NYC Questions Circumcision Method

New York City health authorities are questioning the health dangers of a circumcision method used by some Hasidic sects and certain other traditional Orthodox Jewish mohels. Today's New York Times reports that the practice, known as oral suction, risks spreading herpes to infants. The Orthodox Rabinnical Council of America advocates an alternative method, and Rabbi Moshe Tendler, a microbiologist and professor of Talmud and medical ethics at Yeshiva University, said that the procedure, known in Hebrew as metzitzah b'peh, violates Jewish law because of the health risk it poses. Nevertheless the practice persists among some, and the city does not plan to ban it, partly out of a concern for religious freedom and partly because a ban would probably be unenforceable in practical terms. Instead city officials, including Mayor Bloomberg, have been meeting with Orthodox Jewish leaders to persuade them to abandon the practice, but so far they have not been successful. After meeting with the Mayor, Rabbi David Niederman of the United Jewish Organization in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, said, "We do not change. And we will not change."