A Healthy Cut
Eli Ungar-Sargon’s claim (“Outlawing Circumcision: Good for the Jews?” May 20) that the health benefits of circumcision are only “purported” is sadly misinformed, and his analogy to mastectomy is just plain silly. Numerous studies by the World Health Organization, as well as independent studies published in the Lancet, Scientific American and the New England Journal of Medicine all show significant benefits from circumcision in reducing HIV in heterosexual males (by as much as 60%), as well as other sexually transmitted diseases. Rates of circumcision are dropping in the U.S., especially in the black and Hispanic communities where there is a disproportionate incidence of the aforementioned diseases. We would be remiss not to promote circumcision as a definitive health benefit.
DAVID J. HAIDAK
Potomac, Md.
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
