A group in San Francisco has collected enough signatures to force a vote on a law that would make it illegal to “circumcise, excise, cut or mutilate the foreskin, testicle or penis of another person who has not attained the age of 18.” This ban, if it passes, might infringe on the First Amendment guarantee…
The subject of circumcision is often relegated to the realm of jokes and cheeky double-entendres, but a San Francisco ballot initiative now gaining momentum would ban the practice, and it raises some very serious issues. At the heart of the current controversy are three fundamental questions. First, is circumcising an infant wrong? Second, should infant…
As the perpetual battle over circumcision continues, a Canadian doctor is proposing an interesting compromise — but one that would preclude the procedure as it’s performed according to Jewish tradition. Writing in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, Dr. Noni MacDonald is suggesting that the surgery be conducted only on boys of 11 or 12 years…
The Israeli army approves enlistment of 10 ultra-Orthodox women. Teenagers are turning toward plastic surgery to avoid bullying. The most liberal Orthodox Jewish rabbinic organization in the United States rejected a proposal to admit women. Israel’s press office apologizes for “Bra-gate,” in which they denied entry to a reporter who refused to remove her bra…
There are some Jews who say that in the 21st century, performing a brit milah (ritual circumcision) on a baby boy is neither desirable nor necessary. For San Francisco residents, however, there is a chance that it may also become illegal. In the city known for being on the cutting edge of many trends, a…
No one really likes to think about getting circumcised, but undergoing the procedure twice? No thank you. Yet some parents in the Haifa area are doing just that after news broke that a mohel botched hundreds of circumcisions and failed to comply with Jewish Law. When a group of senior rabbis from Haifa attended a…
Can a woman perform a bris? Jewish scholars, even the most Orthodox among them, answer with a tentative “why not?” for there is no halachic prohibition against mohelot, or female mohels. While Jewish law states that it’s preferable for a Jewish male to perform the brit milah, or ritual circumcision, if one is present, it…
Mention circumcision in a crowd — even a virtual crowd — of liberal Jews (or liberal anything, I guess) and it never fails to spark rhetorical fire. And so, when I saw a recent post on the Park Slope Parents listserv from a woman whose daughter is pregnant and not sure about having a son…
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