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The mystique of Bris Milah is as old as Judaism itself. Throughout the generations, this mitzvah has been the pilot light, making sure that our spark would never be extinguished. For no matter how high the assimilation rate would rise, the importance of Bris, the seal of a covenant with God dating back to Abraham, was never questioned. Bris remained sacred to Jews of all stripes. But now, for the first time in our history, that reassuring flame has begun to flicker. "My husband and I are both Jewish, not practicing in the traditional sense, and we are debating whether...

Circumcising young boys on religious grounds amounts to grievous bodily harm, a German court ruled Tuesday in a landmark decision that the Jewish community said trampled on parents' religious rights. The regional court in Cologne, western Germany, ruled that the "fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents", a judgement that is expected to set a legal precedent. "The religious freedom of the parents and their right to educate their child would not be unacceptably compromised, if they were obliged to wait until the child could himself decide to be circumcised," the court...

It appears that San Francisco voters this November may not have the opportunity to vote on whether to ban male circumcision. As we noted earlier, a San Francisco ballot measure called the Male Genital Mutilation bill, which would have banned circumcisions for those under the age of 18 and would have penalized violators with possible fines and up to a year behind bars, had drawn a constitutional challenge. Yesterday, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Loretta Giorgi took a snip out of the ballot proposal, ruling that it had to be withdrawn as “expressly preempted” by state law. Here’s a report...

Jerusalem - A chosid he’s not—but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was right at home at a bris whose honored guests included Ashkenazic Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau and several sidelock-sporting Orthodox men. After all, it was the bris of Netanyahu’s newest grandson, Shmuel, son of his daughter Noa, who became religious along with her husband Danny in recent years. Though not strictly Orthodox, Netanyahu is known to be respectful of Orthodox tradition. He follows in the footsteps of Israeli leaders like Ariel Sharon who paid reverential homage to Jewish Torah tradition by attending the circumcisions of their grandchildren. Before...

A man and his ex-wife are embroiled in a holy war over the issue of circumcising the couple's 12-year-old son. The Oregon Supreme Court is now considering the case of James Boldt, a family-law attorney who converted to Judaism in 2004. He seeks to have the minor surgery performed against the wishes of the boy's mother, Lia Boldt, who is Russian Orthodox. "It's the classic kind of decision a custodial parent would make," said James Boldt, according to the Oregonian newspaper. Lia Boldt, 45, filed for divorce in 1998, and though she initially won custody, James Boldt, who now lives...

Former US President Bill Clinton called for the world to prepare to tackle the cultural taboos surrounding circumcision Tuesday if, as many expect, trials show that it protects men and the women they sleep with from AIDS. In a speech to the International Aids conference in Toronto, Canada, Clinton said: "Should this be shown to be effective, we will have another means to prevent the spread of the disease and to save lives, and we will have a big job to do. It is important that as we leave here we all be prepared for a green light that could...

For thousands of years, rabbis performed a simple procedure to cleanse the wound left by a ritual circumcision. Like Boy Scouts treating a snake bite, they quickly sucked blood from the cut and spit it aside, ostensibly disposing of any harmful impurities. The procedure may seem pure 18th Century, but it is the subject of a clash between religion and science in modern-day New York. Prompted by a child's death, the state health department is developing its first set of safety guidelines on the ritual of oral suction, which was abandoned by most Jews long ago but survived in a...

The national news media is abuzz with a story about the possible link between the tragic death of an infant Jewish boy from herpes and his circumcision. At the same time, the media has not fully reported on the fact that circumcision could save millions of lives from the scourge of AIDS. The problem is that circumcision is in the Bible, which makes it a serious violation of the religion practiced by the majority in academia and the mainstream media - secular fundamentalism. They have stood by while millions died and continue to die. How differently they value human life...