Cut the Film Sceening at the West Side JCC Tuesday

The film “Cut” will be shown this coming Tuesday at the West Side JCC. I have to say that the crowd I met downtown at this film was sympathetic to a large extent. I wonder if the JCC crowd will be hostile…

Anyway, if you are around, it is an excellent movie on what for me, at least, was a very difficult issue for a long time. I became troubled by circumcision even while still in a haredi yeshiva, because of the commentaries I read on the subject. They suggest similar effects of male circumcision that are given for performing some forms of FGM on girls. Which makes sense. Some forms are quite similar. It was shocking to me to read these arguments absolutely in line with our sages on anti-circumcision sites years later, and infuriating to then see so many in the Jewish community denounce these people as liars, frauds, and “anti-Semites,” even though they are often in-line with our own texts. But I no longer expect honesty from the Jewish community, and I have come to peace that I can’t expect to find a solution within Judaism. Once you stop trying to resolve both worlds, it gets a little easier. Everything stops hurting quite as much. It still hurts, but not with the same urgency.

My review of the film is here on Jewschool. There is apparently a quote from it on the DVD back cover.