New York City Council Members David G. Greenfield and Lew Fidler voted against the reappointment of a mayoral appointee to the New York City Board of Health in response to the board’s decision to blatantly infringe on the rights of the city’s Orthodox Jewish community and restrict their ability to freely engage in the 3,700-year-old mitzvah of Bris Milah. Council Members Greenfield and Fidler voted ‘no’ on this reappointment to send a clear message that the recent behavior of the New York City Board of Health has gone far beyond the realm of a government agency’s proper authority.
At last Thursday’s City Council Stated meeting, Councilman Greenfield and Councilman Fidler – both of whom represent large Jewish communities in southern Brooklyn – voted against Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposed reappointment of Dr. Lynne D. Richardson for a new term on the NYC Board of Health. Specifically, Council Members Greenfield and Fidler voted ‘no’ in order to once again express their strong opposition to a Board of Health regulation approved last September requiring parents to sign a consent form provided to them by a mohel before an infant can undergo the ancient ritual of metzitzah b’peh after a Bris Milah.
“As I stated following last September’s misguided Board of Health vote, it was inappropriate for this mayoral administration and his appointees to overstep their authority and violate the constitutionally-protected rights of Orthodox Jewish New Yorkers. My vote against Dr. Richardson’s reappointment was simply an affirmation of my strong belief that the entire Board of Health trampled on the rights of religious Jews and all New Yorkers who value religious freedom by regulating for the first time a deeply-held religious belief,” said Councilman Greenfield.
“In the end, I knew she would be reappointed no matter what I did, but someone needed to stand up for a community whose religious rights were trampled on. That’s what I felt I had to do as a matter of right and wrong, so that’s what I did,” said Councilman Fidler.
Council Members Greenfield and Fidler are continuing to support community leaders who filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the Board of Health’s regulation on account of it being unconstitutional. In January, Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York refused to issue a preliminary injunction that would have prevented the requirement from going into effect before the lawsuit filed by community leaders is resolved. That lawsuit is still ongoing.
“Every New Yorker who appreciates the importance of our Constitution should join us in sending a clear message that New York City has no right to regulate religion in clear violation of the First Amendment. I will continue to speak out against this blatant example of government intrusion on religious practices and beliefs until this regulation is overturned,” added Councilman Greenfield.
(YWN Desk – NYC)
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7 Responses
Typical cowardly politicians. The story itself is nonsense. Since when is getting parental consent for metzitzah b’peh infringing on Bris Milah? It’s an optional proceedure anyway and there have been children harmed.
Implying that a parental consent form infringes on religious liberty is patently obsurd. This is why its so hard to take people seriously today, when they distort the issue and exaggerate its nature.
I said this before, at my son’s Bris, my Chasidish Rov asked me permission to perform metzitzah b’peh. If anything, the consent form protects the Mohel from a later claim that it was unauthorized. Why is every molehill turned into a mountain?
Who really cares. Very few, if any, mohelim who perform Metzitza BPeh bother getting any consent forms signed. The regulation is routinely ignored. And the BOH is toothless to do anything about it, unless they intend to station police officers in every synagogue to witness whether MBP was performed or not. And the cannot constitutionally place officers in synagogues.
Reply to #1. Because some Jewish, not frum, parents might believe that there is REAL DANGER, & refuse to sign. There is more danger in crossing Ocean Pkwy, Eastern Pkwy or Queens Blvd.
No we at least have a feeling of what it means to be מוסר נפש for a mitzvah in our generation.
#3. So what? It’s not a Halachic requirement. It can also be done through a glass tube, so there is no direct contact. Children have been harmed, so there is a real danger.
How about having the Mohel submit to medical testing and bring proof that he doesn’t have herpies or some other transmitted disease?
You are all missing the main point about this regulation.
Rav Eliashiv,ZT”L, stated that is is aimed at ALL Beis Milah.
By somehow implying that the Mohels are irresponsible and don’t care about the health of our children, this regulation has successfully demonized the whole class of mohels in the eyes of non-Orthodox Jews who know nothing about the fine points of Metzizah b”peh.
Those Jews have stopped Bris Milah entirely, fearing for the safety of their children, according to mohels all over the city. Even secular Jews in Israel have heard the news and stopped Bris Milah.
That is the real plan, the hidden agenda, which Rav Eliashiv understood. To take ALL Bris Milah out of our shuls and move them to hospitals, where they will cost thousands of dollars.
Wake up!
1. It is a crying shame that you don’t understand that THE. GOAL of all this is to abolish bris milah, nothing more & nothing less. To think anything different means you simply have your head in the sand.
I know of a story where a non affiliated family who would have done a bris on their son, k’daas uk’din, will be having a doctor circumcise their son because of all the manure they’ve heard from mamzer bloomberg who will rot in hell with the rest of our sonim!
This is one story which means there are plenty more!!!
GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE SAND!!!!