“Metzitzah b’peh” is a circumcision rite in which the circumciser, or mohel, cleans the wound where the infant’s foreskin was removed by sucking it with his mouth. The practice is conducted mainly in the Haredi Jewish community, and periodically causes infants to contract a form of herpes that is found in adult saliva. In New…
At least four infants have contracted herpes in New York City in the past six months after undergoing a circumcision rite in which the ritual circumciser, or mohel, cleans the circumcision wound by oral suction. Three cases of herpes have been reported since December and four since September from the rite called “metzitzah b’peh,” WPIX-11…
NEW YORK (JTA) — The New York City Health Department said it cannot complete an investigation into who infected four infants with herpes through an Orthodox circumcision rite because the boys’ families will not identify the mohels. “Unfortunately, some in the community are resistant to sharing the name of the mohels,” Health Department spokesman Christopher…
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has ordered two mohels to stop performing an “unsafe” circumcision rite after they were linked to herpes in babies. But The New York Post reports the city would not reveal the names of the mohels who carry out the rite of metzitzah b’peh, or sucking on the…
April is . Throughout the month, there will be events held, lessons given, and materials distributed to encourage people across the United States — straight, gay, married, cis, trans, rich or poor — to practice safe sex. All will be encouraged to get tested for STDs. At a time when the practice of safe sex,…
The Health Ministry plans to issue a detailed pamphlet on the medical pros and cons of circumcision, after years of avoiding the issue. The pamphlet, to be given to all new parents, will advise against the oral suction method (“metzitzah b’peh”) used by some mohels (ritual circumcisers) to draw blood from the wound after the foreskin…
The New York City Board of Health repealed a consent form for a controversial circumcision rite. The vote Wednesday to repeal the consent form to allow the metzitzah b’peh rite was 9-1,with one abstention. A law requiring parents to sign a consent form for metzitzah b’peh was enacted in 2012 under Mayor Michael Bloomberg after…
The New York City Board of Health may waive a consent form for a controversial circumcision rite. In an effort to cooperate with Orthodox community leaders, the Board of Health voted Wednesday night to mull a plan for hospitals to distribute a brochure in English and Yiddish to Orthodox patients that talks about the danger…
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