British rabbi jailed in Ireland on charges of performing circumcision without a medical license
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(JTA) — Ireland’s small Jewish community is in turmoil after a British rabbi who had been hired to circumcise local babies was arrested and charged with practicing medicine without a license.
The rabbi, Jonathan Abraham, was arrested on Tuesday and denied bail after a judge said that his 10 children and home base in London made him a flight risk. He faces up to five years’ imprisonment and a fine of up to £130,000 ($166,000).
Ireland’s chief rabbi, Yoni Wieder, confirmed to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Abraham remained jailed as Shabbat began in Dublin on Friday.
Earlier, Wieder issued a statement saying that he was actively working to support Abraham and to make sure that Irish Jews continue to have access to a ritual considered essential in Jewish observance.
“We and other relevant parties are doing everything we can for this man’s welfare and to ensure that traditional Jewish circumcisions can continue to be performed legally in Ireland,” Wieder said in the statement, also signed by JRCI Chair Maurice Cohen.
The arrest comes at a sensitive time for Jews in Ireland, which has been home to intense pro-Palestinian sentiment during the Israel-Hamas war. Some local Jews say the sentiment — which has included formal support for an independent Palestinian state for the first time — has opened the door to heightened antisemitism and otherwise has caused Jews to feel isolated within Irish society.
Wieder said he did not know why a police officer had shown up at the Dublin location where Abraham was arrested. According to court testimony reported in the Irish Times, the officer entered the private home to see Abraham holding a scalpel, with a naked infant on a changing pad. Another infant had previously been circumcised at the same location, the officer testified.
But he said Abraham was not circumcising anyone from the Irish Jewish community when he was arrested. That appears to be key to the case: Ireland permits mohels, or ritual circumcisers, to do circumcisions for Jews, but does not allow them to perform the same procedures on non-Jews.
With a Jewish population of about 6,000, there are no trained mohels based in Ireland, Wieder said. Instead, local Jews fly in certified and insured mohels from other locations to perform circumcisions, traditionally performed on infant boys’ eighth day.
Many of them are, like Abraham, part of the Initiation Society, a nearly 300-year-old group that certifies mohels in Britain. The society requires its members to carry insurance, its website says.
Wieder said he understood why non-Jews might hire someone from the Initiation Society to circumcise their sons. “I can surmise that the reason why members of other faiths might turn to a Jewish mohel to perform circumcisions is because they have a reputation of skill and competence,” he told JTA.
The president of the British Board of Deputies, Philip Rosenberg, tweeted late Friday that he had been in touch with Cohen, his counterpart in Ireland, to discuss the case.
Wieder and Cohen are urging care in discussing the case after other people with Abraham’s name found themselves subject to “false rumors.”
“It is only normal that people will talk about it, but we encourage you to be mindful when doing so,” they said in their statement. “It is very important that misinformation does not spread.”
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