In this week’s Reporters Roundtable podcast, host Josh Nathan-Kazis is joined by Forward Fellow Seth Berkman to discuss why Orthodox mohels are refusing to present consent forms to parents before performing metzitzah b’peh — the controversial practice of suctioning blood following circumcision. Then, assistant managing editor Larry Cohler-Esses talks with Josh about the federal program…
The leading association for mohelim who practice a risky oral blood suctioning technique in their circumcisions has vowed not to cooperate with New York City’s new health regulations governing use of the technique, known as metzitzah b’peh. Brooklyn mohel Rabbi Avrohom Cohn, chairman of the American Board of Ritual Circumcision, said his group would not…
A Manhattan federal judge refused to block a New York City regulation requiring people who perform circumcisions and use their mouths to draw away blood from the wound on a baby’s penis to first obtain written consent from the parents. U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald on Thursday refused to issue a preliminary injunction against…
A federal judge heard oral arguments in a case that would require parents to sign a consent form before a controversial circumcision rite can be performed. U.S. District Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald on Tuesday continued the stay of implementing the required warning to parents of the dangers of metzitzah b’peh, a ritual in which…
The German Parliament passed a law protecting the right of Jewish and Muslim parents to choose a ritual circumcision for their sons, after months of heated debate over efforts to ban the practice. In all, 434 legislators voted Wednesday for the new law proposed by the federal government; there were 100 votes against, and 46…
Richard Prasquier, the French Jewish leader, said that banning circumcision in Europe “would inevitably mean the end of Judaism” there. “You can seek a ban but you need to understand the consequences: The inevitable disappearance of Jewish life from Europe,” Prasquier said on Thursday during a European Parliament conference on religious freedoms. Pasquier is the…
Circumcision is one of Judaism’s most important laws and for generations of faithful it has symbolised a Biblical covenant with God. But in Israel, more and more Jewish parents are saying no to the blade. “It’s such a taboo in Israel and in Judaism,” said Gali, nursing her six-week-old son, about the decision not to…
A new proposal by liberal and left-leaning legislators in Germany would bar ritual circumcision for boys under the age of 14. Some 50 members of Parliament – from the Social Democratic Party, the Left Party and the Greens – have signed on to the proposal, which they hope will preempt another bill currently awaiting parliamentary…
דער מחבר איז אַ סטודענט אינעם ירושלימער העברעיִשן אוניווערסיטעט, אינעם צווייטן יאָר ייִדיש־לימוד
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