At 4 p.m. Tuesday, a group of about a dozen Hasidic Jews, whose ranks would soon swell enormously, gathered behind a police barrier on a Park Avenue sidewalk between 53rd and 54th streets to prepare for a large-scale protest. The group, organized by the Central Rabbinical Congress of the United States and Canada, has taken Read More
After a hiatus, we once again wade into the very uncomfortable waters of metzitah b’feh, the controversial circumcision ritual in which the practitioner, or mohel, sucks the blood from the circumcision to clean the wound. The practice has resulted in the death of at least one child from herpes.
A couple of weeks ago, I described Health Commissioner Tom Frieden’s decision not to ban a controversial circumcision practice outright as “backing down.” Looks like I read it wrong; and that’s certainly not how the community took it.
There have been rumblings of protest in the community since Frieden announced that he would Read More
The city’s decision not to ban a circumcision practice that, the Health Department said, has lead to the death of at least one child wasn’t likely to please the Christopher Hitchens types.
But the Chasidic communities affected are also upset. They don’t want the city to launch a public-information campaign warning people that Read More
