Category — Circumcision

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.

Wow, that’s so cool!

BP’s research, first reported on The Kvetcher, into the Hammerman rabbi/nudnik has been publicized by Jewdar on Heebmagazine.com, along with other info about the Hammerman/Rosenblatt alliance. Hammerman really is a sick puppy. So of course, Stupid Federation Newspaper has crowned him an expert on the internet because….well, no idea, really.

What did BP uncover? Oh, nothing. Just this:

“There is no greater primal anger than that caused by seeing another male in carnal contact with your wife, and there is no greater primal envy than that caused by looking down at the person who was brought into the world specifically to be your survivor.”

Hammerman was angry at his son for breastfeeding, and felt circumcising him was an appropriate way to “channel his anger.” But it’s cool — now he and his kid play Anne Frank Trump Card together.

All’s well that ends well.

The BBC reports,

“We will start this campaign with the new born and young men in universities, the army and police.”

While it will be nominally voluntary, correspondents say many in the armed forces will regard it as an order.

Why start with the army in terms of adults? Because once they have to go through it–for the sake of the health of the country of course– they will have less of a problem forcing it on others. That’s my prediction. If it happens, watch the powers that be feign shock.

Earlier: Is the U.N. promoting forced circumcision?

Circumcision is the third most common inpatient procedure in the U.S. And it is rumored to be quite a profitable one. It is absolutely in the hospital industry’s financial interest to find new myths to promote this procedure, and downplay any physiological cost to cutting off healthy parts of an organ.

And in much of Africa, the procedure can be implemented forcibly, and with impunity. And it’s all for saving Africa, of course. Even though it will prove negligible.

And that should cushion prop up falling domestic circ rates, and stave off lawsuits from an era when hospitals didn’t even ask for permission to cut part of a child’s penis off. They just did it. Kind of like how it will be in much of Africa now.

Listen to this Jew explain that only a vaccine will stop AIDS, and proceed to call for circumcision for every male in every country possible. Like him and his son Avi.

It seems the U.N., in its quest to have Africa in its entirety circumcised (because it helps prevent AIDS much, much less than condoms do), is relying on methods that seem not-so-voluntary. Not so voluntary at all.

afrol News reports,

The government has planned to train enough medical personnel for the operation and that uniformed men - police, soldiers and students - will be the first to be circumcised.

And what if they don’t want to be circumcised? Does this affect their job security? Does this affect their financial aid for schooling? What happens if they refuse to be circumcised?

This is just weirder than hell.

The Forward reports,

According to [Emily] Blake and Shoulson, non-Jews make up between 2% and 5% of their clientele. Some, like the DeCaros, are motivated initially by practical circumstances, but others seem drawn to the mohels for spiritual reasons, if not explicitly religious ones. Both Blake and Sherman have even been approached by “Torah-observant Christians� — those dedicated to observing Old Testament commandments — seeking to have their sons circumcised on the eighth day after the birth. In all cases, families say they are drawn to the intimacy and convenience of a nonritual circumcision performed at home.

Far-right Christians were traditionally one of the most important proponents for establishing routine neonatal circumcision.

Guess which other religious group was?

But fortunately, that kind of conflation of religion and health isn’t actively being pushed by Jews.

“Manhattan pediatrician Susan Levitsky makes a point of recommending non-Jewish patients to mohels. Levitsky said she’s been passing out Sherman’s number more often these days, because concerns over hospital-bred infections are rising. “Why would you want to be around an environment with germs?� she asked.�

Hey Susan, have you considered recommending that your non-Jewish patients don’t cut their baby in the first place? Cause there is no such mitzvah for the gentiles to do so, even if you are Reform

“As a former obstetrician/gynecologist, [Emily] Blake said she saw her work as a commitment to her patients as well as to her own faith. “I feel a calling to be a mohel; I feel a calling to do God’s work on Earth,� she told the Forward. “But I feel a human calling to do a good job for anyone I’m doing a surgery for.�

Isn’t it so lovely that there are some gentiles as well as Jews who get all spiritual and ecumenical when it comes to slicing off parts of the baby’s penis?

Ahhhhhhhhhh.

It’s Chanukah! What better time for an anti-circ rant?

According to Reuters, circumcision does not appear to help prevent AIDS in American men.

Black and Latino men were just as likely to become infected with the AIDS virus whether they were circumcised or not, Greg Millett of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

The Australian Medical Association has backed a proposed law banning “non-essential� circumcision.

This is ominous for the domestic pro-circ camp who are hoping that the AAP will reinstate a preference for routine circumcision in the U.S. I don’t believe they will do so, and predict they may even switch to a slightly negative bias.

The proposed ban does not cover religious circumcisions. But really, ritual circumcisions should not be provided by any hospital once it is accepted that this is not medically essential. It isn’t their place to provide surgical procedures that are harmful to a child. And circumcision harms. That’s why the Aussie docs are backing a ban.

The film “Cut� is now available on DVD. It’s a great movie, and apparently, a quote from my review on Jewschool is on the back of the package.

One of the problems with addressing circumcision is that we Jews can’t separate it from Judaism, and concurrently attempt to address a solution even as we grapple with what circumcision really is. I think we need to first approach these issues separately before attempting to negotiate the contradiction.

It can’t always be pleasant to be in Dr. Goldman’s shoes. As the leader of the Jewish intactivists, he is surely the target of some rather unpleasant vitriolics. And yet, he keeps his cool. I admit I find him quite reasonable.

This was in a recent interview in the Boston Globe:

Q. The Bible says circumcision originated as part of God’s covenant with Abraham. Forgive the flippancy, but what’s your beef with Abraham?

A. I have no argument with religious Jews. They’re not part of our audience. They’re going to interpret that [text] literally and do exactly what it says. Taking on the fundamentalists - in Christian religion or Muslim fundamentalists - I don’t think there’s much chance of them changing their views.

It should be noted that while many intactivists believe underage circumcision should ultimately be outlawed, Dr. Goldman does not advocate such measures.

The NY Times/Reuters reports.

“Circumcision’s out of the closet. It’s not a taboo subject anymore. People are talking about it. Parents are talking about it,” said Dr. Mark Reiss, a synagogue-goer in the San Francisco area and executive vice president of Doctors Opposing Circumcision.

Among those talking about it is a gaggle of young, male, Jewish commentators. This year alone, in books, online and in magazines, authors Neal Pollack, Sam Apple, Jonathan Safran Foer and Shalom Auslander have all fretted about doing to their sons what was done to them. The title of Auslander’s memoir, scheduled for publication in October, is “Foreskin’s Lament.”

Now, scoffers might claims note this despite the increased discussion and debate, not that much has changed. After all, even Auslander still circumcised his son, albeit without ritual.

But that’s just right now. Look at the trajectory. The entire strength of the secular pro-circ camp was built on the lack of discussion. In a protracted debate, the Western pro-circ camp always loses ground and support over time.

In the Jewish world, in my experience, attempts to stymie discussion and debate are usually made through lame jokes and puns, as well as shockingly insistent, sometimes ludicrously hysterical denials of the legitimacy of the questions themselves, and even provocative suggestions as what might really bothering the person questioning circumcision.

But over time, we will not only have a discussion, but the discussion will grow louder and more insistent, as all human rights discussions eventually become in a liberal democracy. We will have a lengthy debate. And a thorough debate on circumcision means the dark clouds are rolling in. For those bound by scientific integrity and basic human rights over continuation of ritual, the answer will become increasingly clear, and the popular choice. Ineffective and disproven “science” and equally dubious and insufficient prophylactic defenses will reveal that the pro-circ Jew is not acting out of respect for scientific method and biological realties as he presents, but rather, has relative contempt for science and human rights when it conflicts with an irrational attachment to this ritual. For many American Jews already grappling with Judaism, which is an essentially a Middle Eastern faith in a Western world…well, this indeed might be checkmate. It is very hard to imagine Judaism without its Covenant, and it is very difficult to believe most non-Orthodox Jews will continue to circumcise their children in the face of logical and increasingly accepted and always more militant opposition to what is rightly considered MGM (male genital mutilation).

If so, maybe the haredim are right. Maybe today, it is haredi or out, or at least, some level of fundamentalism willing to deny inconvenient scientific method and a Western concept of basic human rights is needed in order to ensure Jewish continuity. Which the Haredim, and the right-wing Modern Orthodox, are able and willing to do. Hineni muchan umazuman.

If so, perhaps the rest of us should begin to consider what it means to be Jews outside of Judaism, and begin to view the Jewish experience in the much larger context of human history, including our own.

Hat tip: Pissed Off Liberal Jew

Loved your post. Nothing makes male circumcision quite as appealing as when feminists support it incessantly, especially with graphics! Isn’t there a better way to express one’s *love* of cock?

This one’s for you, KRG. Cause I know you’ll miss me at Jewschool.

Some mothers might claim that the child would be psychologically and physically harmed by these procedures (I wonder what our East African Muslim fellow humans think of that?)

The thing that’s unusual with FGM is that generally American courts never ever stay out of cases involving religion such as this, no matter how mild the FGM.

[picture of FGM diagrams deleted]