Jews do appear to be leading the pro-circ agenda
December 22, 2009 Circumcision
It’s just one after the other.
The facts appear to be as follows:
There are a disproportionate amount of Jewish doctors (and even Jewish organizations) involved in the debate on domestic and African circumcision.
Jews–for obvious reasons– have a strong bias towards a pro-circumcision position.
Conclusion: It would appear that the Jewish pro-circ bias is affecting policy towards a pro-circ position.
Thoughts: I can’t help wondering if circumcision policy — both here and in Africa — would be different if Jewish doctors and scientists were excluded from the equation.
Perhaps Jews should recuse themselves from the policy debate because of cultural bias.
2 comments
I think you’re absolutely right.
But it’s not a specifically Jewish problem. North American culture is driving the push to circumcise Africa as much as Jewish culture, and the evidence is already emerging that it may go horribly wrong and leave Africans MORE vulnerable to HIV – especially women.
Recent news from Kenya is that in regions where male circ is practised almost universally, HIV is increasing – in one area it’s gone up from 5.8% of the population to 8.3%.
The apparently higher HIV in SOME regions which are not circ’d proves nothing at all – circ is often associated with systems of rigid social control. It’s behaviour that makes the key difference – as we saw in Uganda, a mostly uncut country which reduced its HIV by 2/3 by behaviour change promoted from the President down.
The West’s own example shows that when almost universal circ is combined with promiscuity and other risky behaviour STD rates may be very high. America has 80% adult males cut and the second highest HIV rate in the industrialised world. And it epidemic levels of other STDs among the young.
In the UK a large study of gay men in 2001 found the cut were 20% MORE likely to have HIV. No one has explained that but it may be that with lower instrinsic sensation a man is less likely to choose to lower it further by using a condom.
But these are all rather inconvenient truths for those with an emotional vested interest in the cut.
The question I’d most like to ask those who say male circ ‘removes a warm moist place where viruses and bacteria can hide’ is, have you looked at female bits lately?? If removing delicate skin folds from babies genitals is good why stop with the boys …
Jews are also leading the push to end non-therapeutic circumcision, such as Ron Goldman, author of ”
Circumcision–The Hidden Trauma” and “Questioning Circumcision: A Jewish perspective”, Dr Mark Reiss of Doctors Opposing Circumcision, Dr Leonard Glick, author of “Marked in your Flesh”, and the late Edward Wallerstein, author of the pioneering “Circumcision, an American health fallacy”. One estimate is that 15% of the Intactivist movement is Jewish, but I don’t know how they’d know that.
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