Rav Hayim Leiter
It’s been a bad week for circumcision.
Two separate but equally tragic stories occurred almost a continent apart. In Great Britain, a six-month-old boy died a week after his circumcision, and it has been reported that at least 41 initiates died following circumcision rituals in South Africa. Each of these deaths is a world unto itself, but what makes them even more painful is that they could have been avoided.
Cases such as these occur in South Africa every year. Each summer season brings with it tribal initiation rites that inevitably result in a number of deaths. These tragedies are caused by a multiplicity of factors, such as lack of government oversight, untrained practitioners, unsterile environments and the advanced age of the initiates. Some initiation schools even advise those coming of age to refrain from drinking water to speed up the healing process. The effects of such instructions are catastrophic.
The case in the United Kingdom was performed by an untrained Muslim practitioner. Here, too, the central issue was a lack of regulation, which prompted the coroner to call for increased oversight to prevent similar tragedies in the future. Still, the practices in South Africa and the United Kingdom bear little resemblance to the Jewish practice of brit milah.
The Jewish community is repeatedly caught in the crossfire when such cases arise. Brit milah is both heavily regulated and diligently taught, as it has been for generations. When tragedies occur elsewhere, both tribal customs and Muslim circumcision practices come under fire, often prompting calls for sweeping regulations that would limit circumcision to hospitals and licensed medical professionals.
While the Muslim community may benefit from such regulations, these legal impositions would be detrimental to traditional circumcision done by Jews. Although brit milah may appear physically similar to hospital circumcision, it is fundamentally different. Beyond the removal of the foreskin, the procedure must be performed by a trained Jewish mohel, or ritual circumciser, on the eighth day of a child’s life. Restricting it to hospital settings and medical professionals would effectively eradicate an ancient religious tradition.
Anti-circumcision movements do not distinguish between the various forms of circumcision. Instead, they seize upon tragedies like these to argue for the abolition of the practice altogether. They make blanket claims, including that circumcision is a form of child abuse. But as Johnathan Arkush, barrister of Milah UK, points out, the issue is not circumcision itself but rather improper circumcision — any circumcision carried out improperly is a form of child abuse.
In the United Kingdom, the London Initiation Society and Milah UK oversee the overwhelming majority of practicing mohelim to enforce rigorous safety regulations. It is due to the training, oversight and standards maintained by these organizations that adverse outcomes from Jewish circumcision are exceedingly rare and well below the complication rates associated with many other routine medical procedures. While no human practice is risk-free, the rare complications that do occur are almost exclusively limited to nothing more than minor bleeding or comparable issues.
Circumcision was widely promoted across Africa in the early 2000s as part of the global effort to reduce the spread of HIV. The Operation Abraham Collaborative brought mohelim from Israel to the region to help train local practitioners and to promote safer circumcision techniques. This model needs a rebirth.
When tragedies occur, the answer is not blanket prohibitions that would eliminate religious practice, but rather, the kind of rigorous training, oversight and accountability that has made Jewish circumcision demonstrably safe. This model provides a path forward that protects children while preserving the religious and cultural traditions that matter deeply to communities worldwide.
Hayim Leiter is a rabbi, mohel, wedding officiant and member of a private beit din in Israel. He founded Magen HaBrit, an organization that protects the ceremony of brit milah and the children who undergo it.
