COPENHAGEN: Danish doctors come out against infant male genital cutting

The Local (Denmark)
December 5, 2016

Danish doctors come out against circumcision

The Danish Medical Association (Lægeforeningen) has recommended that no boys under the age of 18 be circumcised in Denmark.

The association released its recommendation on Friday, saying that circumcision should be “an informed, personal choice” that young men should make for themselves.

In a press release, the group said that when parents have their male children circumcised, it robs the boys of the ability to make decisions about their own bodies and their own cultural and religious beliefs.

“To be circumcised should be an informed, personal choice. It is most consistent with the individual’s right to self-determination that parents not be allowed to make this decision but that it is left up to the individual when he has come of age,” Lise Møller, the chairwoman of the doctors’ association’s ethics board, said.

Lægeforeningen said that male circumcision carries a risk of complications and should only be performed on children when there is a documented medical need.

In making its recommendation, the doctors’ association stopped short of calling for a legal ban on male circumcision, which is legal but relatively rare in Denmark.

“We have discussed it thoroughly, also in our ethics committee. We came to the conclusion that it is difficult to predict the consequences of a ban – both for the involved boys, who could for example face bullying or unauthorized procedures with complications – and for the cultural and religious groups they belong to,” Møller said.

The Danish Health and Medicines Authority (Sundhedsstyrelsen) estimates that somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 circumcisions are performed in Denmark each year, primarily on Jewish and Muslim boys.

The majority of those procedures occur outside of the public health system and are done in religious ceremonies in the child's home or at private clinics.

There are thought to be an unknown number of circumcisions carried out each year that are not reported. Last year it was revealed that the State Serum Institute (SSI) had kept a database of circumcisions for 19 months despite never receiving legal authority to do so from the Danish Data Protection Agency (Datatilsynet).

That illegally-kept database was deleted in August 2015 but the Health Ministry announced on Monday that beginning in 2017 all circumcisions, regardless of where they take place, will need to be reported to Denmark's national patient registry (Landspatientregistret).

According to a major 2007 study by the World Health Organization, roughly 30 percent of the global male population is circumcised. Of those, roughly two thirds are practising Muslims, while 0.8 percent are Jews.

Male circumcision regularly pops up as the subject of debate in Denmark and polls have shown that upwards of 87 percent of Danes have expressed support for banning the practise on boys under the age of 18.

Female circumcision, also known as female genital mutilation (FGM), is illegal in Denmark.

ISRAEL: Racist mohel sends novices to practice cutting on Ethopians

Haaretz
November 29, 2016

Israeli Rabbi Uses Ethiopians, Sudanese Infants for Circumcision Training, Report Shows

The investigation by Israel's new broadcaster captured mentor, Rabbi Eliyahu Asulin, saying on camera that the poorer strata of the population are 'cannon fodder.'

Inexperienced students of circumcision have been practicing their skills on the babies of the poorest of Israeli society – Ethiopian and Sudanese families – often claiming to be fully-qualified mohels (Jewish ritual circumcisers,) according to a new investigation.

The investigation was conducted by Kan, Israel's new public broadcasting corporation.

According to the investigation, the initiates are students of Rabbi Eliyahu Asulin of Hadera, a rabbinate-approved mohel with over 30 years' experience, who is paid thousands of dollars by the students to teach them the trade.

In many instances, according to the investigation, Asulin sends totally inexperienced students to conduct circumcisions among poor families, without accompanying them himself.

Asulin allegedly explained to the Kan investigative journalist that he first instructs the students to make business cards describing their profession as "Mohel." Then he tells them to distribute their cards at nurseries and post-natal clinics.

Meanwhile, the recording of Asulin continues, "I'll lodge a mohel certificate in your name with the rabbinate. That will already gives you a year's headstart."

The rabbi goes on to explain why the students practice on the babies of the weaker strata of the population: "Why not?" he asks in the recording. "They have no father. No mother… There's no problem. Even if your cut isn't straight, they won't say anything, because they don't understand anything."

He later told the investigator – who by then had signed up for the course at a price of $11,000, according to the report – "They're Ethiopians, you're doing it to Ethiopians… There are the regular Ethiopians and then there are the Sudanese. They're the worst. They're as black as natives."

Asulin also said he tells his students to claim to be qualified when dealing with the Ethiopians and Sudanese. "Why does everyone go to them?" he asks. "Because that's where you learn. They're cannon fodder."

Asulin, according to the Kan investigation, is not the only mohel who sends students to practice on poor families. Kan says it has recorded conversations with others who do the same thing.

Asulin said in response that the video footage of him had been edited and that the exposé had been ordered by “political elements” in Hadera.

“I have circumcised thousands of Ethiopian babies and I see it as a holy work," he said. "I will continue to dedicate my life to the public.”

In a statement reported by Channel 2, the Chief Rabbinate said: “If the incidents described in the video are true, we see it as a very grave incident.”

ISRAEL: Father fails to protect son from genital cutting

Arutz Sheva
October 20, 2016

Dad explains why he kidnapped baby

Father who ran off with baby just before circumcision explains his motives.
by Haim Lev

The father who took his newborn son and ran out of a synagogue in Bnei Brak on Tuesday, just before the child was to be circumcised, has agreed to explain his motives.

The father explained he wanted to "redeem his son's foreskin with money" in order to avoid fulfilling the commandment to circumcise newborn boys. In the end, after he was told the circumcision (brit) would happen with or without him, the father agreed to circumcise his son that day or on a subsequent day. In the end, the circumcision took place as planned.

"Just like every other circumcision, there's a lot of blood and a crying baby. It doesn't matter how good the mohel is, cutting a limb is cutting a limb, and it hurts. I decided it's not going to happen, I'm not circumcising my son, and I won't circumcise my next son, if I have one," the father wrote on his blog.

"I thought," he said, "I'll go in with the baby in a carseat, and I'll ask to redeem the foreskin with money instead of doing a circumcision. It's true that there is no such [redemption] procedure and I made it up on the spot, but today everyone makes up laws and rules that are appropriate for the times, so I figured, why not?"

"And if they don't let me do that, which is what I figured would happen, I thought I'd just walk out with the carseat, get in the first taxi I see and travel to Rishon LeZion with the baby," he said.

Later, the father told how his plan failed, and explained that he had no complaints against the haredi mohel or Rabbi Kanievsky, who served as sandak (the person who honored with holding the baby during the circumcision).

"I trust Rabbi Diament, the mohel and Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky. I'm just against physically hurting a baby. The circumcision is what bothers me," he said.

Circumcision involves a minimal amount of blood and the baby, given a cloth with ceremonial wine on it to suck - and in some places, aspirin - at first, quiets down and is handed back to his mother for a feeding. It is the commandment given to the Patriarch Abraham as a sign of the Jewish People's covenant (brit) with the Almighty.

ISRAEL: Father rescues son from genital cutting

Kidnaps? No, rescues!

Arutz Sheva
October 18, 2016

Secular father kidnaps baby minutes before circumcision

Formerly religious father runs off with newborn son moments before circumcision where Rabbi Kanievsky was set to serve as 'sandak'.
by Arutz Sheva Staff

A planned circumcision in the city of Bnei Brak descended into chaos on Tuesday when the father of the newborn boy snatched the baby up and bolted in an attempt to thwart his son from undergoing the traditional Jewish operation.

The father, a formerly religious man, is adamantly opposed to his son taking part in the Jewish rite of passage traditionally performed on the eighth day after birth.

The event included one of the haredi world’s leading rabbinic figures, Rabbi Haim Kanievsky, who was set to serve as “sandak” – the person who assists in the circumcision, considered a position of honor.

A number of families were participating in the joint event, and when the turn of the child in question came, his father suddenly appeared, grabbed him up, and fled.

While others present at the synagogue where the circumcisions were taking place attempted to convince him to recant on his opposition, the father remained adamant, and left with his son.

“This was really shocking,” said one of the witnesses. “The mother made the effort to invite Rabbi Kanievsky to be the boy’s sandak – now she’s left weeping bitterly.” [Unlike the baby, for a change.]

JERUSALEM: Metzitzah: Two boys contract herpes

The Jerusalem Post
June 3, 2016

Two recent cases [of] herpes in babies following Brit Milah

by Jeremy Sharon
The Schneider Children’s Medical Center for Israel in Petah Tikva has reported two recent cases in which baby boys have been infected with the herpes virus following their brit mila.

The infections are believed to be the result of ritual circumcisions in which the metzitza ba’peh procedure was used, whereby the mohel, or person performing the circumcision, uses his mouth to suction blood off the penis after the foreskin has been cut off.

This practice is mentioned in the Talmud and codifications of Jewish law, but is now uncommon outside of the haredi community because of the risk of infection, and suction is achieved instead by means of a sterile plastic tube.

According to Schneider, one baby was released last week after having been infected with herpes, while another baby was admitted to the hospital two months ago with the same disease.

“Both children were quickly examined, treated appropriately and released in excellent condition. Both of them will continue to receive oral treatment until the age of six months,” Schneider said.
The hospital reiterated its backing of suction via a tube instead of by mouth “to avoid this difficult infection.”

According to Rabbi Moshe Marciano, director of the circumcision division of the Chief Rabbinate, the infected babies did not have the same mohel.

In one case, the mohel was the father of the infected baby, and is not an authorized mohel, while the second family refused to give the details of the mohel who performed the circumcision.

The Health Ministry confirmed that only one mohel had been identified, but did not indicate that is was the father of the baby.

Marciano said metzitza ba’peh is an approved practice for mohels authorized by the Chief Rabbinate, but added that parents can request that it not be used and the mohel is obliged to conform.

He also said that rabbinate guidelines state if the mohel has any wound or infection in his mouth he must not do metzitza ba’peh.

Metziza ba’peh has caused controversy in recent years, most notably in New York where at least 17 cases of herpes have been reported since 2000, resulting in two deaths.

Earlier story

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.

BRUSSELS: No, Europe's cutting concern undiminished

The Jewish Daily Forward
October 9, 2015

Europe Council Reiterates Opposition to Circumcision

he Council of Europe refuted reports in Israeli media that it had canceled a resolution from 2013 that called nonmedical circumcision of boys a harmful violation of children’s rights.

The clarification Thursday on the position of the Council, a body for pan-European dialog that has no executive powers and is not part of the European Union, came following statements by Israeli politicians, Jewish activists and media suggesting the Council had reversed its position on the practice.

According to those statements, the change came in the passing on Sept. 30 by the Council’s Parliamentary Assembly of Resolution 2076 on “Freedom of religion and living together in a democratic society.”

Milah UK, a leading Jewish advocacy group supporting the practice, on Tuesday said in a statement that Resolution 2076 “cancels a previous motion that had cast into doubt the legality of religious circumcision.” Milah is the Hebrew-language name for the ritual circumcision of eight-day-old males. Muslims also circumcise their children.

The previous resolution referenced by Milah UK is Resolution 1952, which the assembly passed in 2013 and which lists milah along with female genital mutilation and calls both practices a harmful “violation of the physical integrity of children.”

But Nathalie Bargellini, a spokesperson for the Council’s Parliamentary Assembly, on Thursday told JTA that Resolution 2076 “does not cancel nor replace Resolution 1952.” She noted the more recent resolution references the older one.

Bargellini also said that Resolution 2076 “calls for strict conditions governing the exercise of this practice.” According to the new resolution, “circumcision should not be allowed ‘unless practiced by a person with the requisite training and skill, in appropriate medical and health conditions,’” Bargellini said.

Resolution 1952 carried no such recommendation for outlawing certain types of circumcision — a divisive issue in Europe for its relevance to immigration by Muslims and to children’s rights.

Though it is nonbinding, the 2013 resolution was controversial and was seen as significant because it was the first time that a prominent pan-European institution weighed in on the circumcision debate.

Earlier story

JERUSALEM: Jews, Muslims unite to undo Europe's cutting caution

The Jerusalem Post
October 1, 2015

Council of Europe cancels anti-circumcision measure after joint Jewish-Muslim effort

Jewish and Muslim MKs united over past two years to advocate for reversal of Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe resolution calling to ban ritual circumcision of children.
by Lahav Harkov

Two years of efforts by the Knesset to combat a resolution by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe recommending that countries ban [no, age-restrict] ritual circumcision bore fruit Thursday, when it was reversed via a resolution on religious freedoms. Passed with 73 in favor and six opposed, the resolution recommends that PACE member states “seek reasonable accommodations with a view to guaranteeing equality that is effective, and not merely formal, in the right to freedom of religion.”

It gives general guidelines to promote coexistence and fight hate speech, allowing religious communities to practice their faith, manage welfare institutions and express their opinions.
The resolution refers specifically to Islamophobia, but not to anti-Semitism.

The council recommended that states require circumcisions to be performed by people trained to do so, in appropriate medical and health conditions, and that parents be informed of any medical risk to their child.

The resolution also addresses ritual slaughter, stating that PACE is not convinced it should be banned, and recommends following the French or German model of protecting animals from unnecessary suffering while respecting religious freedom.

MK Esawi Frej (Meretz), who represented the Knesset at the vote, called the decision a victory for common sense.

“The argument about whether to circumcise is legitimate, but opponents of the ancient ritual should fight through education and public relations and not try to force their opinions through legislation,” Frej said. [While those who cut children force their opinions with a knife.]

In October 2013, PACE’s Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development Committee approved a resolution by German rapporteur Marlene Rupperecht stating that ritual circumcision, in addition to piercings, tattoos, plastic surgery, medical intervention in cases of possibly transgender children and female genital mutilation, violates children’s right to protect their physical integrity. [The words "protect their" are not in the resolution. Obviously small children can not protect their own integrity.]

It also recommended that laws be passed “to ensure that certain operations and practices will not be carried out before a child is old enough to be consulted.” Jews perform ritual circumcision on boys when they are eight days old, and Muslims do so at the age of 13.
PACE resolutions are non-binding, but are taken seriously by member states.

Since the resolution passed, the Knesset, under Speaker Yuli Edelstein’s leadership and the guidance of Knesset Diplomatic Advisor Oded Ben-Hur, has sent delegations of MKs, Jewish and Muslim, to PACE and to countries from Azerbaijan in the East to Paris in the West, to enlist their European colleagues from other countries in the battle against the decision and other initiatives to ban ritual circumcision. MKs advocated for ritual circumcision to be dealt with as a matter of religious freedom, as opposed to children’s rights, moving it to PACE’s Culture, Science Education and Media Committee, which discusses religious issues, among others.
...

NEW YORK: Metzitzah: City not telling doctors about herpes cases

The Jewish Daily Forward
September 25, 2015

New Controversial Circumcision Rite Rules: Don't Ask, Don't Tell

by Paul Berger
New York City has not only stopped requiring mohels to obtain written consent before performing a controversial circumcision rite — the city has also stopped alerting doctors and the public when it suspects that a mohel has infected a baby with herpes following the ritual, known as metzitzah b’peh or MBP.

Between January 2013 and December 2014 — when the city enforced its short-lived attempt to regulate MBP through a consent form — each time health officials identified a neonatal herpes infection linked to the practice, they reminded doctors of the care and sampling procedures to follow if infants displayed symptoms.

The alerts also brought media and public attention to the ongoing health issues related to the practice.
During that period, there were six cases in which city health officials believed that the ritual — in which the mohel uses his mouth to suction blood from the circumcision wound — infected a baby with herpes.

Since 2000 MBP has been blamed for 18 cases of neonatal herpes in New York City. Two of those babies died, and two others suffered brain damage.

But at the beginning of 2015, under pressure from the ultra-Orthodox community, the administration of New York City’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, announced the city’s intention to revoke the consent form regulation.

At a meeting of the city’s board of health September 9, when the consent form regulation was officially revoked, health commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett revealed that there had been a case of neonatal herpes infection linked to MBP this past April.

... the department’s press secretary, Christopher Miller, ...<1--gave no explanation. He later--> told the Forward in an email that the department did not issue a health alert for the April case because “we believed that awareness at the provider level was sufficiently high given all the press in recent months.”

...<1--But media attention surrounding MBP, which is practiced exclusively by a subset of ultra-Orthodox mohels, has been no greater this year than in previous years.

According to a search of news articles and transcripts on LexisNexis during 2013 and 2014, when the health department issued five health alerts — one for each month in which it became aware of a case or multiple cases — there were some 200 media stories about MBP and neonatal herpes.

>What has changed this year is the city’s approach toward MBP. During his 2013 election campaign, de Blasio pledged to replace a city regulation of MBP enacted in 2012 under former mayor Michael Bloomberg.

The regulation, which enraged the ultra-Orthodox community, required mohels to get written consent from parents before performing MBP.

The consent form, drafted by the city’s health department, warned parents that MBP poses a risk of infecting their child with herpes, which could result in brain damage or death.

Many leading ultra-Orthodox rabbis and mohels do not believe that MBP causes herpes infection in infants.

The virus, which commonly causes cold sores, is prevalent in more than two-thirds of adults in New York City.

Mohels say that by using the correct infection control practices, such as gargling with mouthwash, they can prevent the spread of the disease.

They believe that many neonatal herpes cases the city attributes to mohels were caused by a family member or a caregiver touching the circumcision wound with a finger or hand.

Yerachmiel Simins, a lawyer who represents the ultra-Orthodox community ...said that the ultra-Orthodox community has still not come to an agreement with the health department over the terms of the DNA protocol. He said that the ultra-Orthodox community has been keen to conduct DNA testing on mohels for years, but the city has “steadfastly and consistently” refused.

...Jonathan Zenilman, chief of the infectious diseases division at Johns Hopkins University, said that by allowing the ultra-Orthodox community to continue performing MBP as it did before the consent form regulation was brought into force, the city’s health department was being cowardly by acting in a “pusillanimous” fashion.
...

Earlier story

NEW YORK: Metzitzah now virtually unregulated

the Washington Post
September 9, 2015

NYC ends consent requirement for circumcision suction ritual

by Jennifer Peltz 
NEW YORK — People who perform an ultra-Orthodox Jewish circumcision suction ritual will no longer have to get parents to sign acknowledgements of potential health risks, the city Board of Health decided Wednesday, reversing a policy that pitted health officials against religious leaders over a practice that dates to biblical times.

The vote formalized a tentative policy shift Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration made in February. The city now distributes information about what officials see as possible risks of oral suction circumcision, but signed consent forms are no longer required.

“The Board of Health, from the start, aimed to ensure that parents had information so that they could make informed decisions,” Health Commissioner Dr. Mary Bassett said Wednesday, adding that the consent requirement “hadn’t been that effective.”

The practice is performed each year on an estimated 3,000 New York City babies, a fraction of the city’s Jewish population. The ritual, formally called metzitzah b’peh in Hebrew, entails a rabbi or another circumciser sucking blood from an infant’s circumcision wounds.

City health officials believe the practice was linked to at least 18 cases of infant herpes since 2000, though DNA testing to pinpoint the source of the infection was not done in all cases. Two babies died, and two others suffered brain damage.

In 2012, the health board passed a requirement for signed consent from infants’ parents or guardians, including acknowledgement that they understood that health officials recommended against the practice.

Some rabbis objected, seeing the requirement as an imposition on religious rights, and they urged their faithful not to comply. Those who performed the ceremony questioned any link between the practice and spreading herpes, saying they deployed herpes testing, hand-scrubbing and mouthwash to ensure it didn’t.

Rabbi Romi Cohn of Brooklyn, who says he has safely performed about 35,000 such rituals, commended the city’s change of direction.

“Oral circumcision is part of our tradition,” he said by phone after Wednesday’s vote. “I think New York will be blessed for doing the right thing.”

The matter put the health board in a difficult position, members noted.

“It is our core responsibility to protect the health of New Yorkers,” member Dr. Deepthiman K. Gowda said. “At the same time, we have to institute educational policy that actually works. ... The rollout of our previous policy actually eroded the relationship we wanted.”

But some weren’t convinced the problems merited ending the requirement.

“A very significant public health concern is served,” said Dr. Lynne Richardson, who abstained from the vote.

The city has distributed 20,000 printed copies and 22,000 email copies of a new informational brochure in English and Yiddish, Bassett said.

Earlier story

ISRAEL: Baby's Penis Reattached after Mohel Botches Circumcision

Israel Hayom
August 7, 2015

Baby's penis reattached in hospital after brit goes wrong

After circumcision is botched, family members keep severed tissue on ice until baby arrives at hospital • "We are optimistic about the baby's chances of recovery," surgeon says after operation • Unclear what led mohel to remove part of baby's urethra [glans].
by Danny Brenner and Israel Hayom Staff 

An 8-day-old boy from northern Israel was rushed to the Pediatric Emergency Unit at the Rambam Healthcare Campus this week after a botched circumcision in which the mohel severed part of the baby's urethra [glans]. The infant underwent penis reattachment surgery, which doctors later pronounced successful.

The medical team praised the family for placing the severed tissue on ice until they arrived at the hospital, increasing the chances for a successful operation.

The reattachment surgery was performed by senior pediatric urologist Benjamin Hardak.

"These kind of procedures are relatively rare," Hardak said. "The operation was a success and we are optimistic about the baby's chances of recovery, but it is still too soon to know what the ramifications will be for the baby. We are monitoring his condition closely."

Following the surgery the infant was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at the Ruth Rappaport Children's Hospital, part of the Rambam Campus.

Mohels (ritual circumcisers) undergo special training before being allowed to perform the delicate medical procedure.

According to the Health Ministry's statistics, complications following circumcisions occur in less than 1% of cases, with the most common complication being excessive bleeding. Details of what went wrong in the brit in question were not immediately available.

NEW YORK: Metzitzah: De Blasio stacks Health Board to get rid of consent forms

NY Times
June 9, 2015

De Blasio Puts Allies on Panel Hearing Circumcision Plan

by Michael M. Grynbaum
Mayor Bill de Blasio has installed numerous allies on the New York City Board of Health as his administration prepares to present a controversial plan that would ease the rules on a circumcision ritual linked to herpes infections in infants.

The mayor has pointed to his proposal as a way to protect public health while respecting the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community that cherishes the ritual, known as metzitzah b’peh, or oral suction.

But a planned presentation to the board in March was abruptly delayed. Since then, Mr. de Blasio has moved to shake up the health panel, filling vacant spots and replacing members appointed by his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg.

Three of the new board members were contributors to Mr. de Blasio’s 2013 mayoral campaign; among those donors, one is married to an unpaid special adviser to the mayor. The fourth is the president of the city’s Health and Hospitals Corporation, a position he was placed in by Mr. de Blasio.

The mayor’s proposal, which requires approval by the board and will be presented on Wednesday, is supported by ultra-Orthodox rabbis who are among Mr. de Blasio’s most important political supporters. It would waive a requirement that parents sign a consent form before the ritual, which involves sucking blood from the incision on a baby’s penis.

Instead, the mayor’s plan would create an alternative system that would test a circumciser, or mohel, for herpes, although only after a baby is found to be infected. If the circumciser tests positive, penalties would be pursued if DNA tests can prove that the mohel and the baby were infected with the same strain.

The consent rule, introduced under Mayor Bloomberg, was assailed by Orthodox leaders as an infringement of their religious rights. Mr. de Blasio pledged to rescind the rule, and his aides later said the consent forms had been difficult to enforce, saying that herpes infections linked to the practice actually rose in 2014.

“This approach hasn’t been working in the past, and we need a new approach to truly reduce the health risk for infants,” Mr. de Blasio’s press secretary, Karen Hinton, said in a statement on Tuesday.

Ms. Hinton added that the mayor had an “obligation to ensure that the Board of Health is fully staffed with highly qualified health experts.”

Since 2000, the circumcision ritual has been linked to more than a dozen cases of herpes infection in infants and at least two deaths. Several health organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have warned that the ritual can significantly raise the risk of an infant’s being infected.

Aides to Mr. de Blasio have sought to characterize the mayor’s plan as sound science, and they dismiss the earlier Bloomberg approach as a mockery that was ineffective and strained ties with the Orthodox community. Ms. Hinton said that the city would distribute information about the ritual.

A simple majority of the 11-member Board of Health is required to adopt the new circumcision rules.
Dr. Mary T. Bassett, the city health commissioner, has a vote. So does Pamela S. Brier, a Bloomberg appointee who supports the mayor’s plan.

Ms. Brier, the chief executive of Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, has her own ties to Mr. de Blasio. About a decade ago, she created a job at the medical center for his wife, Chirlane McCray.

Dr. Thomas A. Farley, who served as health commissioner under Mr. Bloomberg and spearheaded the consent rule, said on Tuesday that he was concerned about the board’s undoing the older policy.

“This is an inherently risky procedure,” Dr. Farley said. “Focusing on one or another specific mohel is not going to address that fundamental risk.”

Mr. de Blasio’s new appointees include Karen B. Redlener, who oversees several pediatric programs at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore. Ms. Redlener and her husband, Irwin, the special adviser to the mayor, contributed $1,900 to Mr. de Blasio’s 2013 campaign. Two of the appointees, Rosa Gil and Gail Nayowith, gave $400 and $800.

Earlier story

NORWAY: Hospital ritually cuts first baby

The Local (Norway)
March 10, 2015

Norway hospital does first ritual circumcision

A newborn baby had his foreskin surgically removed on Monday under local anaesthetic, while his Muslim parents waited outside the operating room.

“They were very happy,” Ole Tysland, head of surgery at Sørlandet Hospital in Kristiansand, said of the couple. “Most people are glad that we now have the possibility to do this in the hospital.”

Tysland said that several doctors in his hospital believed carrying out the operation was unethical.
“They would say that this is a type of surgery that is not indicated. It’s more a tradition than a necessary operation,” he said. “But they don’t have to do it. We have found other doctors that don’t mind, so we use a doctor who thinks this is OK.”

He said that the hospital did not allow religious officials, or even the children’s parents, into the operating theatre while the circumcision was taking place.

“They stand outside the door and they take the child when we come out with it, and I don’t think it’s a problem. They accept this way of doing it.”

Ritual circumcision has in theory been available under Norway’s public health system since January 1st, following a bill in parliament in 2013.

But it has taken several months for hospitals to start carrying out the operation.

Dr Tysland said that Sørlandet was only offering ritual circumcision to boys under four weeks old, as otherwise the child would require an expensive general anaesthetic.

Norwegian Health Minister Bent Høie caused an uproar in the international Jewish community when he first proposed regulating circumcision, known as Brit Milah in the Jewish community, at the start of last year.

In the end, Norway’s government stopped short of mandating hospital circumcision, instead only insisting that a doctor must be present.

It did, however, rule that public hospitals must start offering the operation to encourage Jewish and Muslim parents to have it done in the safest possible way.

NEW YORK: Metzitzah: New regulations delayed

Wall Street Journal
March 9, 2015

NYC Delays Decision to Repeal Mandatory Parental Consent for Jewish Ritual

by Michael Howard Saul and Melanie Grayce West
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has delayed plans to repeal a city regulation requiring parental consent before a Jewish circumcision ritual is performed.
The ritual can cause herpes infection in infants.

Last month, administration officials announced a tentative agreement with a group of Jewish leaders in which parental consent would no longer be needed to perform the ritual known as metzitzah b’peh in which the mohel, the person who performs the circumcision, sucks blood from the baby’s wound.
Administration aides initially said the proposal would be presented to the Board of Health this month. Officials said Monday the proposal is now slated to be presented to the board in June and voted on at the panel’s next meeting.

“The administration and the coalition of religious leaders are formalizing specific terms of the agreement around metzitzah b’peh,” the city said in a statement from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released Monday.

The parental consent policy, approved by the board in 2012 when Michael Bloomberg was mayor, drew outcries from some in the Jewish community who lambasted the regulation as an attack on religious freedom. The ritual is practiced mostly by ultra-Orthodox Jews.

A person familiar with the negotiations between the religious community and the city said Monday the delay in presenting the proposal to the board was largely related to the city working out the specifics on how public health investigations will be conducted. There were some other legal issues, as well, the person said.

Another person familiar with the matter said city officials were concerned about rushing the proposal. Officials want the proposal to be as strong as possible, this person said, because the administration is asking board members, many of whom were appointed by Mr. Bloomberg, to reverse themselves.
The delay was not a concern at all to David Niederman, the president of United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg and North Brooklyn, and a rabbi involved in the negotiations with the city over the policy.

“The mayor has personally committed to ensure public safety in a very responsible and collaborative way with the community,” Rabbi Niederman said. “These delays, I understand, are procedural stuff with the city. I have no doubt that everyone is on the same page and that this issue is going to be resolved to the satisfaction of all concerned.”

The Wall Street Journal February 27, 2015 A Bad Call on Risky Circumcisions by the Editorial Board The herpes simplex virus, common and relatively harmless in adults, can be deadly to babies. Such infections in newborns are blessedly rare, but one thing is known to increase the risk significantly: the circumcision ritual called metzitzah b’peh, practiced by many ultra-Orthodox and some Orthodox Jews, in which a circumciser, or mohel, sucks blood from a newly cut penis with his mouth. The New York City Health Department, American Academy of Pediatrics, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other authorities have long warned about the dangers of the practice. The Health Department has linked it to more than 12 herpes cases, and two deaths, since 2000, and has tried to get mohels to stop doing it. That is why it is distressing to see Mayor Bill de Blasio and Orthodox leaders celebrating a deal they made this week to abandon the city’s modest effort to regulate the practice, and instead leave it to the ultra-Orthodox community to help limit the damage metzitzah b’peh does — but voluntarily, and only after babies get sick, not before. Mr. de Blasio wants to stop requiring parents to sign a waiver acknowledging the risks of metzitzah b’peh. Rabbis called that policy, begun under Mayor Michael Bloomberg, an unconscionable infringement on religious freedom. They refused to use the forms and sued the city. And so Mr. de Blasio, who has pleased the potent Orthodox voting bloc by ridiculing the policy as unenforceable while making no visible effort to enforce it, has decided simply to let the mohels do their thing, until a baby gets sick. The plan then is to do a series of DNA tests; if the baby’s mohel has the same herpes strain as the infected baby, he will be forbidden to do circumcisions. The plan needs Board of Health approval. The board should say no and take a stand for basic hygiene and common sense. Otherwise, this will be a city that requires tattoo artists to take infection-control courses and use sterile tools but tolerates an amateur surgery in which infection is fought with no more than perhaps a swig of Listerine. The administration says it will ask hospitals and doctors to distribute information about the risks of metzitzah b’peh, which should include accurate descriptions, including photographs, of the lesions and brain injuries suffered by babies whose safety their rabbis — and mayor — have allowed to be jeopardized.

NEW YORK: Metzitzah: No consent forms, mohelim tested after infection

Jewish Press
February 24, 2015

Mayor de Blasio Annuls Metzitzah B’peh Consent Form Regulation

by Jacob Kornbluh
NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio has decided to annul the regulation enforced by the Bloomberg administration on the practice of Metzitzah B’peh, JP has learned.

The city has agreed to no longer require that a mohel obtain a signed consent form before he is allowed to perform the ritual. The City will support a Board of Health consideration to repeal the health code provision regarding written consent, the mayor’s office announced Tuesday evening.

“While the de Blasio Administration continues to believe that MBP carries with it health risks, given the sacred nature of this ritual to the community, the Administration is pursuing a policy centered around education of health risks by the health care community and respect for traditional practices by the religious community,” the mayor’s office said in a statement. “Increasing trust and communication between the City and this community is critical to achieve the Administration’s ultimate goal of ensuring the health and safety of every child, and this new policy seeks to establish a relationship based on engagement and mutual respect.”

During the race for mayor, de Blasio criticized former mayor Michael Bloomberg’s attitude and enforcement of the new consent regulation on Metzitzah B’peh. He promised Jewish leaders that he will seek to find a solution the moment he will enter office. After entering office, the mayor engaged in discussions with community leaders and health officials to reach a compromise that will satisfy the Orthodox Jewish community over the Bris Milah dispute with City Hall.

At a get-out-the vote rally in Williamsburg two days before the Democratic primaries for mayor, Satmar (Ahronim) community leaders declared that de Blasio pledged to eliminate the consent forms required for Metzitzah B’peh. As first reported by JP, one community leader told the crowd assembled that de Blasio was “the first one in politics to come to our defense on the issue of Metzitzah B’peh. And he’s the only candidate that recommitted himself now to guarantee that we as Orthodox Jews can practice [it] without compromise.”

After Mr. de Blasio has finished his speech, Rabbi Moshe Indiq approached the microphone and said he’d been asked “to announce to our community” that Mr. de Blasio was “the only mayor candidate that promised … it will be eliminated!”

According to the new deal reached with a coalition of Rabbinical leaders from across New York City, the administration will ask hospitals, obstetricians and pediatricians who serve the community to distribute information about the health risks associated with and MBP. Health care providers will also provide parents with contact information for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DOHMH) for parents who seek additional information.

Additionally, the community will direct mohelim to continue to respect the wishes of any family that has chosen to not have MBP performed on their son.

In return, the rabbinical coalition has pledged, for the first time, to cooperate with the DOHMH in identifying the mohel in question and asking the individual to undergo testing in cases where an infant has HSV-1 (herpes simplex virus 1) associated with MBP.

In cases where the mohel tests positive for HSV-1, DOHMH will conduct DNA testing to attempt to definitively establish the source of the baby’s infection as part of a comprehensive investigation of any other possible sources. If the mohel is found to have infected the infant with herpes, he will be banned for life from performing MBP by DOHMH, with support from and cooperation of the community.

The community has also agreed to engage in campaign to have every mohel who performs a circumcision or MBP take steps to lessen the risk of transmission of herpes.

NEW YORK: Metzitzah: Rockland adopts own protocol

Capital (New York)
Janauary 9, 2015

Rockland takes a new tack on risky circumcisions

by Dan Goldberg 

While New York City remains stalled in its efforts to come up with a better way of regulating a controversial circumcision ritual practiced by some Orthodox Jewish sects, Rockland County health officials made a deal with a local community to create a protocol to assess and mitigate risks associated with the practice.

The ritual, called metzitzah b'peh, involves a mohel—the practitioner of the circumcision ritual—suctioning blood from a baby's wounded penis with his mouth. The practice of placing mouth to open wound has been linked by city health officials to the spread of Herpes Simplex Virus-1 to babies.

The protocol worked out in a nonbinding agreement between health officials and community leaders in Rockland County—home to one of the state's largest concentrations of ultraorthodox Jews—is as notable for what it doesn't attempt do to as what it does.

It doesn't alter the ritual, or require parents of boys undergoing it to sign a waiver acknowledging the dangers of the practice, as New York City currently requires. It also doesn't immediately eliminate the risk of babies contracting herpes from infected mohels.

But it does, by securing the cooperation of a deeply religious community that is sometimes hostile to regulation by secular authorities, allow for testing and data-gathering to identify and ban mohels who infect circumcised babies with herpes.

Per the agreement between the county health department and community leaders, if a mohel is found to be the direct source of a baby contracting HSV-1, then that mohel would be permanently banned from performing the ritual, according to Dr. Oscar Alleyne, the county's director of epidimiology.

The Rockland health department has so far tested eight babies who presented with herpes symptoms after circumcision, Alleyne said. Of those, three had the virus. In two cases, the Rockland health department concluded the mohel was not responsible. One case was inconclusive.

“From Rockland County's perspective, the individuals who did the metzitzah b'peh were not the ones who matched, and that tells us we have to look at the bigger picture,” Alleyne said.

It's a very small sample, but the effort attempts to address, however imperfectly, the health-based concerns about the practice.

Of the cooperation with the Orthodox community, Alleyne said, “That in and of itself was a major breakthrough."

Under the system set up in Rockland, if a state lab determines a circumcised baby has HSV-1, county officials work to identify all the potential point sources that come into contact with the infant. Those individuals are then swabbed and tested to see if they have HSV-1 and if their strain matches the infant's. Because the virus is not always detectable, the county conducts 60 swabs over a period of 30 to 60 days to try and ensure that nothing is missed.

The agreement also requires mohels not to perform the ritual on other babies while testing is taking place, and Rockland health officials are discussing additional measures that can make the practice more hygienic.

The community has agreed, according to Alleyne, that if a mohel is found to be the cause of infection then he will voluntarily stop performing anywhere in the world for the rest of his life.

The agreement between Rockland and the Orthodox communities there—the largest communities are in Monsey and New Square—is similar to one that was discussed with the New York City health department in 2006. That plan was rejected by the city, according to court documents.

By only testing mohels after the fact of an infection, the system can reduce but never actually eliminate the health risk. And it leaves in place a ritual that is unhygienic and, according to New York City health officials, among others, inherently dangerous.

But Alleyne says it is clearly the best option available to the county.

“We are a health department," he said. "We can't legislate the procedure. We don't have the ability to do so and there is the question of how efficacious it would be anyway. But there are ways for us to encourage practices to be safer.”

New York City's efforts to reckon with metzitzah b'peh would seem to bear him out, in terms of the difficulty of imposing a more aggressive system of regulation.

The issue has been a live controversy in New York City since the Bloomberg health department first sought to regulate the practice by requiring that parents sign a consent form acknowledging that the city health department does not believe the ritual is safe.

The regulation was challenged in court. Attorneys representing the Orthodox sects said the city's health department was overestimating the dangers, and that there was insufficient evidence to prove metzitzah b'peh is dangerous enough to warrant a public health intervention.

Mayor Bill de Blasio promised to address the consent-form arrangement—which the neither the city nor the Orthodox sects affected by it were happy with—on his first day in office. But he has yet to address the topic in any meaningful way.

Marti Adams, a spokeswoman for the mayor, told Capital the administration plans to unveil a policy "soon," but did not detail what that policy would be.

"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.”

The city's efforts to regulate the ritual are complicated politically by the resolute opposition of the Orthodox sects who support unfettered metzitzah b'peh, but legally, by courts rulings that have made it clear that the practice can't simply be banned for being distasteful.

A federal appeals court ruled any city effort to infringe upon the practice must pass the “strict scrutiny” test, meaning the government must prove the law serves a compelling state interest and that it was written in the least burdensome way possible. The case was sent back to the lower court and has not yet been heard.

The city's health department has for years warned the practice can spread HSV-1, which is common in adults but can be dangerous for newborns.

City health officials have linked 17 cases of neonatal herpes to direct oral suction in the last 15 years. Of those, two have died and two more suffered brain damage.

The city maintains the timing and placement of the lesions is indicative of a virus that was caused by oral suction, and produced several expert witnesses who supported the claim.

Dr. Anna Wald, who assisted in drafting guidelines on the management of H.S.V. infection for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the evidence linking direct oral suction with neonatal infection is “strong, consistent, and more than biologically plausible.”

The health department argues that there are multiple lines of evidence supporting their assertion. Specifically, health officials say that no other explanation makes sense.

"Any hypothesis to explain these infections needs to explain why these infections are HSV-1, not HSV-2, occur on the genitalia, occur in newborn baby males but not females from Jewish families practicing direct orogenital suction, are clustered in a single Brooklyn zip code where there are no female infant herpes infections, have occurred in babies born to women who do not have HSV-1 infection, and occur within a time frame consistent with transmission during circumcision," said Jean Weinberg, a spokeswoman with the health department.

But without reaching an agreement with the mohels the way Rockland did, the city can't do the tests necessary to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that infected mohels cause the spread of the disease.
That's why city officials use phrases such as “the location … timing of signs and symptoms are consistent with” metzitzah b'peh.

Between 2006 and 2011, the city reported 84 cases of neonatal herpes. Among those, 30 boys had HSV-1 or untyped HSV infection, and five of these boys had confirmed or probable direct orogenital suction.‎ (The disease can also be passed on to babies by family members or other caregivers.)
...

Earlier story

MALAYSIA: Prime Minister Razak wants to export cutting technology

Kuala Lumpur Post
December 20, 2014

PM calls on local companies to export circumcision technology

PEKAN – Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak has suggested that local companies widened the circumcision technology not only within the country but also to export it so that the practice will receive response from abroad.

He said the practice of circumcision was not only compulsory among the Muslims but also believers of other religion such as the Jews.

“In fact in our country, even the non-Muslims consider circumcision as a good practice which should also be adopted by them,” he said when speaking at the mass circumcision ceremony for the Pekan parliamentary constituency, here Saturday.

The ceremony, organised by the Pekan Umno Religious Bureau and the Umno Malaysia Religious Bureau, was also attended by Pahang Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob.

Najib said if previously the ‘Tok Mudim’ was the most feared person by the children as they performed the circumcision in the traditional manner without the use of anesthetics, but with the latest technology such as the Flushcutter, Tara Clamp, Sunathrone and Laser Carbon dioxide, the feeling of pain during circumcision could be reduced.

“The elderly people in the past said that the pain from circumcision was just like the bite of an ant, but with the availability of various technology including the use of laser, the pain from circumcision could be reduced.

“Previously, those going for circumcision would soak themselves in the pool or river before dawn aimed at reducing the bleeding, shrinking the skin and cleansing themselves, that’s why they held mass bathing and we don’t deny the trauma that the children had to go through using the old method,” he said.

He said that the use of modern circumcision technology such as the Sunatech derived from research by a local could not only reduce the pain but also made the process simpler and safer.

“In fact, it only takes 10 minutes for one session and is a simple process without stitching, without bandaging and without pain.

“Children using this method of circumcision are said to be able to carry out their routine daily activities such as bathing, praying and it (the process) is most suitable for export abroad,” he said.

He said the government was prepared to cooperate with the company concerned to widen the circumcision method in the villages and rural areas especially in areas which was inaccessible to doctors.

Meanwhile, 328 children from within the Pekan parliamentary constituency were involved in the two-day free circumcision programme, reports Bernama.

SWEDEN: Taxpayers to pay for non-medical circumcision

So the Swedish taxpayer must pay? This will not last.

JTA
November 26, 2014

Swedish lawmakers nix bill requiring parents to pay for circumcision

(JTA) — Swedish lawmakers voted down a bill that would require parents to pay for non-medical circumcision of boys.

The right-wing Sweden Democrats party brought the bill to a vote Tuesday at the regional council of Blekinge County in the country’s south, Sveriges Radio reported. The party claimed that the practice should not be covered by the healthcare system because it is barbaric and compared it to female genital mutilation, according to Swedish media.

But the argument encountered passionate objections during the debate that preceded the voting, including by Anna Ekstrom of the Liberal People’s Party. She rejected the comparison and argued that circumcision was akin to Christian baptism, the Sydostran local newspaper reported.

Dismissing claims that circumcision dulled sexual pleasure, Inga-Lill Siggelsten Blum of Sweden’s Christian Democrats said, “I cannot imagine that there would be billions of men getting circumcised if it did.” [They are not, of course. The vast majority were cut before they could resist.]

The debate is part of a wider discussion across northern Europe on the Jewish and Muslim practice. Interest in the topic renewed in 2012, with left-leaning liberals and secularists calling for a ban for humanitarian reasons, and nationalist anti-immigration parties supporting a prohibition because they feel the custom is foreign and barbaric.

Currently, non-medical circumcision of boys is legal in all of Scandinavia, despite calls to ban it.

NEW YORK: Metzitzah: Court considers if consent form requirement needs strict scrutiny

Reuters
August 15, 2014

U.S. court revives challenge to New York City circumcision law

by Jonathan Stempel
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Friday revived an effort to block a New York City regulation that requires people who perform a Jewish circumcision ritual on infants that involves oral suction to first obtain parental consent.

A unanimous panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a trial judge had been too deferential to the city, which had linked the ritual to a deadly form of herpes, in rejecting a request by rabbinical groups for a preliminary injunction.

The three-judge panel directed U.S. District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in Manhattan to instead use "strict scrutiny" to see if the regulation infringed the plaintiffs' free exercise of religion, violating the First Amendment.

At issue was the ritual metzitzah b'peh (MBP), in which a mohel who performs a circumcision uses oral suction to draw blood away from a wound on an infant's penis. The procedure is sometimes performed in ultra-Orthodox communities.

In September 2012, the New York City Board of Health voted to require mohels to obtain advance consent in which parents acknowledged the risk of herpes infection linked to the ritual.
...

The Central Rabbinical Congress of the United States and Canada, the International Bris Association and some rabbis sought to halt enforcement, but Buchwald denied the request, saying the regulation addressed "legitimate societal concerns."

Circuit Judge Debra Ann Livingston, however, wrote for the 2nd Circuit that the regulation was not neutral toward religion because it "purposefully singles out religious conduct performed by a subset of Orthodox Jews," and applies exclusively to them.

As a result she said Buchwald should have not reviewed simply whether there was a rational basis for the regulation.

"The Department (of Health) may have legitimate reasons for addressing HSV infection risk among infants primarily, if not exclusively, by regulating MBP," Livingston wrote. "On the present record, however, the plaintiffs have made a sufficient case for strict scrutiny by establishing that the risk of transmission by reason of metzitzah b'peh has been singled out."

The 2nd Circuit did not rule on the regulation's constitutionality.

The city's law department had no comment on the decision.

In a joint statement, the plaintiffs called the decision a "great victory," and said they remain ready to work with city officials "to protect our children's health while fully respecting and accommodating our religious practice."

The case is Central Rabbinical Congress of the United States and Canada et al v. New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 13-107.

Earlier story

NEW YORK: Metzitzah: Two mohelim stopped after babies get herpes

The Jewish Daily Forward
August 8, 2014

2 Mohels Banned After Infants Contract Herpes in Circumcision Rite

Just One Consent Form Collected by City in Two Years
by Paul Berger
New York City has banned two mohels from performing a controversial circumcision rite after they were suspected of infecting babies with herpes.

But the city's health department will not reveal their names.

Five infants have contracted herpes since September 2012, when the health department passed a regulation requiring mohels to get written consent from parents before using their mouth to suction blood from a circumcision wound - a religious rite known as metzitzah b'peh, or MBP.

MBP can transmit a strain of herpes from the mouth of a mohel to the infant and is potentially fatal to newborns, whose immune systems are underdeveloped. Infants who contract the disease can also suffer brain damage. The MBP rite is common in the ultra-Orthodox community.

In the past, some parents whose babies contracted herpes have refused to identify their mohel to city health officials. Of the five cases since the autumn of 2012, the health department has been able to identify just two mohels.

Only one of those mohels obtained written consent before performing the circumcision.

"In all of the cases, we have asked whether there were forms and, in the two cases where we were able to identify the mohel, we have requested them from him," a health department spokeswoman told the Forward on July 24. Of these two cases, one had a form, which he provided, the spokeswoman said. The other one did not. "The department issued orders banning both mohelim" from practicing MBP, she said.

The spokeswoman would not name the mohels, citing privacy concerns. She also did not respond to several emails asking how the ban would be enforced and how the public could know the mohels in question were banned if their names were not made public.

More liberal Orthodox Jewish leaders do not support the MBP practice and deplored the latest news about its consequences. "I would hope that any mohel who unfortunately has transmitted a disease via metzitzah b'peh would stop practicing metzitzah b'peh because of the safety of our children," said Rabbi Leonard Matanky, president of the Modern Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America.

But Matanky stopped short of calling for the health department to release the names of the banned mohels. The rabbinic leader said it would be presumptuous of him to comment, because he did not have enough information about the cases or the legal reasoning behind the city's decision.

Earlier story