Last week, the Brooklyn district attorney confirmed that prosecutors are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a two-week old infant who died last fall in Brooklyn after he contracted herpes from a religious circumcision at Maimonides Medical Center. As we noted, the case sounded eerily similar to that of Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer, a Rockland County mohel who was found to have given three babies herpes through the ritual several years ago. Prosecutors have noticed that as well, and just announced they were investigating Fischer in connection to the baby's death—and it turns out that Fischer has continued performing the controversial religious circumcisions despite a court order to stop. more ›

This week, the Brooklyn district attorney confirmed that prosecutors are investigating the circumstances surrounding the death of a two-week old infant who died last fall in Brooklyn after he contracted herpes from a religious circumcision at Maimonides Medical Center. Now, rabbis are worried that the investigation may send mohels who perform the metzitzah b’peh ritual into back alley circumcisions: “The worst thing that could happen is if the authorities regulate this practice, then it could go underground,” Rabbi David Zwiebel, the executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, told the Times. more ›

The Brooklyn DA is now "looking into the circumstances surrounding the death" of a two-week old infant who died last fall in Brooklyn after he contracted herpes from a religious circumcision at Maimonides Medical Center. When the boy died in September his cause of death was listed as "disseminated herpes simplex virus Type 1, complicating ritual circumcision with oral suction." more ›

A two-week old infant died last fall in a Brooklyn hospital from herpes contracted from a religious circumcision. According to the Daily News, the unidentified infant died last September at Maimonides Hospital—the cause of death was listed as “disseminated herpes simplex virus Type 1, complicating ritual circumcision with oral suction.” The case sounds eerily similar to that of Rabbi Yitzchok Fischer, a Rockland County mohel who was found to have given three babies herpes through the ritual. more ›

You really can't make this up! A cop who claims he was fired for flashing a woman in a police stationhouse insists he is innocent—and he has (or, rather, doesn't have) the foreskin to prove it! According to former officer Owen Hopper's suit against the NYPD, "at no point during the trial was an expert called to render an opinion" as to whether or not an aroused uncut dong looks like a cut one. more ›

As we learned this spring, "intactivism" is the belief in the right of baby boys to keep their foreskins intact. And in San Fransisco, there's a particularly polarizing movement to legally ban circumcision altogether, a fight which has started to turn ugly. As part of the campaign to ban the practice through ballot initiatives, the group MGMBill has created a series of online comic books featuring "Foreskin Man" fighting the "Monster Mohel." How could anyone possibly have a problem with that? "'Foreskin Man,' with its grotesque anti-Semitic imagery and themes, reaches a new low and is disrespectful and deeply offensive," said Nancy J. Appel, Anti-Defamation League Associate Regional Director. more ›

A Queens toddler who went into Beth Israel Hospital for a routine circumcision died Tuesday after he was given a general anesthetic instead of a local one, his uncle says. Reportedly after being doped up the last thing the young boy, who would have turned two next month, did before going critical was wake up laughing and calling out for his mother. more ›

Intactivism is the belief in the right of baby boys to keep their foreskins intact, and there's a movement to legally ban circumcision. After introducing legislation last year, a San Francisco-based group of intactivists opposing male circumcision has collected enough signatures for a ballot initiative next November on whether to bar the practice in the city. "It's excruciatingly painful and permanently damaging surgery that's forced on men when they're at their weakest and most vulnerable," said Lloyd Schofield, one of the chief opponents. more ›

Mazel Tov? A Brooklyn federal judge has awarded $10 million to the victim of a circumcision gone wrong, leaving his man parts "partially amputated." The settlement is ordered to be paid by the makers of the Mogen clamp, which was used to perform the procedure. Though it is advertised as the "preferred device of the more modern Jewish Mohel," the device has been involved in other partial amputations. The judge found that the device should have come with a warning, instead of the promised "risk-free procedure" in the instruction manual. more ›

49-year-old John Singer of Queens is pissed about an article that appeared on the website of Centropa, a European oral-history project (tee-hee), wrongly claiming that he had not been circumcised. He's filed a lawsuit in Brooklyn Federal Court seeking unspecified damages, claiming that, "Centropa.org and its editorial staff have violated my right to privacy of the most intimate part of my anatomy. They have caused me tremendous emotional pain and suffering. I feel humiliated and betrayed." According to Singer, the article misquoted his mother as saying her two sons had not been circumcised. He says he told Centropa's director this was incorrect, and was assured "that this material regarding my genitalia would never be published," City Room reports. But it went online anyway, misleading the whole world into thinking that John F. Singer of Queens, New York totally has a foreskin. more ›