Category — Circumcision

Jason Siegal and Zachary Levi Balakoff explain their Intactivist reasoning. I think that they overreach a bit, since there is certainly violence in non-circumcising societies, and the violence of the U.S. is grossly overstated and politicized in a dubious manner. Having said that, it does seem that the most brutal societies on earth correspond to those with the most radical forms of genital mutilation.

When Siegel and Balakoff begin to understand that their cause is not a far-Left issue, but rather, a moderate-Left issue, I think they will become better emissaries for the Intactivist movement. I suspect that they associate Intactivism with the far-Left camp because within the Jewish community, it is considered a more radical position than in general western society. I would remind Siegel and Balakoff that the far-Left is hardly compassionate on issues that affect men generally, and many of those who are receptive to the Intactivist movement, especially the moms, are thoughtful, moderate people. Not Marxists, and not fahbrentenah feminists.

It seems like he is a Muslim, no?

SR International reports,

A Stockholm hospital is warning parents about a man who has caused injuries to boys he has circumcised. The man lost his licence to circumcise back in 2007 following several incidents, but according to the hospital has continued carrying out the operation illegally since then, with several boys being rushed to the hospital with serious injuries.
[...]
Circumcision on boys is a traditional practice in the Jewish and Islamic faiths, and since the man was banned there has been no-one with a licence in the Muslim community in Stockholm to carry out the practice, meaning many Muslim families have gone to private clinics and even to a licenced circumcisor, or mohel, in the Jewish community here.

Let’s be honest about one thing. While certainly the injuries received by these poor boys are worse than usual, all people are injured when they are circumcised.

There are a three things that keep me up at night.

1) Nuclear proliferation
2) Environmental deterioration
3) The “silent Holocaust” of insufficiently rigorous ritual circumcisions.

But Baruch HaRebbe, Chabad is on that last one.

Jpost reports,

Apparently, when S. was born in Isfahan, Iran, the local mohel made a crucial mistake. S. was erroneously defined by the mohel as a baby born fully circumcised. Therefore, he only needed to have a drop of blood drawn. Over eight decades later this fatal mistake has come back to haunt S.

According to Aryeh Amit, director of Brit Yosef-Yitzhak, S is not alone; There are a whole lot of foreskins waiting to be snipped.

“We believe there are 5 million Jewish men walking around without a proper brit mila,” Amit said.

“The rebbe [Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the late spiritual head of Chabad] said in 1984 that there were 10 million Jews living in the Soviet Union. If you assume that half were males and that the Communists prevented 95% of them from getting a brit you already have close to 5 million,” he said.

In addition, said Amit, there are thousands of Jews whose foreskins were removed with a “clamp,” a scissor-like device that grabs the foreskin.

“These clamps are a silent Shoah,” said Amit, whose father, Yaron, established the organization in 1989, shortly after the Iron Curtain fell and hundreds of thousands of Jews from the former Soviet Union, previously forbidden to practice Judaism, began reclaiming their heritage.

[Read more →]

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports,

A Fulton County jury has awarded $1.8 million in damages to a boy whose penis was severed in a botched circumcision.

The state court jury gave another $500,000 to the boy’s mother in the decision rendered Friday.
[...]
“This case does point out one of the dangers of circumcision that every parent must seriously consider when having the procedure done,” Llewellyn said. He contended that parents are not told of the risks of the procedure.

Reacting to the results of a small study performed by Johns Hopkins Medical University upon a tribal people in Uganda, the U.N. and the W.H.O. have endorsed total genital excision of all people everywhere in order to curb HIV infections, and other STDs such as the HPV virus.

“This is a very promising study, and I think we need to pour billions of dollars into implementing it everywhere.” Said Dr. Arianne Horowitz.

P.E.P.F.A.R. is also investigating funding to remove children’s eyes in order to prevent onchocerciasis. Dr. Decocks explained that, “While this disease is presently limited in terms of its immediate magnitude to central and western Africa, it has already spread to Yemen as well, and it’s best not to take chances.” Decocks also noted that it is far easier for children to learn Braille than later in life.

Also under review is a U.N. sponsored program, piloted in Uganda, of amputating children’s hands to decrease the chances of rheumatoid arthritis in their senior years. The name of this program is called, “Operation Ibrahim.” Mufti Akhbar ibn Fatwah noted smugly, “We Muslims have known of the prophylactic health benefits of hand removal for thousands of years, but only now is the West finally catching up!”

Deborah Kotz writes in U.S. New and World Report,

“To snip or not? Any parent of an infant son faces this circumcision question; for some, like me, it’s a no-brainer.”

Okay. You and your readers know what is truly motivating you. Religion. So why not skip thee whole article entitled, “Why Women Should Favor Circumcision: To Prevent HPV Infection“?

Why do so many Jews — who ultimately, are motivated by religious and/or cultural sensibilities — feel the need to convince gentiles that male circumcision is such a wonderful idea?

Frankly, when I read a Jew advocating for circumcision for “health” reasons, I have learned to expect it to be one-sided and highly selective in terms of evaluating evidence.

I know it seems like Kotz is being honest about her bias, but at the risk of sounding cynical, but I don’t think she means it quite as “in full disclosure” as we might want it to mean. Rather, I think it is the usual, self-congratulatory, “And we Jews have known of its health benefits for thousands of years, and only now is the West catching up!”

A reader noted on Nurses.com,

I am absolutely NOT an anti-semite. In fact, I’m married to a Jew and my two boys have very Jewish names (and gentile foreskins) and I hold a disproportionate number of Jews in high regard. But when I brought up the circumcision issue with my Jewish pediatrician she definitely did not take my concerns seriously and pushed for the circumcision.

The onslaught upon American male babies has begun in earnest, albeit indirectly. The pro-circ camp has U.N. and American backing. And the sleight of hand is already visible.

While claiming (for now) that this is to address concerns in Africa, do not be fooled. This website is also there to convince Americans of the need for neonatal circumcision of their own sons. That’s why it is English only.

The NY Times reports,

Since then, as different poor countries struggled to create national circumcision policies, much misinformation has circulated. There was also a dangerous surge in complications as traditional healers without sterile instruments began offering cheap circumcisions.

So last week the W.H.O., in conjunction with the United Nations AIDS program, the AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, Family Health International and several American and British schools of public health, created a Web site, malecircumcision.org.

One of the ways the pro-circ advocates con people into agreeing to male circumcision is to pretend there are no deleterious effects to their sexual experience.

Malecircumcision.org does reference the fine-touch pressure threshold study published in the BJU, which concluded that, “Circumcision ablates the most sensitive parts of the penis.” But it relegates this important study to the footnotes section, only allowing that,

Many advocates, anthropologists and social scientists have identified the need to develop research components that gather, analyse and propose responses to information on the interface between male sexuality and male circumcision. This information will change over time and vary by culture, community, and geography — as well as with the age at which the surgery is performed.

Right. Because it’s all in your head.

Exactly what FGM apologists claim.

Even more suspiciously, malecirumcision.org insists on emphasizing anecdotal evidence that is so pro-circ it is suspicious to the point of absurdity.

Sixty-four percent of the circumcised men who were available for follow-up at 24 months reported greater penile sensitivity after circumcision, and 54 percent reported enhanced ease in reaching orgasm.

There pro-circ camp has always depended on lies and misinformation.

“Much misinformation has circulated.”

Oh, it most certainly has.

The New Jersey Jewish News reports,

For close to 30 years, Bris Avrohom has performed outreach to the Russian immigrant community, bringing many brought up under communism back to Judaism.

This month the Chabad-affiliated organization in Hillside marked a milestone: the 6,000 britot, or circumcisions, it has performed for boys and even grown men.

Pshhhh…6,000 is a very significant number, of course. Did you know that the world itself has been around for less than 6,000 years? Oh, absolutely. And literally. We know this from our Gedoylim, who are all on a much higher level than we are. It’s a tenet of haredi Judaism. Circumcision is a special divine covenant just for the Jews, and to a lesser extent, the Muslims. No one else performed this ritual for religious reasons before we did. It started with us, with Abraham.

It was not already prevalent throughout East Africa. Anyone who says it was is a heretic.

And miracles happen to those who perform circumcision. It protects Jews. Just like it did in Poland!

She recalled how the family — her husband and son included — then walked through the deep snow to the Kanelskys’ home to pay their shiva call. The rebbitzin, Shterney Kanelsky, asked them to participate in another mitzva — to be “couple number one” at Bris Avrohom’s annual mass ceremony in which couples married under civil law are wed according to Jewish tradition. Deutsch, who had performed the double brit, stood with them under the huppa.

Their lives changed from that time, she said. She began to light Shabbat candles and stopped working on Shabbat, although she didn’t know where she would find other work. Within minutes of that decision, she said, her cellphone rang and she was offered her old job back — with longer and better hours.

WOW! What Jewish woman wouldn’t want her man and boys cut when such miracles readily occur for those who are?

The New Jersey Jewish News — just the facts. No hagiography, no maysehs. Just independent Jewish news from the finest Jewish newspaper in the northeast, if not the world.

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that Dr. Angela Chaudhari, an assistant professor in the University of Utah School of Medicine’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and has “performed circumcisions,” declined to have her own sons circumcised, despite the claimed *benefits*, explaining that,

it’s just pretty tearful. They cry a lot and you need to strap them down.

What do you mean? They’re just crying because they’re cold, and they just like to be held!

I don’t really mean to condemn her. The woman clearly isn’t promoting this procedure to patients, and it takes guts to speak out.