(JTA) REYKJAVIK, Iceland (JTA) — At a windswept harbor of this Nordic capital, a bearded man wearing a black hat dips eating utensils into the icy water while hissing from pain induced by the bitter cold. Perplexed by the spectacle, a caretaker helpfully offers to let the man and his three companions use a washing…
The politician behind a bill in Iceland that would ban circumcision on children younger than 18 admitted that she didn’t consult Jewish and Muslim groups who would be affected by the ban. “I didn’t think it was necessary to consult,” Silja Dögg Gunnarsdóttir, a member of parliament from the Progressive Party, told The Independent on…
Scandinavia is the darling of liberals the world over. Yet for Jews living in there, life isn’t all free health care and minimalist design. In Iceland, the tiny Jewish population is now facing the most serious legal challenge to male circumcision in Europe. A new bill that criminalizes circumcision of minors and penalizes parents and…
(JTA) — Hundreds of physicians in Iceland and some of Belgium’s top doctors came out in support of a bill proposing to criminalize nonmedical circumcision of boys in the Scandinavian island nation. The 500-odd Icelandic physician who backed the bill that was submitted last month to the Icelandic parliament cited the World Medical Association’s Declaration of Helsinki on…
VIENNA (JTA) — Danish anti-circumcision activists have collected nearly 20,000 signatures out of the 50,000 they need to create a bill proposing to ban non-medical circumcision for boys. With another five months to collect the remaining 30,000 signatures, the petition by the group Denmark Intact appears likely to reach its goal of forcing a vote in…
(JTA) — Lawmakers from four political parties in Iceland introduced a bill in parliament that would ban the nonmedical circumcision of boys younger than 18 and impose imprisonment of up to six years on offenders. Members of the ruling Left Green Movement, the Progressive Party, People’s Party and the Pirate Party submitted the bill to…
When Rani and Hedva Kasher, who live on Kibbutz Kfar Giladi near Israel’s border with Lebanon, had their first two boys, they automatically scheduled the circumcision ceremony. It’s a tradition that marks membership in the Jewish people and goes back to the Bible, which describes both Abraham and Moses’ circumcisions. “I was blind and I…
Groups of men in white Tyvek jumpsuits with bright-red stains over the crotch could be seen all over the country this year. They waved eye-catching signs — “Stop Cutting Baby Penises,” “Foreskin Is Not a Birth Defect” — from Miami to Minneapolis to Hollywood. The group, Bloodstained Men & Their Friends, is part of the…
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