South Africa may turn to an Israeli circumcision device to reduce the number of young males who die in botched initiation ceremonies, provoking an outcry from union allies of the ruling party who support sanctions against the Jewish state. Every year, dozens of teenaged South African males die of blood loss or infection in traditional…
A controversial circumcision regulation hangs in the balance in New York City after a federal appeals court ruled that the regulation targets the freedom of religion of some Orthodox Jews and must therefore be reviewed under a standard known as “strict scrutiny.” Robert Simins, a lawyer for the Orthodox groups who opposed the regulation, hailed…
New York City has banned two mohels from performing a controversial circumcision rite after they were suspected of infecting babies with herpes. But the city’s health department will not reveal their names. Five infants have contracted herpes since September 2012, when the health department passed a regulation requiring mohels to get written consent from parents…
Two more infants in New York City have tested positive for herpes following a controversial circumcision rite. Both babies are believed to have contracted the disease following metzitzah b’peh, a ritual in which the circumciser places his lips on the infant’s penis to suction blood from the circumcision wound. New York City’s Department of Health…
A recent story in The New York Times looked at the rise of American girls who are being sent abroad to undergo female circumcision, which has been banned in the United States since 1996. As Julie Terkewitz reported, about 228,000 women and girls in the United States, members of an African immigrant population that has…
A Canadian review board cleared of “sexual motive” a doctor who practiced “metzitzah b’peh,” a controversial circumcision practice. The Ontario Health Professions Appeal and Review Board said in its conclusion published Tuesday that there was no evidence supporting the accusation of anti-circumcision activists that Aaron Jesin acted out of sexual motive in carrying out the…
The Obama administration’s anti-Semitism monitor has added an issue to his office’s portfolio: defending circumcision in Europe. Circumcision has become a top focus for Ira Forman, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. He has been using the pulpit his office provides to warn European governments that moves to ban ritual circumcision…
Israel’s Supreme Court has overturned a ruling by a court of rabbis that would have forced a mother to have her son circumcised under the terms her divorce. Circumcision is not legally obligatory for Jews in Israel, but a rabbinical court presiding over the woman’s divorce case had ruled she must fulfill her husband’s wish…
אויף דער אונטערבאַן האָב איך זיך אויסגעלערנט מײַנע ערשטע זאַצן אויף שפּאַניש.
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