The Wiesenthal Center on Thursday urged authorities in Berlin to overturn a court ruling banning circumcision, saying it would be “a stain on today’s Germany” to let it stand.
The Los Angeles-based Jewish group said Chancellor Angela Merkel and German lawmakers should act immediately to reverse the June 26 ruling by a regional court in Cologne.
The German court ruling “is an attack on one of the fundamental principles of Judaism,” wrote Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, founder and dean and associate dean of the Center in a letter to Merkel.
“For 3,500 years, every male child has entered the Jewish people through the rite of circumcision. We are not talking about a mere custom, but a biblical principle that has defined the Jewish people from time immemorial,” they said.
They noted that Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler said “in one of his infamous anti-Semitic rants” that “conscience is a Jewish invention, it is a blemish like circumcision.”
“Since the defeat of Nazism, Germany has come a long way, and worked very hard to successfully chart a new course after the horrific legacy of the Holocaust by guaranteeing religious freedom and democracy.”
“It would be a stain on today’s Germany to have this ruling stand,” the rabbis added.
In a decision that sparked outrage from German Jewish and Muslim groups, the German court ruled against a doctor in Cologne who had circumcised a four-year-old Muslim boy on his parents’ wishes.
The judges ruled — in what could set a legal precedent — that the “fundamental right of the child to bodily integrity outweighed the fundamental rights of the parents.”
The ruling marked a “big blow against integration,” a spokesman for the Coordinating Council of Muslims in Germany, one of some 20 groups representing most of Germany’s around four million Muslims, said on Wednesday.
(Source: EJP)
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6 Responses
To shine a short spotlight of rational thinking on the subject:
‘Cruel and barbaric practice’ is accurate only when describing impactful or torturous behavior that causes more pain than just a blood test or series of vaccinations.
No one would make the argument that a vaccination or blood test with a purpose should be illegal. Further no one is suggesting that the ear piercing of an infant should be labeled as primitive or barbaric or evil, despite it being only done because of the parents view that it is warranted for bejeweling their baby; Or the possible contention that any of these actions might in someway violate a possible religious tenet that the child may one day choose to follow. In a similar manner, when Circumcision carries strong religious meaning in the parents eyes for the well-being of their child, it should be viewed no different. Religious meaning too can be classified as good reason for things like ear piercing, vaccinations, and more specifically Circumcision. (FYI a baby will cry no more after a Circumcision then following shots given by their local Pediatrician).
Regarding Metzitzah b’peh – The oral sucking of the blood was done based on the medical evidence of the time that it was beneficial to the infant, similar to blood letting and the like, and the case can be made that in ancient times the benefits did in fact outweigh the risks as it removed the immediate area of blood that may have been contaminated by outside unsterilized contaminants. Currently though as it is established to be more of a danger than benefit it is mostly accepted by the orthodox community not to do so without a sterilized pipette in order to both conform to tradition and avoid the unnecessary risk it otherwise poses.
As much as this ruling affects Jews, it affects more Muslims. And German legislators therefore, welcome this ruling.
Germany has a problem. Their birthrate is so low and the Muslims’ birthrate is so high that unless they can persuade a lot of Muslims to leave the country, even if the Germans start having lots of babies, the trend is irreversible and within 30 years Germany will be an Islamic Republic.
Therefore, every ruling that will help prompt an Islamic emigration from Germany is in Germany’s best interest.
Therefore, it would make sense to view this ruling as much more anti-Muslim than anti-Semitic.
“The German court ruling ‘is an attack on one of the fundamental principles of Judaism'”
And meanwhile as we speak, top government officials in the ‘Jewish State’ are meeting to decide how big of a fine to levy on young men wishing to fulfill an even more fundamental principle of Judaism, that of Torah study
>spotlight101 says:
>Regarding Metzitzah b’peh – Currently though as it is >established to be more of a danger than benefit it is >mostly accepted by the orthodox community not to do so >without a sterilized pipette
Please identify the source for your statements. Where & by whom is it documented to be more of a danger than benefit? Which authority in the orthodox community has issued the generally accepted p’sak not to do metzitza without a sterilized pipette?
#2, Who cares what the motive is? The point is that it hurts the Jews.
#4, 2bshvat, there were major poskim who did allow the pipette, or even require it, notably Reb Chaim. But Spotlight exaggerates when he claims that this psak is “mostly accepted by the orthodox community”; it is accepted mostly by the YU crowd, who are talmidim of Beis Brisk and therefore follow Reb Chaim’s psak. See Sdei Chemed for a list of poskim on either side of this major controversy.