Challenges to brit milah are not always threats
It seems that brit milah is under attack again. Police in Antwerp, Belgium, raided the home of two Haredi mohels on May 14, confiscating their knives and demanding a list of the circumcisions done in the past year. The Jewish community there was stunned, and the European Jewish Association claimed that this crosses another red line, having struggled with issues of shechita (“ritual slaughter”) for quite some time.
But this case is not a clear-cut example of antisemitism as has happened in other parts of the world.
A little less than a year ago, a mohel from the United Kingdom was arrested in Ireland for performing circumcision. The charge against him was impersonating a medical professional. In 2007, a law was passed in the region restricting circumcision to only be performed by a doctor. Prior to his arrest, it appeared to be settled law that circumcision carried out for religious and cultural reasons was not classified as a medical procedure, and therefore, not a violation of the law. It was further understood that this arrest was most likely motivated by Ireland’s disdain for the State of Israel and the ongoing conflict with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which they vocally opposed.
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The case in Belgium is more complicated. The raid was initiated by a local Jewish man, who is the plaintiff in a longstanding case against the local Jewish community. In October 2023, Rabbi Moshe Aryeh Friedman filed a police complaint against six mohels, claiming their practice of metzitzah b’peh (MbP) endangered the children’s health.
MbP is a controversial step in the procedure where there is direct oral contact with the penile incision. The custom, which is commonplace in the ultra-Orthodox community, is believed to transmit bacteria and potentially Herpes Simplex 1, which can be life-threatening to a newborn.
Unlike Ireland, Belgium doesn’t have the implied exemption for ritual circumcision to be performed by a non-medical professional. The lack of exemption means that the mohels in question were breaking the law, whether or not those in the Jewish community agree with the statute as it stands.
I have to admit, this case is the most complicated I’ve encountered in my career. In 2018, Iceland proposed a ban on all non-medically necessary circumcisions. At the time, I was so passionately opposed to the proposal that I floated the idea of publicly protesting the law if it came to pass. I wanted to conduct the rite in the public square to demand the law’s reversal. I now see how foolish that would have been.
I’ve spent the majority of my career fighting the practice of metzitzah b’peh. I established an organization here in Israel called Magen HaBrit to educate parents to ask their mohel to use a tube. Suction done with a sterile tube alleviates the issue of any germ transfer between the ritual circumciser and the baby. And although my feelings on the practice haven’t changed, I now realize that there are many moving parts when it comes to religious freedom.
When I first embarked on my career as a mohel some 15 years ago — and even when I heard of the actions Rabbi Friedman was taking to oppose MbP — I couldn’t think of a better solution. Earlier in my career, I even questioned the Rabbinut HaRashit of Israel directly as to why they didn’t take a stronger stance against the practice.
Their excuse at the time was that if they openly opposed the practice, then mohels in Germany (which was attempting to outlaw the rite) who continued the practice could be arrested. I dismissed their excuse as weak and spineless. But now I’m not so sure.
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What’s clear about what’s happening in Belgium is that no one is doing the right thing. As much as it pains me to say, if the law of the land is that circumcision must be performed by a medical professional, then they are the only ones who can do it. The mohels in the Haredi community who continue to violate the law are responsible for their own fate.
But both of the mohels in question and Friedman have been completely shortsighted in their behavior. Just as the Rabbinut HaRashit indicated to me many years back, their actions have ramifications for everyone around them.
Both those who are breaking the law and those who are revealing their behavior to the authorities have jeopardized our sacred ritual far beyond their local community. They’ve given excuses to the other countries in Europe and beyond to question our commitment to the safety of this Jewish practice. And as much as we’d all like to say those who restrict our religious freedoms are to blame, we must look inside ourselves and make sure that we’re not causing more harm than good, for the betterment of Am Yisrael.
I’m slated to travel for a brit in the coming days to an area I’ve yet to visit.
As always, I’ve done my due diligence to make sure the practice can legally be performed by both medical professionals and religious leaders alike. As far as I know, there is no local mohel in the region.
But shortsighted infighting, such as what’s happening in Belgium, endangers our practice worldwide. Until the day comes that Jews have all come to Israel to live, it’s on us to work together to make sure that our religious duties can be carried out in as many places as possible.
Rabbi Hayim Leiter is a mohel and founder of Magen HaBrit, an organization that protects the ceremony of brit milah and the children who undergo it.
Write: Columnist@TheJewishStar.com
