Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Do New Hasidic Circumcision Illnesses Show New York’s Rules Are Toothless?

After New York reported six new cases of herpes contracted by Hasidic infants who underwent a controversial circumcision rite, the city admitted that no action has been taken against any of the mohels involved.

In fact, the rabbis have been identified in only two cases — and they were simply warned to avoid carrying out the potentially dangerous metzizah b’peh rite, the New York Post reported.

Mayor Bill De Blasio insisted the apparent lack of cooperation from the Hasidic community does not reflect a failure in his policy, which took a much softer approach than ex-Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

“We’ve made it very clear what we expect from the community,” he told the paper. “We’re evaluating the situation, when we get through with that evaluation we’ll have an update.”

Health officials say the rite, in which rabbis suck blood directly from the infant’s genitals, is dangerous.

Under Bloomberg, parents were required to sign parental consent forms. But De Blasio, who enjoyed support from Hasidic powerbrokers in his election campaign, rolled back the rules in favor of a plan that called for mohels to be voluntarily tested if infants contract diseases.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.