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…
Within the past few months, circumcision and other Jewish rituals such as kashrut, the dietary laws, and shechita, the kosher butchering of animals, have been the subject of considerable attention, much of it condemnatory. But then, that shouldn’t occasion too much of a surprise: For centuries, and continuing into our own day, the corporeal practices…
A temporary restraining order against New York delayed the start of a new informed consent requirement for a controversial circumcision rite. On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in New York ordered the stay of implementing the required warning to parents of the dangers of metzitzah b’peh, a ritual in which the circumciser…
European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor has unveiled a model bill designed to set “strict legal terms” on religious freedoms in order to enshrine them in Europe. Kantor, who is also co-chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation, or ECTR, presented the model bill on Oct. 15 at the European Parliament. Designed to…
As New York City health authorities and ultra-Orthodox groups clash over metzitzah b’peh, officials in other cities are making no effort to regulate the risky oral suction technique sometimes used during ritual circumcision. In fact, unlike in New York City, health authorities elsewhere often have no mandate to monitor the incidence of the herpes strain…
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