JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
(JTA) — The Danish parliament is scheduled to consider a bill proposing a ban on non-medical circumcisions. Henri Goldstein, the president of the Jewish Community in Denmark, says the measure represents “the worst threat since World War II” to the country’s Jews, who traditionally circumcise baby boys on their eighth day of life, a ritual…
My son and daughter had a joint bar and bat mitzvah a few months into the Covid-19 pandemic. The service took place in our temple and was broadcast on Zoom. On the bema, our rabbi stood apart from our immediate family and just a few congregation staffers were physically present. Everyone else, including grandparents, watched…
A Jewish couple in New Zealand decided to perform a ritual circumcision on their son themselves, after determining that the country’s travel restrictions would make getting a mohel to fly in for the procedure impossible. Noam and Elisheva Fogel waited five months to conduct the circumcision ceremony, called a brit milah or a bris, which…
(JTA) — The religious Jewish world has created some unusual jobs, from shofar makers to etrog pickers to mashgichim – kosher certifiers whose job is literally to watch others cook. But one of the more bizarre surely belongs to Dr. Yeshaya Shafit, who is Russia’s only mohel, or professional circumciser, for adult men. Shafit, a…
Becky Lustgarten is due to give birth to her first child, a boy, at the end of April. Pre-pandemic, she and her husband, Taylor, felt committed to following the Jewish mandate for circumcision on the baby’s eighth day of life, though she admitted being “a little not-so-thrilled” anticipating the painful procedure. Now the couple, who…
At least four infants have contracted herpes in New York City in the past six months after undergoing a circumcision rite in which the ritual circumciser, or mohel, cleans the circumcision wound by oral suction. Three cases of herpes have been reported since December and four since September from the rite called “metzitzah b’peh,” WPIX-11…
“Jews are like, my favorites,” says Zach Galifianakis, sweating, clutching a heart-shaped box of Russell Stover chocolates, as three Jewish grandmothers take him in. “I gotta tell ya, man, I love the Jews,” he rambles on moments later, the three women eying him like the fates toying with a piece of thread. “I have always…
Andrew Yang, a presidential candidate who has come out against circumcision and gotten the attention of the “alt-right,” will participate in the Democratic primary debate on Thursday. Yang will be up against nine other candidates in the second night of the first 2020 debate, including former Vice President Joe Biden, Senator Kamala Harris and Senator…
OFJCC Campus in Palo Alto, CA
Dec 11, 2022
5 pm ET ·
Do the recent Israeli elections have an impact on the relationship between Israel and Diaspora Jewry? Bear witness as rock stars of Israeli policy come together for a frank conversation about the Israeli elections as seen from the vantage points of statecraft, diplomacy, academia and politics.
