Jewish Intactivist Parents - Holistic Childbirth, Religious Mothers, Fathers, Israelis Rejecting Bris,Brit Milah, Orthodox, Conservative,

In Israel, opposition to circumcision has happened in just two decades, and now these 'rebels' number in the tens of thousands, according to Ronit Tamir, founder of Kahal ( http://www.kahal.org ), a support group for parents who choose not to circumcise their children.
- Jewish World, 3/11/10.

Rabbi Nathan Segal writes...
'I believe circumcision is a major mistake...The code of the Jewish law is called 'halacha' (the way). Within the Code, there is a provision that if a mother looses a son because of circumcision, she is NOT obligated to circumcise her next son. I extrapolate from this, the inter-connection of my human family, that enough deaths and maiming have occured because of circumcision. Therefore - circumcision is no longer a requisite! Just as we no longer practice the animal sacrifices in the traditional temple, so let us not sacrifice an important piece of our mammal in the temple of tradition. '
- Rabbi Natan Segal, 2007
Rabbi of Shabbos Shul, Marin County, California, U.S.A.
Ordination: 1977 Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi Yeshiva B'nai Or Philadelphia, Pa.

This dynamic site is being created by, for, and about Jewish people. We won't always agree. But we're united by this principle: the genital cutting of infants and children is wrong and must stop, no matter their religion or gender. - by Rebecca Wald, JD.
http://www.beyondthebris.com/

Growing numbers of American Jews are now leaving their sons intact... Increasing numbers of intact boys are going to religious school, having bar mitzvahs, and taking their place as young adults in the Jewish community.... As a Jewish grandfather, I want to assure young couples about to bring a child into the world, that there are other members of the Jewish �older� generation ( http://www.cirp.org/pages/cultural/kimmel1/ ), including other Jewish physicians, and even some rabbis ( http://www.officiant.org/brit-shalom ), who feel as I do. If your heart and instincts tell you to leave your son intact, listen!'
- Dr. Mark D. Reiss, M.D., executive vice-president of Doctors Opposing Circumcision, speaking to Rabbi Nathan Segal's Congregation (Shabbos Shul, the Shul of Marin County) on Kol Nidre eve.

Jewish Women Speak Out Against Circumcision: Miriam Pollack (UK)
& http://www.noharmm.org/pollack.htm

Brit B'lee Milah & Bris Shalom: An Intactivsit Covenant Ceremony (U.K.)
http://www.circumstitions.com/Jewish-shalom.html

Bris B'lee Milah & Bris Shalom Intactivsit Ceremony Text (U.K.)
http://www.noharmm.org/nontrad.htm

'It's a mitzvah to fight to end circumcision!'
- Samuel Richmond, an Intactivist Jew who lives in the U.S.A. http://www.circumstitions.com/Jewish.html

Brit B'lee Milah & Bris Shalom Intactivsit Ceremony Text (U.K.)
http://www.cirp.org/pages/cultural/bris_shalom.html

Related Intactivist Tools and URLs
http://abchomeopathy.com/forum2.php/245164/

Brit B'lee Milah & Bris Shalom Intactivsit Rabbis by Dr. Mark Reiss, M.D. (U.K.)
http://www.circumstitions.com/Jewish-shalom.html

Jewish Roots of Anti-Circumcision Arguments by Lisa Braver Moss (USA)
http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/second/moss.html

'Coming from a European background... where many Jews reject a brit milla as an archaic and barbaric ritual... This author grew up in France in a traditional Jewish family. Not a single male of her generation or her children's generation within her large family (or in her circle of Jewish friends) was ever circumcised.'
- Nelly Karsenty, Humanistic Judaism, 1988; 16(3): 14-20.


AS AN INCREASING NUMBER OF AMERICANS � including a sizable number of American Jews � question the act of male circumcision ( http://www.jewsagainstcircumcision.org ) , a group of San Francisco activists are advocating to ban circumcision, or what they call male genital mutilation ( http://mgmbill.org/hearing.htm )... Many of the leading activists against circumcision around the country are Jewish... Opponents of male circumcision believe that circumcision not only inflicts tremendous pain on babies, but also causes psychological damage to men, including feelings of anger, distrust and grief. They believe circumcision hinders full sexual satisfaction since the foreskin that is removed during circumcision includes thousands of sensitive nerve endings. ( http://www.mothersagainstcirc.org/fleiss.html )
- Jerusalem Post, Challenging the Circumcision Myth, 04/10/2011

I am calm and comfortable in the knowledge that no one will ever take a knife to this baby's flesh in the name of religion... I am confident that my people have such an abundance of life-enhancing, life-affirming and mind-opening traditions, that our identity and sense of cultural self-heed will happily survive our outgrowing of circumcision, a cruel relic which has always felt to me like an aberration at the heart of my religion.'
- Dr. Jenny Goodman, Challenging Circumcision: A Jewish Perspective (UK)
http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/fourth/goodman.html

'As stated in the Encyclopedia Judaica, 'Any child born of a Jewish mother is a Jew, whether circumcised or not.' ...'the Torah prohibits the torture or causing of pain to any living creature.' ...considering Hillel's encapsulation of Judaism: 'What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow-creature' (Sab. 31a), should we force circumcision on another? It is a violation of Torah law to physically assault or harm another person (Exodus 21:18-27)....according to Jewish law, the human body must not be cut or marked (Lev. 19:28). By removing a part of the penis, circumcision involves the cutting and marking of natural male genitals. '
- Ronald Goldman, Jewish Spectator, Fall 1997

'Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come; it is time to stop circumcision whatever have been the reasons and/or distresses that have perpetuated it.'
- Moshe Rothenberg, MSW.

Moshe Rothenberg, CSW, is a social worker for the New York City Board of Education. He received his MSW at Yeshiva University and did post-graduate work at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine. Mr. Rothenberg initiated and coordinated two parent groups providing advocacy and counseling services for the Miskon-Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services in New York. He is an educator on the subject of Brit B'lee Milah both within and outside of the Jewish community in which he lives.

I should like to suggest to my fellow Jews that perhaps the time has come to redeem the foreskin itself, rather than sacrifice it. Surely some substitute might be found for this rite, ... that would be preferable to this assault upon and mutilation of a newborn infant...'
- Professor George Wald, M.D
Harvard University Professor, Nobel Laureate in Physiology and Medicine

Betty Katz-Sperlich is a Jewish woman living in New Mexico, USA. A registered nurse, she is co-founder of Nurses for the Rights of the Child ( http://www.Nurses.cirp.org ). She refused to circumcise her son, now aged 13.
'I've been called anti-Semitic by non-Jewish people. But as a Jew, how could I not speak up against Jewish circumcision? I would be letting Jewish babies down.'
Jenny Goodman, from north London, also refused to circumcise her son. She is a doctor and a psychotherapist as well as a Jewish feminist ( http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/fourth/goodman.html ). 'I know at least a dozen non-circumcised boys whose parents are identified as Jews,' she says. She adamantly opposes circumcision, claiming that it is physically and psychologically damaging to the child and violates human rights: 'It also violates the most important of medical ethics, above all do no harm.'
Opposition to male circumcision in the UK had its first big breakthrough 18 months ago with the controversial Channel 4 documentary It's a Boy!, by Jewish director Victor Schonfeld. It slammed the practice of Jewish circumcision as unnecessary and barbaric, with potentially horrific consequences. Mr. Schonfeld claims that public consensus against it in the UK is growing.
- Nursing Times, p. 12-13, February 19, 1997

'I am a 72 year old retired physician, a Jew who is an active member of a Conservative synagogue, and a grandfather. I�ve learned of the very important role the foreskin has in the protection of the head of the penis in the infant, and in sexual functioning in adulthood.
Growing numbers of American Jews are now leaving their sons intact as they view circumcision as a part of Jewish law that they can no longer accept. Alternative brit b�li milah or brit shalom ceremonies (ritual naming ceremony without cutting) are being performed by some rabbis. Increasing numbers of intact boys are going to religious school, having bar mitzvahs, and taking their place as young adults in the Jewish community.
As a Jewish grandfather, I want to assure young couples about to bring a child into the world, that there are other members of the Jewish �older� generation, including other Jewish physicians, and even some rabbis, who feel as I do. If your heart and instincts tell you to leave your son intact, listen!'
- Dr. Mark D. Reiss, M.D.

A marginal but growing number of Jewish Israelis choose not to circumcise their children, settled a breach of a millenary tradition which places them outside the social consensus and confronts them with their families.
However, in Israel the 'rebels' have happened in two decades of virtual absence to be counted in tens of thousands, said Ronit Tamir, a founder of Kahal, a support group for parents who choose not to circumcise their sons. ( http://www.kahal.org )
Danii Amir was not so clear from the beginning. Circumcised her first son from a previous marriage and was an experience as 'weird and traumatic,' and decided that would be the last.
'I do not think God would create man with something to be settled after eight days,' explains the musician, who describes the atmosphere around circumcision as 'very different from twenty years ago.'
His current wife, Ruth, feels even greater rejection of what he defines as 'barbaric and primitive'. The last thing my maternal instinct tells me is to my newborn son to a man with a knife,' he argues.
New father a few months ago, Ofir also spent the eighth day after birth at home with his girlfriend, away from sharp utensils and blessings of the mohel.
The night before the circumcision ceremony came almost by chance on Internet forums about the Brit Milah and decided to cancel the appointment.
Now he feels he made the right decision: to make his son 'his own body, so it has created a virtual forum,' Gonen Al Hayeled 'to shed light on the Brit Milah.'( http://www.gonen.us )
- Jewish World - March 11, 2010

Jewish Women Speak Out Against Circumcision: Miriam Pollack (UK)
& http://www.noharmm.org/pollack.htm

Brit B'lee Milah & Bris Shalom: An Intactivsit Covenant Ceremony (U.K.)
http://www.circumstitions.com/Jewish-shalom.html

Bris B'lee Milah & Bris Shalom Intactivsit Ceremony Text (U.K.)
http://www.noharmm.org/nontrad.htm

'It's a mitzvah to fight to end circumcision!'
- Samuel Richmond, an Intactivist Jew who lives in the U.S.A. http://www.circumstitions.com/Jewish.html

Brit B'lee Milah & Bris Shalom Intactivsit Ceremony Text (U.K.)
http://www.cirp.org/pages/cultural/bris_shalom.html

Related Intactivist Tools and URLs
http://abchomeopathy.com/forum2.php/245164/

Brit B'lee Milah & Bris Shalom Intactivsit Rabbis by Dr. Mark Reiss, M.D. (U.K.)
http://www.circumstitions.com/Jewish-shalom.html

Jewish Roots of Anti-Circumcision Arguments by Lisa Braver Moss (USA)
http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/second/moss.html
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