Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Jewish Groups Defend Circumcision at Council of Europe Hearing

Representatives of European Jewish groups defended ritual circumcision at a hearing of the Council of Europe.

Officials from the European Jewish Congress and the Conference of European Rabbis presented facts and defenses of Jewish male ritual circumcision during the hearing on Tuesday.

The hearing was called after the council’s Parliamentary Assembly, or PACE, passed a resolution last October suggesting that religious circumcision contravened “the rights of children’s physical integrity.” The resolution equated the ritual known as brit milah with female genital mutilation.

Rabbi Moche Lewin, executive director of the Conference of European Rabbis, said, “There is no doubt that we would prefer the issue of milah not to be on the political agenda at any level in Europe, but what was demonstrated today is that wherever it is discussed or debated, the Jewish communities of Europe will be unequivocal and robust in our defense of our fundamental religious rights.”

The resolution, while not binding on member states, has acted as a catalyst for anti-circumcision initiatives in several European states.

The Council of Europe is an intergovernmental organization that encourages dialogue and is not connected to the European Union.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.