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 ›

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 ›

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 ›

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 ›