Facing criminal charges and a lawsuit, Rabbi David Goldberg, a mohel in Germany remains committed to performing this mitzvah. In the background, askanim are working to pressure elected officials to expedite efforts to pass a law in parliament that will remove the ban.

Sebastian Guevara Kamm filed the complaint against Rabbi Goldberg for causing bodily harm by performing a bris, not an illegal act based on the ruling of a Cologne court.

Rabbi Goldberg has announced that he plans to continue doing britot on children as he has been doing in the past decades, adding he feels that according to the view of some legal experts, the court decision effects Leon but not other German cities, adding he is certain that Kamm’s suit has less to do with the welfare of children than it does with anti-Semitism.

Baruch Hashem European businessmen and askanim have already come forward and undertaken to cover Rabbi Goldberg’s legal costs.

Minister of the Interior Eli Yishai has sent an urgent letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, calling upon her to prevent a situation in which Jews in Germany will be compelled to decide between adhering to Halacha or local law.

Yishai addressed the rise in “anti Jewish actions” in Europe and Israel, explaining as a deputy prime minister and head of the largest Orthodox political party in Israel and as a Jew, he is compelled to speak out against the abuse of the German judicial system to advance a non-issue aimed at preventing Jews from living a Jewish life in Germany.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)