While I was researching my Forward story about circumcision and pain, I realized that I didn’t know what a circumcision actually looks like. I’ve only attended one bris — apart from my own — and there I didn’t have a good line of sight to the baby.
Jews and Muslims in Berlin demonstrated for the right to carry out ritual circumcisions, a right that has been endangered in Germany.
As the debate rages over circumcision, some opponents are bringing up the infant’s pain as a reason to ban the practice. Are there better ways to carry out the rite?