JOHANNESBURG: Mohel struck off after botch

Sunday Times (South Africa)
November 29, 2015

Jewish circumciser slapped with life ban after botched bris

by Pericles Anetos
The botched circumcision of a newborn boy has landed a senior Jewish religious practitioner with a lifetime ban.

The Beth Din, the Jewish religious court responsible for settling disputes, established a commission of inquiry after the baby's penis was partially amputated during what is commonly known as the bris.

As a result of the incident, the Johannesburg practitioner will not be allowed to conduct this procedure again and all mohelim - Jews trained to perform the covenant of circumcision - will have to be accredited and seek registration every two years.

The drastic sanction against the practitioner follows an investigation commissioned by Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein and the Beth Din.

The inquiry was conducted by retired KwaZulu-Natal deputy judge president Phillip Levinsohn, specialist urologist Dr Michael Cohen and Rabbi Dr Pinchas Zekry.

Victims of botched circumcisions wait for penis donors
The circumcision was performed last year and the commission's findings were announced this month.
The Beth Din said: "In 2014, a circumcision was performed that resulted in devastating and permanent injury to the baby."

No details were revealed of why this circumcision went wrong .

The Sunday Times was unable to establish how the baby is doing now and whether there have been surgical attempts to rectify the partial amputation of his penis.

The Beth Din said the " mohel will never be accredited to perform circumcisions".

It was found that the sacred duty of the bris was generally performed "carefully and compassionately" with due regard for the babies.

Goldstein said Jews had been circumcising their sons for almost 4000 years, since God first commanded Abraham to do so.

" [It] has a longer track record of proven safety than any other surgical procedure," he said.

"Jewish circumcisions have been done in South Africa for more than 175 years and this case is the first time that an injury of this severity has been reported."

The commission recommended that, among other things, the age and state of health of the practitioner be taken into account when deciding on accreditation.

The chief rabbi and the Beth Din fully accepted the findings and recommendations of the commission.

The changes recommended, Goldstein said, were about further improving the oversight of a system.

Prior to the release of the findings, the case triggered some online debate in the Jewish community.

Some people felt it was necessary to identify the practitioner in question so as to alert parents.

NEW YORK: Metzitzah: Mayor De Blasio to move "soon"

Capital New York
January 7, 2015

De Blasio to act ‘soon’ on circumcision ritual

by Dan GoldbergJan The de Blasio administration says action is coming soon on the mayor's long-stalled vow to address the controversial circumcision practice known as metzitzah b'peh, promising a policy that will protect children while respecting religious rights.

The religious ritual as practiced by some Orthodox Jewish sects involves a mohel—a person who performs circumcisions of 8-day-old boys—suctioning blood directly from a wounded penis with his mouth.

Health department officials believe the practice can spread herpes simplex virus-1, which is common in adults but can be especially dangerous for infants. The communities that practice metzitzah b'peh have fiercely resisted city attempts, going back before the de Blasio administration, to regulate it.

The city's health department currently requires parents to sign a consent form acknowledging that the health department recommends against performing the practice, a Bloomberg-era policy that was challenged in court. Attorneys representing the Orthodox sects said the city's health department was overestimating the dangers, and that there is insufficient evidence to prove metzitzah b'peh is dangerous enough to warrant a public health intervention.

Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to revisit the consent-form rule on his first day in office, but has so far not addressed the topic.

 

Mayoral spokeswoman Marti Adams said the administration plans to announce a new policy, but did not detail what that policy would be or exactly when it would be revealed.

"The administration is working to develop a new, more effective policy that protects children and protects religious rights in a way that the community is comfortable with, and accepting of, and will participate in," Adams said. "We expect to announce this new policy soon.”

In 2014, the health department reported four cases of neonatal herpes it believed were linked to the practice.

Earlier story

LOS ANGELES: Actress Alicia Silverstone shuns genital cutting

Times of Israel
May 4, 2014

Alicia Silverstone nixes circumcision

Jewish actress cites medical studies in speaking out against performing a 'brit'
by Aron Dónzis

Count actress Alicia Silverstone among those Jews advocating against circumcision.

In her new book, “The Kind Mama: A Simple Guide to Supercharged Fertility, a Radiant Pregnancy, a Sweeter Birth, and a Healthier, More Beautiful Beginning,” the celebrity explains her personal decision not to circumcise her son, Bear, according to the website Beyond the Bris: News and Views on Jewish Circumcision.

“I was raised Jewish, so the second my parents found out that they had a male grandchild, they wanted to know when we’d be having a bris (the Jewish circumcision ceremony traditionally performed 8 days after a baby is born),” Silverstone writes. “When I said we weren’t having one, my dad got a bit worked up. But my thinking was: If little boys were supposed to have their penises ‘fixed,’ did that mean we were saying that God made the body imperfect?”

The 37-year-old actress, best known for roles including the 1990s classic “Clueless,” offers a number of other explanations in her book in favor of preserving the male foreskin, including rejecting as outdated the notion that circumcision is a health precaution, and arguing that sexual pleasure is increased when the foreskin remains intact.

Silverstone grew up in a traditional Jewish household, the website explains. Candles were lit on Friday nights, she attended Hebrew school and has fond memories of her bat mitzvah. As an adult, her ties to Judaism remain strong.

“Judaism turned me into who I am today, and I definitely feel I live a very spiritual life. I got that from my parents,” she has said.

Silverstone has a blog, entitled The Kind Life, and another book on healthy eating.

NEW YORK: Hypospadias - rabbi botches circumcision

Courthouse News Service
December 5, 2013

Mom Claims Rabbi Botched Circumcision

by Nick Divito
BROOKLYN (CN) - A rabbi botched the bris of an infant who had a birth defect involving his penis, and then failed to preserve the foreskin, the boy's mother claims in Kings County Superior Court.

Rabbi Eliyahu Shain performed the bris on Benjamin Altman in December 2009 at New York University Medical Center's Pediatric Associates of New York City.

But the boy's mother, Staci H. Altman, says the mohel failed to recognize that the boy had hypospadias, a medical condition where the urethra develops [no, emerges] on the underside of the penis.

[Hypospadias is an absolute contraindication for circumcision.]

Since then, the boy's permanent injuries have caused him to suffer "great physical pain and mental anguish and loss of enjoyment of life," according to the lawsuit.

The circumcision was allegedly performed "outside of a hospital or appropriate medical facility," ...

The boy's mother seeks unspecified actual and punitive damages for negligence.

...

TEL AVIV: Botched baby in critical condition

Times of Israel
May 30, 2013

Baby in critical condition after circumcision

by Stuart Winer

Barely breathing boy rushed to hospital following ritual

A baby boy slipped into unconsciousness during a circumcision ceremony and was taken to hospital in a critical condition on Thursday.

The eight-day-old infant underwent the brit milah ritual at the Pinhas Lavon synagogue in Holon when he stopped breathing and lost pulse.

The family made desperate calls to Magen David Adom for an ambulance and to the Hazalah first response organization.

Medic Yehuda Mizrahi was first to arrive on the scene.

“When I arrived, the baby was completely blue, not breathing and with no pulse,” he told Channel 2, and described how he began resuscitation techniques, including massages to try to restart the boy’s vital systems. Finally an ambulance arrived and the infant was rushed to Wolfson hospital.

Doctors began investigating what might have caused the incident, including excessive blood loss, a congenital disease, or infection. [Hmm, I wonder. How about that wound on his penis?]

NEW YORK: Metzitah "without consent": Another herpes case

The Jewish Press
April 3, 2013

Mother Blames Mohel for Baby's Herpes after Circumcision

by Tzvi Ben-Gedalyahu

The question of the safety of the controversial ritual of sucking the baby’s blood after the foreskin is cut in a circumcision has again been raised following another case of Herpes.

This year’s second case of herpes resulting from the “metzitzah b’peh” custom immediately after circumcision was reported in New York, and the mother of the baby has blamed the mohel for performing to rite without her consent.

The baby survived after contacting the disease following the ritual of the mohel sucking a bit of blood after the circumcision, a custom that is practiced mainly by the Haredi orthodox community in the United States but which is common throughout Israel.

Controversy over the procedure and numerous reports of Herpes prompted the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to require parents to sign a consent form before the procedure can be performed.

The mother of the baby said she the mohel did not ask her for permission.

NEW YORK: Metzitah Are hospitals hiding herpes?

The Daily Forward
April 1, 2013

Are New York Hospitals Hiding Herpes From Metzitzah B'Peh Circumcision Rite?

Refuse To Respond to Claims Made by Yeshiva U. Rabbi

bySeth Berkman

Are some New York City hospitals and the city’s Department of Health suppressing disclosure of cases in which a dangerous herpes virus is being transmitted by mohels to newborns?

Representatives from New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center refused to respond to this allegation — made specifically about their own hospital — by a senior rabbinic authority at Yeshiva University recently. The city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene also declined to respond to the charge despite multiple requests.

As his source for the allegation, Rabbi Hershel Schachter, the influential YU rabbinical leader who made the charge publicly, cited his own daughter who, he said, works as a nurse at New York Presbyterian.

In a public lecture last February in London, Schachter, who is a rosh yeshiva, or senior chief rabbinic authority, at Y.U.’s Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, claimed that his daughter’s hospital treated three cases per year of Hasidic babies infected with herpes. The infections were “obviously because of metzitzah b’peh,” Schachter told his audience. The remarks were first posted March 14 on the website Failed Messiah.

The Hebrew term metzitzah b’peh, often shortened to MBP, refers to a procedure practiced by some ultra-Orthodox mohels as part of a male infant’s circumcision rite in which the mohel orally sucks the blood away from the infant’s genital area after cutting away his foreskin. The practice can infect newborns with Herpes Simplex Virus Type 1, according to medical authorities, a virus that, while not serious for adults, can be fatal for infants, or cause permanent cognitive or physical harm.

Since 2004, the New York City Department Of Health And Mental Hygiene has reported 12 cases, with two deaths. Schachter cited his daughter as claiming that there are, in fact, about 15 such cases per year in the city, including the three cases or so she claimed per year at her own hospital.

Schachter said his daughter explained that the hospitals do not report these cases because Hasidic clients would not return if they were made public.

Mohels from outside the ultra-Orthodox community use a sterile pipette for this purpose. But many ultra-Orthodox mohels consider direct suction of the genital area by mouth to be mandated by the Talmud as part of the religious rite.

In contrast to New York Presbyterian and the New York City Department of Health, Maimonides Hospital in Brooklyn, which has perhaps the largest clientele of Orthodox patients in the city, strongly denied Schachter’s allegation.

Eileen Tynion, assistant vice president, public relations for Maimonides, wrote in an email that, “Like all hospitals, Maimonides is required to report cases of infant herpes to the DOH, and we remain in compliance at all times with that requirement.” In September 2011, a two-week old boy died at Maimonides after contracting herpes following MBP, according to the city medical examiner.

Efforts to reach Schachter and his daughter were unsuccessful.

The ultra-Orthodox umbrella group Agudath Israel of America, which has filed a lawsuit against the city’s effort to regulate MBP, also declined to comment on Schachter’s allegations.

Schachter’s remarks on the issue were part of a broader talk he gave to an audience of British rabbis that has sparked intense controversy. During the lecture, Schachter also said that allegations of child sexual abuse within the Orthodox community should not be directly reported to law enforcement authorities; instead, he said, they should first be brought before a special panel of Torah scholars who are also psychologists to determine their validity. He voiced caution about sending cases to law authorities because such action could result in a Jew being sent to a state prison, where he could be locked up “with a shvartze, in a cell with a Muslim, a black Muslim who wants to kill all the Jews."

[So he can hardly be accused of being motivated by antisemitism. How similar are his and the Roman Catholic Church's approches to child abuse by their members!]

Earlier story

LONDON: Doctors slam MP for pro-circumcision stance

Secular Medical Forum
March 11, 2013

Secular Medical Forum challenges Ed Miliband's support for religious circumcision

by

The Secular Medical Forum has condemned Ed Miliband's recent support for the ritual genital cutting of children and called on the labour leader to rethink his stance on the issue.

On 7 March Ed Miliband told an audience in London that he supports the practices of brit milah – a Jewish religious male circumcision ceremony performed on 8-day-old male infants. In reference to ritual circumcision and kosher animal slaughter, the leader of the Labour party said: "These are important traditions … ways of life must be preserved".

The removal of a young boy's foreskin is commonly practised in the UK for religious reasons. The Secular Medical Forum (SMF) argues that the operation disregards autonomy and exposes the child to significant risks, including bleeding, infection and death. In a statement, the SMF said it questioned Mr Miliband's support for the "ethically flawed and medically dangerous" procedure.

Anthony Lempert, Chair of the Secular Medical Forum, said; "The first principle of healthcare is 'primum non nocere – first do no harm'. This guidance is disregarded by supporters of ritual circumcision.

"The Secular Medical Forum calls on Mr Miliband to focus squarely on the rights of vulnerable infants and children. Mr Miliband should prioritise the rights of children rather than harmful religious traditions. Mr Miliband should defend the weak, rather than preserve abusive traditions. He should not be misled by misplaced allegations of anti-semitism against those striving to protect children from harm."

In 2012, a German court caused international controversy when it found that parental consent to religious circumcision was in conflict with the best interests of the child, and ruled that parents do not have the right to circumcise their children without a medical reason. Following the court ruling, the government of Angela Merkel introduced legislation permitting the tradition.

A full statement from the Secular Medical Form can be found here.

NEW YORK: Father sues over botched circumcision

DNAinfo.com (New York)
March 5, 2013

Queens Infant Disfigured in Botched Bris, Lawsuit Charges

by James Fanelli

FOREST HILLS — A Queens rabbi botched the bris of an 8-day-old boy, then told the dad that he did an acceptable job, even though the infant needed corrective surgery, a new lawsuit charges.

Gavriel Barukh, the father of the boy, is suing Rabbi Mordechai Rachminov, claiming he sliced off part of his son's corona glandis during the religious ceremony on Oct. 16, 2011, at the Bukharian Jewish Community Center in Forest Hills, according to the lawsuit filed last week in Queens Civil Supreme Court.

After the ritual, Rachminov, 69, misled Barukh by claiming the circumcision was "performed appropriately and that his conduct was within the standard of care and skill required of Jewish mohelim and circumcisers," the lawsuit says.

He also allegedly told Barukh that a physician wasn't necessary. Even after it became apparent that the bris went awry, Rachminov and the community center failed to call a doctor, the suit says.

Barukh claims that the delay in medical treatment resulted in greater permanent damage to his son. The boy had to undergo corrective surgery with general anesthesia and may need even more procedures, the lawsuit says.

A woman who answered the phone at Rachminov's home said the allegations weren't true.

"I didn't hear any of this," she said.

The Bukharian Jewish Community Center was also named in the lawsuit. A woman who answered the phone at the center said Rachminov no longer works there. She declined to comment about the lawsuit.

Barukh's lawyer did not return a call for comment.

The practice of performing a bris became a hotly debated topic in September after an infant died from contracting herpes ...

HESSE, GERMANY: Charges dropped against circumcising rabbi

Haaretz
February 24, 2013

German prosecutor drops anti-circumcision charges against mohel

by

Court says Hof chief rabbi, David Goldberg, who was charged in 2012 after a Cologne court ruled circumcision illegal in Germany, satisfies child welfare requirements.

A statement by the Hof prosecutor on February 21 said that Rabbi David Goldberg of Hof satisfied all requirements regarding child welfare “which are not jeopardized by the circumcision,” the Jewish-German publication Jüdische Allgemeine reported.

“Circumcisions which are applied with the consent of parents or custodians are not subject to criminal liability,” the prosecutor added. [The prosecuter seems to interpret the new law retrospectively.]

Charges were brought against Goldberg last year after a court in Cologne ruled that circumcision was illegal in Germany. Goldberg, who has been working as a mohel in Germany since 1997, said he was very pleased the case was now closed and that there was clarity on the issue.

“I never had any doubts, I still performed circumcisions,” he said. "But I think this is very good news for parents who did have doubts, and for the entire Jewish community.”

The German parliament has since passed a new law allowing circumcision, with some restrictions.

Earlier story

NEW YORK: Metzitzah: Federal court upholds consent form

They just don't give up, do they?

Jewish Daily Forward
February 22, 2013

Federal Court Refuses To Block New York Circumcision Consent Form Law

Rejects Metzitzah B'Peh Motion Filed by Orthodox Groups

by Seth Berkman

Proponents of metzitzah b’peh, the controversial circumcision ritual, were denied a request for an emergency stay in the enforcement of a recent New York City law that regulates the procedure. The decision was handed down by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.

The motion, filed by the Central Rabbinical Congress of the USA & Canada, Agudath Israel, the International Bris Association and a group of rabbis, failed “to meet requisite standards,” according to the court.

...

Recent studies by the New York City DOHMH have revealed 12 area infants who have contracted herpes after circumcision, with two of the infants dying soon after.

WARSAW: Hilton changes mind, allows 'rare" bris

Arutz Sheva
November 2, 2012

Warsaw Hilton to Allow Circumcision Ceremony

The Hilton hotel in Warsaw, Poland, has retracted its refusal to allow a Jewish family to hold a circumcision ceremony and party in the hotel this coming Sunday.

According to a Kol Yisrael radio report on Thursday, the hotel had initially informed the family of the Chabad emissary to Poland that it will not allow the ceremony because a circumcision does not seem hygienic and does not meet the standards of the hotel.

Chabad members were angered by the refusal because such a celebration is rare among the local Jewish community. Hotel management eventually changed its mind and announced that it would allow the ceremony.

NEW YORK: Metzitzah - mohelim object to informed consent forms

City & State
July 23, 2012

Rabbis Defend Controversial Circumcision Practice to City Health Officials

By Wilder Fleming
At a hearing yesterday in Queens, New York City rabbis defended a controversial circumcision practice that has been blamed for infecting infants with herpes, in some cases causing their death.

The practice, called “metzitzah b’peh,” requires the circumciser, or mohel, to suck the infant’s wounds after circumcision, and has led to at least two cases of infant death in New York since 2000.  The city wants to amend the health law to require mohels to obtain written consent from parents indicating they are fully aware of the risks involved in the ritual circumcision, or bris.

“I myself have performed 25,000 circumcisions, and, thank God, we have not had one single incident … our guidelines are, I think, much stricter than the medical profession,” said Rabbi A. Romi Cohn, a mohel and a Holocaust survivor who represented the American Board of Ritual Circumcision at the hearing.

But Cohn admitted that some people who are not certified according to Jewish law masquerade as mohels in order to make money, sometimes as much as $500 to $1,000 per bris.

“This is completely forbidden, but unfortunately they are doing it,” Cohn said. “These people don’t know what sterility means. They don’t know about infection. We try to tell parents that if they choose a circumciser, he should be board-certified.”

Mohels argued the city’s proposed changes would infringe on their religious freedom, but city health officials are pushing back.

“The concept of informed consent puts more of the decision-making power and more of the information in the hands of the parents,” said Susan Blank, the assistant commissioner of the STD Control Program at the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Blank said she was confused by rabbis’ opposition, which she argued allowed them their religious freedom while simultaneously allowing parents greater control over their child’s welfare.

“The Department has received multiple complaints from parents whose children may not have been infected who were also not aware that direct oral suction was going to be performed as part of their sons’ circumcisions,” according to a notice from the New York City Board of Health.

The city’s interference in the ritual could lead to legal action, the mohels said.

“Being a mohel is a religious status…I cannot follow an outside authority,” said Rabbi Levi Heber, the director of the International Bris Association. [Translation: "I believe I am above the law."]
Heber said that if the city enacted the proposed amendment the mohels would take legal action to stop it.

“If we feel that our religious freedom is being restricted, we have the right to challenge it in court … we are ready, if needed, to challenge this,” he said.

The Board of Health plans to reach a decision on the proposal in September.
[The Gothamist headline: Rabbis: Pry These Foreskins From Our Cold, Dead Lips]
 
Earlier story

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL: Mohel tweets about small penis, brit b'li periah

Life in Israel
April 18, 2012

Mohel Tweets Himself Into Trouble With Controversial Tweets

By Rafi G.

In a very strange incident, Rav Avi Zarki, a popular mohel in Tel Aviv, tweeted two tweets on his twitter account that have him in hot water.

1. According to my professional opinion, today we can do the circumcision according to halacha without doing the traditional "preeya". [Then why not without the traditional milah?] tweet
2. Today I did a circumcision on a child with the smallest penis I have ever seen - a micro penis. You should undertand, it was slightly thicker than a matchstick. [One hates to think what damage will come to light when its owner grows up.] At 1st I thought it was a girl. Zeh HaKotton Gadol Yiheyeh (play on words saying this small one should become big). tweet

Kikar [in Hebrew] spoke to Rav Zarki to get a response, after his tweets caused a stir. Zarki defended his tweets basically by saying he is in an unusual position and has silent rabbinic support for his style. His position is unusual because he works a lot with the non-religious community and needs to do brash things in order to keep circumcision a topic of conversation. He says he has rabbinic support for his approach, but the rabbonim dont always want their names mentioned publicly, though he reminds us that he was one of the leading students of Rav Wolbe zt"l..

Regarding his comment that preeya is no longer necessary, he did not offer much of an explanation. He did say that it is the Solonika method that performs the circumcision together with the preeya, while he has letters from many rabbonim (including Rav Ovadiah Yosef he says) supporting his alternate method.

The comment about the baby, while he had a cute line with his "zeh hakotton gadol yiheyeh", was tasteless and inappropriate for him to make. if the parents had seen what he tweeted, I am sure they would not have been happy. The comment about preeya demands more of an explanation than trust me that anonymous rabbis support me.

ISRAEL: Baby loses 1/3 of penis in worse-than-usual circumcision

Algemeiner
April 18, 2012

Mohel Cuts Off A Third of Baby's Penis During Circumcision

A circumcision in Northern Israel went horribly wrong recently, when the mohel responsible for the procedure accidentally cut off a third of the infant’s penis [instead of just a third of the skin] , Israeli media reported on Wednesday.

The infant was rushed to a hospital in Haifa, Israel where an emergency operation was performed because his life was in danger. The circumcision procedure, traditionally done 8 days after birth, may have caused permanent damage to the child [May have? Nay, it did: it always does] , although senior urologists at the hospital said it will be a number of days until anything can be determined.

The baby’s parents have gone to the Israeli Ministry of Health to report the incident.