German Parliament Passes Bill to Protect Bris Milah

Religious circumcision is again legal in Germany after the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of Parliament, passed the final version of a circumcision bill today by a vote of 438 to 100. The upper house of Parliament passed the draft law in October, and the final vote means the right to religious circumcision is now guaranteed. A court in Cologne previously ruled it a criminal act.

The new law permits religious circumcision of a baby boy with parental consent, providing that parents have been informed of the risks and that there are no medical contraindications. A religiously-trained circumciser, known in Judaism as a mohel, can perform the procedure as long as the child is under the age of six months.

Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in Berlin, has been involved since the beginning in advocating passage of the bill. He lauded the Parliament for its work. “The decision is a positive encouragement for the continued positive development of Jewish Life in Germany,” he said. “We are thankful to the government for giving this issue such importance and making this happen before the end of 2012.”

The uncertainty began in May, when a Cologne court ruled that the circumcision of a young boy on religious grounds amounted to grievous bodily harm and was therefore illegal. The court’s ruling ignited months of debate on the cultural and religious meaning of circumcision, and led many Jews in Germany and around the world to once again question the acceptance of Jews as part of mainstream German life.

In July, the German Parliament concluded that a new federal law must be passed in order to overturn the Cologne court’s ruling, and German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office directed her government to find “legal certainty” on the topic.

Chabad-Lubavitch and the Jewish community at large, including Dieter Graumann, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, have taken a very active role in explaining the significance of circumcision to political leaders in Germany.

And as part of continuing the conversation, Rabbi Teichtal and the Berlin Jewish community invited Chief Rabbi Metzger to meet with government leaders to explain the importance of circumcision in Judaism, and to clarify that it is not an additional or optional part of Jewish tradition but is a cardinal principle and a pillar of Judaism.

The meetings, which were held in August in the offices of Germany’s Federal Minister of Justice, Sabine Leuttheusser-Schnarrenberger, who drafted the circumcision legislation, included the Chief Rabbi of Israel, Rabbi Yona Metzger, Rabbi Yehuda Teichtel, the Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in Berlin who serves as Rabbi of the Jewish Community in Berlin, and leaders of Germany’s Jewish community.

The Minister of Family Affairs took to the podium during the later debate and affirmed her support of the measure. The Minister, Dr. Kristina Schroder, told members of Parliament that she had come to understand the centrality of circumcision to Jewish life only after attending meetings this summer.

With a growing number Jewish children being born in Germany, the issue was one of growing concern, said Teichtal, especially given its implications for young Jewish families.

“A federal law that protects religious circumcision will strengthen Jewish life in Germany and encourage the Jewish community’s growth and development,” added Teichtel. “It will give families the assurance that yes, they can live a Jewish life here, and that Jewish traditions and Jewish law is protected, in this case by federal German law.”