JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
I grew up in a house with a framed cocktail napkin signed by Jerry Seinfeld and every episode of his sitcom taped on VHS. All this is to say that I have a long history of welcoming the man into my home and am pretty familiar with the layout of the “Seinfeld” apartment. That said,…
(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…
(JTA) — A parliamentary committee in Denmark cleared the path for a nonbinding vote on a text that calls for banning nonmedical circumcision of boys for humanitarian reasons. The Folketingets Administration okayed the text Thursday, stating there were no constitutional obstacles to voting this year on the text of a petition requesting a ban that…
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (JTA) — In 2015, a jihadist killed a Jewish guard outside this capital city’s main synagogue, where Hannah Bentow was having her bat mitzvah party. Her sense of security as a Jew in Denmark was shattered, she told JTA last week. Bentow and dozens of teenagers stayed inside for long uncertain minutes as police…
(JTA) — An impending vote in the Danish parliament on non-medical circumcision of boys risks splitting the country’s ruling party, local media are reporting. The internal conflict is over an online petition from February calling for a ban on the practice. The petition has received 92 percent of its authors’ goal of collecting 50,000 cosignatories…
We’re only four days into Passover, and it’s already been bad for the Jews. Between a far-right German party calling for the removal of a Holocaust memorial, and a Washington Post confessional lambasting Jewish men (is that OK now?) — now British celebrity director Ricky Gervais (creator of the UK’s ‘Office’ and star of the…
Scandinavia is the darling of liberals the world over. Yet for Jews living in there, life isn’t all free health care and minimalist design. In Iceland, the tiny Jewish population is now facing the most serious legal challenge to male circumcision in Europe. A new bill that criminalizes circumcision of minors and penalizes parents and…
VIENNA (JTA) — Danish anti-circumcision activists have collected nearly 20,000 signatures out of the 50,000 they need to create a bill proposing to ban non-medical circumcision for boys. With another five months to collect the remaining 30,000 signatures, the petition by the group Denmark Intact appears likely to reach its goal of forcing a vote in…
