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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 643

brit milah

Illustrative photo of a ritual circumcision. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
May 14, 2025, 6:52 pm
Belgium’s Jewish community on edge after police raids on illegal circumcisions
Police in Antwerp looking for rabbis conducting the religious rite without medical license; Jewish group says raids part of larger campaign of intimidation against Jews in Belgium
By Zev Stub
Belgian MP Michael Freilich speaking to an audience in a synagogue in Belgium. (Courtesy)
December 21, 2024, 3:02 pm
‘We are collateral damage’: Orthodox Belgian MP set to fight for the Jews of Europe
As the European Jewish Association’s first diplomatic envoy, Michael Freilich will go to battle as Jews’ and Muslims’ religious freedoms are systematically shrunk in the EU
By Zev Stub
Supreme Court building, Jerusalem (original image via iStock, composite image by The Times of Israel)
December 13, 2023, 2:45 pm
Non-Orthodox converts to Judaism eligible for free circumcision, High Court rules
Decision ends a 14-year legal struggle for treatment equal to that of males who undergo Orthodox conversion
By Canaan Lidor
Rabbi Moshe Aryeh Friedman. (Courtesy)
November 21, 2023, 2:11 pm
Antwerp rabbi files police complaint against 6 circumcisers who suck blood by mouth
Moshe Aryeh Friedman, whom many in Belgian Jewish community consider a gadfly, says that the custom known as ‘metzitzah b’peh’ is dangerous and unnecessary
By Canaan Lidor
Katharina von Schnurbein speaks at a European Jewish Congress event in Vienna, in this undated photo. (Courtesy)
June 26, 2023, 9:23 am
How the EU antisemitism warrior became a defender of kosher slaughter, circumcision
The bloc’s point person for fighting Jew-hatred, Katharina von Schnurbein, is an influential advocate for Jewish customs many consider controversial in Europe
By Canaan Lidor
Illustrative: A man examines his pants with a magnifying glass (Juleta Martirosyan; iStock by Getty Images)
May 19, 2023, 10:41 am
A single absentee mohel is thwarting dozens of converts at very end of their journey
The government’s Conversion Authority has a long backlog of men waiting for months for a 10-second circumcision inspection to be considered Jewish
By Canaan Lidor
Illustrative image of a brit mila in Jerusalem, December 12 , 2011. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
October 11, 2021, 4:10 am
New US Jewish group aims to normalize not circumcising, wants synagogues to help
Bruchim says it is giving a voice to those who seek other ways to join the Jewish covenant; retorts a Conservative rabbi: Brit milah ‘is about as basic to Judaism as you can get’
By Ben Harris
Illustrative image of newborn baby (Getty Images)
September 11, 2020, 5:38 pm
Parents flee hospital with seriously hurt baby after circumcision gone wrong
Police eventually track down couple and escort them to medical center to ensure baby gets treatment; child in stable condition, but requires emergency surgery
By ToI Staff
Rabbi Chaim Danzinger, left, introduces Dr. Yeshaya Shafit, second from left, to Jews awaiting circumcision at the synagogue of Rostov-on-Don in Russia, July 27, 2020. (Courtesy of the Jewish Community of Rostov/ via JTA)
August 14, 2020, 10:52 am
Russia has a full-time surgeon whose only job is circumcising Jewish men
Traveling from the western border with Europe to the far-flung eastern reaches close to Japan, Dr. Yeshaya Shafit, Russia’s only dedicated mohel, does about 10 procedures a week
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Illustrative: a Jewish circumcision ceremony in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
March 17, 2020, 4:52 pm
As corona cuts off borders, Oslo baby’s delayed circumcision is tip of iceberg
Small Jewish communities are left bereft of rabbis, cantors, and ritual circumcisers as countries attempt to stem spread of COVID-19
By Renee Ghert-Zand
Writer and director Quentin Tarantino and his wife Daniella Pick pose for photographers upon arrival at the UK premiere for Once Upon A Time in Hollywood, at a central London cinema, July 30, 2019. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)
March 1, 2020, 3:00 pm
Tarantino and Israeli wife Daniella Pick name their first son Leo
Couple hold Jewish ritual circumcision, name baby after Pick’s grandfather — not after actor DiCaprio
By ToI Staff
Illustrative image of a brit mila in Jerusalem, December 12 , 2011. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
From the WebFebruary 29, 2020, 2:40 am
Jewish women move into a male domain: Ritual circumcision
The New York Times: US Jews are increasingly turning to female mohels, many of whom are doctors but not all rabbis, to circumcise their newborns
The tools set for performing the ceremony of Brit Milha. May 15 2007 (Mendy Hechtman/Flash90)
February 25, 2020, 7:27 am
4 NY babies get herpes from Jewish circumcision rite in past 6 months
Cases reported since September from ‘metzitzah b’peh’; infants were hospitalized, received intravenous antiviral drugs and are now recovering
By Marcy Oster
Illustrative: Tools for a circumcision procedure. (Yaakov Naumi/Flash90)
January 12, 2020, 5:42 pm
Historic first Jewish circumcision ceremony held in Abu Dhabi
Chabad rabbi from Berlin performs procedure in United Arab Emirates capital for family that had previously lived in Germany
By ToI Staff
Dr. Sara Imershein in the abortion clinic where she works in Falls Church, Virginia, July 2, 2019. (Ron Kampeas)
July 22, 2019, 4:07 am
Physician says Jewish values drive her to provide circumcisions — and abortions
The motivation behind both of Dr. Sara Imershein’s seemingly disparate practices is ‘creating the family you want’
By Ron Kampeas
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