January 6, 2006--Fanaticisms XVI--Brokeback Mohel?
About a month ago, I told some friends that late the previous night, while listening to the radio to calm my insomnia, I heard a report about a mohel, a rabbi who performs circumcisions, who was in trouble with the New York City’s Health Department. It seems that three infants who he had circumcised contracted a deadly form of herpes. Not from the knife or scissors he used, but because he practiced his ancient craft by using a procedure known as metzitzah b’peh, where he bites off the foreskin and sucks blood from the wound.
They had the same reaction as I suspect are --What had I been drinking or smoking before attempting to sleep; what kinds of nightmares had I been having? Mock on because once again the NY Times comes to my rescue.
Just today, below the fold on the front page, there is a report about this very matter and how in fact the Health Department is wanting to ban it. Mayor Bloomberg is remaining silent on the issue because he does not want to alienate one of his major constituencies—the ultra-Orthodox Jews of Brooklyn. (See link below for full story.)
The mohel is of course from Staten Island and his very particular services are eagerly and widely sought. The Times reports that between 2,000 and 4,000 such circumcisions are performed in the City each year. That’s a lot of biting and sucking.
Why you might be wondering, in this hygienic era, is this ritual so persistent? To quote one rabbi from Williamsburg, it “is crucial to raising boys in a Jewish tradition.” I bet.
In fact, the Hassidic community is so up in arms about the proposed ban that they are contemplating direct action against the mayor. Orthodox leaders threatened to disrupt Bloomberg’s inauguration last week, including by stitching yellow Jewish stars on their jackets just like the ones Jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany. Though for sure to have news video of Jews in 2006 wearing yellow stars outside City Hall as a Jewish mayor is being sworn in would have made for good TV ratings, to equate Auschwitz with sucking bloody penises is a bit of a stretch.
And though it’s not often my inclination to see latent homophobic behavior hidden in many rituals of the orthodox factions of all religions, in this case what do you think?
They had the same reaction as I suspect are --What had I been drinking or smoking before attempting to sleep; what kinds of nightmares had I been having? Mock on because once again the NY Times comes to my rescue.
Just today, below the fold on the front page, there is a report about this very matter and how in fact the Health Department is wanting to ban it. Mayor Bloomberg is remaining silent on the issue because he does not want to alienate one of his major constituencies—the ultra-Orthodox Jews of Brooklyn. (See link below for full story.)
The mohel is of course from Staten Island and his very particular services are eagerly and widely sought. The Times reports that between 2,000 and 4,000 such circumcisions are performed in the City each year. That’s a lot of biting and sucking.
Why you might be wondering, in this hygienic era, is this ritual so persistent? To quote one rabbi from Williamsburg, it “is crucial to raising boys in a Jewish tradition.” I bet.
In fact, the Hassidic community is so up in arms about the proposed ban that they are contemplating direct action against the mayor. Orthodox leaders threatened to disrupt Bloomberg’s inauguration last week, including by stitching yellow Jewish stars on their jackets just like the ones Jews were forced to wear in Nazi Germany. Though for sure to have news video of Jews in 2006 wearing yellow stars outside City Hall as a Jewish mayor is being sworn in would have made for good TV ratings, to equate Auschwitz with sucking bloody penises is a bit of a stretch.
And though it’s not often my inclination to see latent homophobic behavior hidden in many rituals of the orthodox factions of all religions, in this case what do you think?
posted by Steven Zwerling at
11:14 AM
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