, Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox umbrella group, said it would also sue the city if the regulation passed. Fidler noted that he has already spoken to Chaskel Bennett, a member of the Aguda’s board of trustees, as well as two unnamed organizations, one that “professes to represent mohels,” and another that represents the Satmar community in Williamsburg.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30
