Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Here’s what to read to understand why babies got herpes from circumcisions.

“Metzitzah b’peh” is a circumcision rite in which the circumciser, or mohel, cleans the wound where the infant’s foreskin was removed by sucking it with his mouth. The practice is conducted mainly in the Haredi Jewish community, and periodically causes infants to contract a form of herpes that is found in adult saliva.

In New York City, which has the country’s largest Jewish and largest ultra-Orthodox population, the ritual is controversial but still sometimes done. In the last six months, four babies got herpes as a result, although all are recovering after receiving antiviral drugs in the hospital, according to JTA.

This piece explains the origins of the rite, which goes back to biblical times.

One mother explains in this op-ed why she had it done to her son.

Public health officials in New York City have tried to grapple with it. Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, parents had to sign a consent form before the ritual. Under Mayor Bill de Blasio, that regulation was repealed, in favor of a new policy that would try to ban mohels who transmitted herpes to infants. Some ethicists concluded that New York City did not establish a sufficiently strong case to warrant regulating the practice.

Contact Helen Chernikoff is The Forward’s senior news editor. Contact her at [email protected] or follower her on Twitter @thesimplechild

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.