A temporary restraining order against New York delayed the start of a new informed consent requirement for a controversial circumcision rite. On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald in New York ordered the stay of implementing the required warning to parents of the dangers of metzitzah b’peh, a ritual in which the circumciser…
European Jewish Congress President Moshe Kantor has unveiled a model bill designed to set “strict legal terms” on religious freedoms in order to enshrine them in Europe. Kantor, who is also co-chairman of the European Council on Tolerance and Reconciliation, or ECTR, presented the model bill on Oct. 15 at the European Parliament. Designed to…
As New York City health authorities and ultra-Orthodox groups clash over metzitzah b’peh, officials in other cities are making no effort to regulate the risky oral suction technique sometimes used during ritual circumcision. In fact, unlike in New York City, health authorities elsewhere often have no mandate to monitor the incidence of the herpes strain…
A coalition of New York City ultra-Orthodox organizations and leaders have filed a federal lawsuit challenging a new requirement by the city’s Board of Health that an informed consent form be signed before performing metzitzah b’peh, direct oral-genital suction, after circumcision. “Not only is the Department of Health wrong about metzitzah b’peh, it is trying…
Germany’s cabinet approved a draft law on Wednesday protecting the right to circumcise infant boys, which it says will end months of legal uncertainty after a local court banned the practice, causing outrage among Muslims and Jews. The June ruling by a Cologne district court that circumcision constitutes “bodily harm” sparked an emotional national debate…
A proposal to enshrine circumcision of male children as a protected procedure that Jews and Muslims could continue without fear of sanction faces an uncertain fate in Germany’s Bundestag, say close observers of German politics. The proposal heading to the parliament aims to calm a storm that erupted last May after a Cologne court ruled…
Germany’s Cabinet has scheduled a discussion on an amendment that would formally legalize ritual circumcision but place some restrictions on who could circumcise and how. The discussion was set for Oct. 10, the German paper Die Welt reported. To become law, the amendment needs to pass a vote in the Bundestag. Amendment 1631d to the…
BERLIN—Germany’s Ministry of Justice has presented a draft law to permit circumcisions by doctors and mohels in response to uncertainty about the procedure fueled by a Cologne court’s ban on the procedure. The Cologne court’s June ruling, which angered many among the country’s 4 million Muslims and 100,000 Jews, held that circumcision deprives a child…
100% of profits support our journalism
