German Hospital Stops Circumcisions After Ruling
A German Jewish hospital has stopped allowing religious circumcisions in light of a court decision defining them as causing grievous bodily harm to young boys.
Last week’s ruling by a Cologne district court did not outlaw circumcision, but still the Jewish Hospital in Berlin decided to stop allowing religious circumcisions, according to Ynet. Doctors may still perform circumcisions for medical reasons.
“We performed circumcisions on a regular basis until this ruling and we no longer have the legal freedom to do it,” hospital spokesman Gerhard Nerlich told Ynet.
Germany’s foreign minister, meanwhile, sought to dispel “doubts arising internationally about religious tolerance in Germany.”
“The free exercise of religion is protected in Germany. That includes religious traditions,” Guido Westerwelle said in a statement, according to The Associated Press.
German Jewish and Muslim leaders have criticized the Cologne ruling, which said the “fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents.” Dieter Graumann, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, called it “outrageous and insensitive” in a statement.
It’s our birthday and we’re still celebrating!
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news.
This week we celebrate 129 years of the Forward. We’re proud of our origins as a Yiddish print publication serving Jewish immigrants. And we’re just as proud of what we’ve become today: A trusted source of Jewish news and opinion, available digitally to anyone in the world without paywalls or subscriptions.
We’ve helped five generations of American Jews make sense of the news and the world around them — and we aren’t slowing down any time soon.
As a nonprofit newsroom, reader donations make it possible for us to do this work. Support independent, agenda-free Jewish journalism and our board will match your gift in honor of our birthday!
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
