יום חמישי, ג׳ תמוז תשפ״וThursday, June 18, 2026
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By Jewish News Syndicate (JNS)
The justices based their decision on the need for equality and "respect for religious freedom."
Several Danish political parties have launched another campaign to ban male religious circumcision in the country.
By JNi.Media
Attorney Ella Skat of the ITIM Institute asked, “Why not compel mohalim to carry malpractice insurance?”
By JNi.Media
Intact Denmark – Association Against Circumcision of Children, began its petition drive on January 1, calling for a ban on circumcising males under the age of consent, 18.
By Rabbi Dr. Nathan Lopes Cardozo
Spinoza, who left all Jewishness correctly observed, circumcision is the secret to the miracle of Jewish survival. What those Jews who oppose circumcision should never forget is that the attempt to outlaw this rite may not just make Jewish life impossible, but would probably end all Jewish existence
Circumcision, is it all it's cut out to be?
By JNi.Media
Arguing that respect and sensitivity protect public health better than a restrictive policy, the mayor waived the requirement that parents sign a consent form showing understand the risks involved in Metzitzah B'peh.
By JNi.Media
The WHO team hypothesized that male circumcision could be increased if religious leaders were taught about its advantages, and become well versed enough to discuss it with their congregations.
Since each month is aligned with a particular shevet and constellation, we can inform ourselves of the qualities of the month through them.
A Meretz Knesset Member was among those who fought against anti-religious coercion.
Bnei Brak Hassidic woman and child are fine after C-section birth of in-vitro-fertilization baby.
By Tibbi Singer
A study concluded that delaying nonmedical circumcision results in greater risk for the child, and a more costly procedure. Muslims try to circumcise children before 13 years old.
Court says rabbinical court overstepped jurisdiction, says circumcision matters must be decided by family court
By JTA
The Council of Europe has climbed down from along and weak limb by issuing a letter that in effect neutralizes a resolution by its parliament that equated mutilation of female genitals and non-medical circumcision of boys for religious purposes. The Council called them “by no means comparable.” The Council of Europe’s leadership sent a letter […]
Many wonder what is the counterpoint for circumcision relative to women.
Norway’s health minister said Wednesday the countryman no intention of banning religious circumcisions but should restrict the religious practice to be carried out only in hospitals. "If the children are circumcised in hospitals by competent personnel, we will prevent complications," Health Minister Bent Høie told the Aftenposten newspaper. "This is the most realistic way to […]
By JTA
A newborn in New York who underwent his ritual circumcision rite is undergoing treatment for neonatal genital herpes, according to the Forward, contracted after metzitzah b’peh, in which the ritual circumciser places his mouth directly on the child’s circumcision wound to revive the shocked blood stream. The New York City Department of Health and Mental […]
Rabbi Mordechai Rosenberg, who was accused last week of botching a circumcision of an 8-day-old boy who was rushed to the hospital after his penis had accidentally been cut off, told a court that is not at fault. The incident revived worldwide publicity at a time when anti-circumcision lobbies have succeeded in convincing some European […]
By JTA
A county in Sweden is moving ahead with plans to ban the non-medical circumcision of boys, its leading elected official said. Per-Ola Mattsson, the commissioner of Blekinge County, said he will up bring up a ban on the practice with the county’s health board in February, according to a Swedish publication. Mattsson, who is also […]
Israel’s Supreme Court has suspended a Rabbinical Court (Beit Din) order that a woman in divorce proceedings allow her baby son, now one year old, to be circumcised. The woman also was ordered to pay a fine of $150 for each day the brit mila is not performed. She originally objected to circumcision because she […]
By JTA
A mother in Israel has appealed to the country’s Supreme Court a rabbinical court ruling requiring her to circumcise her son. In her appeal filed Wednesday, the mother said the rabbis cannot order her to circumcise her son, who is now a year old. The Jerusalem rabbinical court last month upheld the ruling of the […]
By JTA
The kindest cut of all might be the one that new father makes at his son’s circumcision.
A federal court began hearing arguments on Tuesday by orthodox Jews appealing a New York City rule that requires parents to agree to the rite of oral suction in circumcisions, The New York Daily News reported. The city restricted the practice following 11 cases of herpes of boys who were circumcised with what in Hebrew […]
Israel’s Supreme Court soon may have to decide if it wants to set off fireworks and take on a case that involves the authority of a rabbinical court to order a circumcision.
There is nothing worse for Jews than a good looking and do-good non-Jewish woman doctor who sees the world through her stethoscope and thinks Jews are ignorant of health because they circumcise babies.
Norway appears to be on the way to protect circumcision for Jews and Muslims so long as they are performed in hospitals. The Conservative-Progress government is considering suggesting regulations to control circumcisions but with taking into account religious freedom, the Norwegian Foreigner newspaper reported Monday. A Conservative leader of the committee on health care said […]
By JTA
More than 5,500 people, including prominent French politicians, scholars and clergymen, have signed a petition against attempts to ban the ritual circumcision of boys in Europe. Titled “No to a ban on circumcision,” the petition was published on Oct. 16 by CRIF, the umbrella organization representing France’s Jewish communities, following the Oct. 1 passage of […]
Sometimes anti-Semitism is its own best antidote because it makes its sewage makers look as ignorant as they are. After a Council of Europe body said circumcision violates human rights, its leader rejected the idea.
By Shalom Bear
The proposal will allow European Jews to use the extraterritorial status of the Israeli embassy to legally perform Brit Mila.
A resolution that calls male ritual circumcision a “violation of the physical integrity of children” was passed overwhelmingly by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The council, a pan-European intergovernmental organization that strongly influence European Union decisions, debated and passed the resolution on Tuesday, as reported here. The resolution was based on a […]
King George started circumcising newly-born princes 250 years ago, Princess Diana rejected the idea. Britain now wonders if Kate and William will or won't. One thing for sure, it won’t be a Brit Mila.
By JTA
A European rabbinical group has created a union to include every mohel - ritual circumciser - in an effort to standardize ritual circumcision and combat attempts to ban it. Based on the model of Britain’s Initiation Society, the Union of Mohalim in Europe seeks to “unite approved mohalim across Europe under a single banner, ensuring […]
Duchess Kate Middleton gave birth to a baby boy on Monday. The baby weighed in at 8 lb. 6oz. No word yet if the local Rabbi will be called in to perform a circumcision. It's been the tradition of the British Royal Family for the past 150 years to circumcise their boys, though rumor has […]
Boys should be protected by law from circumcision just like girls, say activists. And if the ACLU backs marriage equality? Picket them because it also is against circumcision bans! Welcome to Oakland.
The tide of the anti-circumcision seems to be ebbing. Germany passed a law to bypass a Cologne court ruling that the procedure is illegal. Now, Danish doctors say the ritual is not harmful.
The Oslo daily that published a blood libel caricature of circumcision now pours salt on Jewish wounds, stating that the angry reaction of Jews is just like the Muslim riots to cartoons mocking Mohammed.
The Middle Ages have returned to Europe, or maybe they never left. Jews dipping matzos in blood is old hat. Now a Norwegian newspaper depicts circumcision as a violent and bloody religious custom.
The Chief Rabbinate of Israel has sent a letter of support to Berlin Chabad Rabbi Yehudah Teichtal, who was charged by an anti-circumcision activist for practicing the ritual of oral suction of a small amount of blood at a circumcision. The practice is widely accepted in Israel but caused controversy in the New York area […]
By JTA
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will receive a top award from Europe's mainstream Orthodox rabbinic body, the Conference of European Rabbis. It announced Monday that Merkel will be awarded the 2013 Lord Jakobovits Prize for European Jewry for her dedication to the German Jewish community and "outspoken denunciation of anti-Semitism throughout Europe." The award will be […]
Rabbi Pirutinsky discussed the issue of 'metzizah b'peh' at length, concluding that if medical experts determine that there is a danger to the child, metzizah should be performed by other legitimate methods.
The question of the safety of the controversial ritual of sucking the baby’s blood after the foreskin is cut in a circumcision has again been raised following another case of Herpes.
By JTA
European MDs keep up their fight against circumcision. Despite universal acknowledgement it helps prevents disease, they charge that US pediatricians in favor of circumcision are “culturally biased.”
The anti-circumcision crowd is about to suffer a setback with a “revolutionary” new policy by Canadian pediatricians, who will suggest, “Let the parents decide.”
Pennsylvania prisoners say they are Jewish simply because they want kosher food, which inflates the prison budget. Passover solve the problem when the inmates discover they can’t eat “kitniyot.”
First it was Barbie dolls. Then it was the Simpsons, another Western “evil.” Now, Iran defends itself against the wicked East and bans Buddha statues.
Metzizah b'peh is not even required by many Orthododx poskim. In fact it is actually discouraged by some.
The government is unable to make good on a ban that's been on the books since 2006.
The conference, titled "Freedom of Religion and/or Mutual Respect in Europe," was jointly organized by the European Parliament and the European Jewish Association.
Left-wing German MPs are threatening to oppose their government's attempt to keep male circumcision legal in Germany. More than 50 MPs from three parties are now proposing that parents should have to wait until their son is 14 so he can give his informed consent to the operation. Last summer, a regional court ruled that […]
By Moshe Herman
Yishai presents a fascinating audio piece from the BBC about the issue of the legality of circumcision in Germany. Be sure to tune in to stay informed!
By JTA
European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor unveiled a model bill designed to set “strict legal terms” on religious freedoms for the continent.
By Chabad.org
After a court ruling, that brought the future of Germany's Jewish community into question, and reminded some of a darker time in German history, proposed legislation to bring resolution. After months of debate, today the German cabinet decided to establish a new legislation which will clearly enable and support the religious practice of circumcision. "It […]
Ritual circumcisions have resumed in the Cologne region of Germany, ending a controversy started in a Cologne court in June, when judges decided ritual circumcision constituted “bodily harm” to boys and religious coercion.
A spokesman for German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger said his office is working on an outline for new legislation that will permit circumcision of minor males after a controversial court decision in the summer that criminalized the rite.
Anyone who reads the text of the New York City Department of Health’s proposed rule regarding metzitzah b’peh will immediately notice that two fundamental concerns have been virtually ignored in all of the public debate over the measure.
By Sandy Eller
The New York City Board of Health was scheduled to vote this Thursday (two days after this issue went to press) on a measure requiring parents to sign a consent waiver before allowing a mohel to perform metzitzah b’peh, or oral suctioning, on their infants.
Approximately 300 protesters across the religious spectrum demonstrated in eastern Berlin in favor of religious freedom and the decriminalization of circumcision in Germany.
So let no one praise a nation that murdered a million Jewish babies and children for shedding crocodile tears over the plight of the poor little baby boy who, following a many thousand year old tradition, is circumcised 8 days after birth. Every good person should condemn Germany for what really lies at the heart of efforts to ban circumcision—old-fashioned anti-Semitism, a term coined by Germans for Germans and against Jews.
By JTA
Berlin declares circumcision legal only if performed by a doctor. Brit Mila by a Mohel is still illegal.
By JTA
Haredi rabbis in New York are accusing the city's Department of Health of "spreading lies" in order to pass a law mandating that parents sign a consent waiver in order to use the circumcision-related rite of metzitzah b'peh. The health department is scheduled to vote next week on the waiver for the use of direct […]
When it comes to Metzitza B’Peh, we are not discussing a Biblical Commandment, nor are we referring to a Rabbinical enactment from the Gemarah's time. We are referring to a hallowed Minhag from days of yore to use the mouth only.
I would be opposed to the government legislating against doing MbP. That it is considered so vital by so large a segment of Jewry combined by the low probability of a child ever contracting herpes moves me to oppose it. In this case I do feel that banning the procedure would be an unconstitutional impediment to freedom of religion. But that is not the law being proposed.
Does the German government really want to get into a public battle over whether they are better guardians of the health and welfare of Jewish (and Muslim) children than their parents?
By Moshe Herman
Yishai and Malkah discuss the Iranian nuclear threat, the need for Israel to reduce its dependance on American military hardware, and Yishai weighs in on the upcoming American presidential election.
A rabbi in Bavaria, Germany, has been slapped with criminal charges of committing bodily harm, in the first known case to arise from an anti-circumcision ruling.
Criminal assault charges have been filed against the rabbi of the Jewish community in oberfränkischen Hof, Rabbi David Goldberg, for circumcision for religious reasons. Chief prosecutor Gerhard Schmitt confirmed that the complaint was filed by a doctor from Hessen, which is under the jurisdiction of the Cologne Regional Court, which decided a while ago that […]
By JTA
The Israel Ambulatory Pediatric Association is calling for an end to a controversial circumcision-related rite that is also under fire in New York. Direct oral-genital suction, known as metzitzah b'peh, should not be performed during Jewish ritual circumcision, the IAPA said. The association is calling on Israel’s Health Ministry to require maternity wards and clinics […]
By JTA
A bipartisan group of 20 Congressmen sent a letter to the German government expressing “deep concern” over a recent German court decision to effectively ban circumcision on young boys. Howard Berman (D-Calif.), Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), authored the letter, which was addressed to Peter Ammon, the German ambassador to the United […]
By JTA
Norway’s ombudsman for children's rights has proposed that Jews and Muslim replace male circumcision with a symbolic, non-surgical ritual.
By Veli Sirin
Legal obligations and guarantees of human rights should be universally applied – but these should include mutual respect between religious and non-religious people, and members of differing religious communities. Germany would do well to examine thoroughly, respectfully and seriously, the beliefs of its Jewish and Muslim citizens about the circumcision of their sons, not to mention the unquestionable medical advantages.
An opinion poll indicates that, despite the political initiative to have the Cologne verdict overruled by a law later this year, a majority of Germans favor a ban of male circumcision. In a Europe that is becoming ever more secular, there is a real danger that religious practices will gradually be pushed aside in order to assure that the impression is not given that little children and -in ritual slaughter- animals are made to suffer.
By JTA
Germany's parliament called on the government to step in to protect the right to religious circumcision of boys, as long as it is done by a medically qualified practitioner who avoids inflicting pain. An overwhelming majority of German lawmakers passed a non-binding resolution Thursday urging the administration of Chancellor Angela Merkel to submit a law […]
By Moshe Herman
Yishai and Malkah further discuss Germany's ban on ritual circumcision along with discuss the Levy Report.
By JTA
Europe's main Orthodox rabbinical body is urging Jews in Germany to uphold the commandment to circumcise newborn sons, despite a court ruling in Germany that said circumcising young boys could be considered a criminal act.
On Saturday Night, July 8th, the 10,000 person signed the petition against the German court's ban on Brit Mila. The petition can be found here: http://jewishpress.com/petition-against-germanys-ban-on-brit-milah/ Members of the JewishPress.com staff plan to present the petition to the German Embassy in Israel this week.
By Moshe Herman
Yishai and Malkah talk about a recent beauty pageant for Holocuast survivors along with contrasts between new German and Israeli Laws. They also discuss a gift that was recently delivered from a fan.
Around 20 organizations representing four million Muslim residents of Germany, announced that the parliament must ensure religious freedom by removing legal doubts about circumcision since the June 26 court ruling. The ruling was also criticized in no uncertain terms by the head of Germany's Central Council of Jews, Dieter Graumann.
The Jewish Hospital in Berlin has suspended all religious circumcisions of children following a ruling delivered by a German court banning the practice.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle weighed in Friday on a controversial German court ruling on circumcision, saying the country protected religious freedom and traditions, EJP reported. "The ruling on circumcision has provoked annoyance internationally," Westerwelle wrote on his official Twitter account. "We have to be clear: religious traditions are protected in Germany," he added. Westerwelle […]
The anger that burns inside me has come to a boil and I cannot be diplomatic so I will be honest. I have nothing to say to the Germans - they are men, nothing more. They can make all the laws they want. They did in 1933, in 1938, and they will in 2012. Their laws are nothing when compared to the laws of God. Germany has outlawed circumcision. All that means is that it is time for Jews to leave Germany - not just the young ones contemplating having children, but all Jews.
A Cologne district court ruled on Tuesday that parents may not have their sons circumcised for religious reasons, essentially criminalizing religious circumcisions.
The secularists and atheists in my life don’t know enough about Judaism to know how big of deal this is, so they tend to look at my journey as a mildly exotic lifestyle choice – like a phase Madonna might go through – before they focus on the real issue at hand: circumcision.
The debate over the merits of circumcision, which seems to have stirred up a lot of talkback action on the Jewish Press website, may be taking a turn in yet another unexpected direction. According to the website AllAfrica, the Government of Uganda is planning to circumcise 4.2 million men aged between 15 and 49 by […]
Pidyon ha’ben, like brit milah, is primarily the responsibility of the father. A brit milah must be performed on the eighth day of the child’s birth, unless it would endanger the life of the child. Pidyon ha’ben must be performed on the 31st day of the child’s birth. Neither ceremony may be delayed beyond its prescribed time unless there is some halachic justification to do so.
