A S. Francisco group opposed to circumcision is one step closer to the city banning the practice after submitting 12,000 signatures to the local Department of Elections – nearly twice the required number – requesting a November ballot measure on the issue. If approved by voters, the law would classify circumcision of boys under the age of 18 as a misdemeanor carrying a maximum punishment of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.
Circumcision Comes Under Attack in San Francisco
A S. Francisco group opposed to circumcision is one step closer to the city banning the practice after submitting 12,000 signatures to the local Department of Elections – nearly twice the required number – requesting a November ballot measure on the issue. If approved by voters, the law would classify circumcision of boys under the age of 18 as a misdemeanor carrying a maximum punishment of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.
Both rabbis and legal experts across the United States have raised a collective eyebrow at the proposed ban, calling into question its constitutionality as a breach of religious freedom as guaranteed by the First Amendment.
“This is a tradition not only practiced by Jews, but by Muslims and members of secular society,” stated Rabbi Yosef Langer, director of Chabad-Lubavitch of S. Francisco. “Unfortunately, the Bay Area is renowned for people jumping on the bandwagon of anything that walks or crawls. To think that a very small faction of opponents [to circumcision] has gotten the attention of the entire community is preposterous.”
Circumcision, known as brit milah in Hebrew, has been a fundamental cornerstone of the Jewish people for the last 3,000 years, commanded in the Torah to be performed on the eighth day following birth. Muslims also practice circumcision when their sons are 13, tracing the ritual to Abraham’s son Ishmael. In the general population, a procedure similar to Jewish circumcision is commonly performed on infants in hospitals around the world.
But led by area resident Lloyd Schofield, 59, supporters of the ban call circumcision an act of physical abuse. They say it mutilates the body and inflicts excruciating pain upon men at their weakest and most vulnerable.
Rabbi Levi Heber, a Brooklyn mohel – or ritual circumciser – and director of the International Bris Association calls the charges outlandish.
“Circumcision attests to the everlasting covenant that G-d established with the Jewish people,” asserted the rabbi, whose Circumcision.net Web site promotes understanding and education about Jewish circumcision. “It is one of the most fundamental commandments to the Jewish people, religious and non-religious.
“Any attempt to restrict its practice would be a direct assault on the Jewish way of life and a blatant violation of religious freedom,” he added.
Constiutional Protection
Josh Davis, professor and associate dean for faculty scholarship at the University of S. Francisco School of Law, predicts the proposed ban will have a difficult time holding up under constitutional scrutiny, and not only because of its First Amendment implications.
“The right of parents to control the upbringing of children could also come into play,” said Davis, who cited the 1972 U.S. Supreme Court case Wisconsin v. Yoder, where the court ruled that the Amish community was not required to enroll its children in the public school system because it interfered with their religious beliefs. “An attack on the law might rest upon the precedent set by that case.”
Jerald F. Saval, a political scientist who taught constitutional law in the Massachusetts public school system for more than 30 years, said the law would likely be struck down because of the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause forbidding government intrusion into a group’s religious practices.
“Since the right of circumcision is such an integral part of Judaism where you cannot separate the practice from the belief, the First Amendment Free Exercise Clause would make that attempt [to outlaw it] in S. Francisco blatantly unconstitutional,” he explained.
Heber, who has been performing Jewish circumcisions since the late 1980’s, points to secular medical authorities who regard circumcision as a health-enhancing practice. But he is quick to point out that not all circumcisions are done in a way compliant with Jewish law.
Rabbinical authorities denounce hospital circumcisions, where a child is strapped to a table and his foreskin placed in a clamp. It can take several hours for the tissue to die in the procedure, whereas Jewish circumcisions are done in one swift motion using a very sharp knife to remove the foreskin.
For Heber, the issue is very simple: Jewish circumcision is in no way traumatic.
“Just because there are a few individuals that try to dress up this assault on the Jewish way of life in words that don’t have any basis doesn’t mean it’s the proper thing to do,” he said. “There should be an outcry against this effort.”
For his part, Langer remains hopeful that the city’s board of supervisors will reject the motion to place the ban on the fall ballot. But if it does not, he is ready to respond with educational and spiritual gusto.
“The Jewish community will unilaterally rise to the occasion and squash this absurdity,” the rabbi declared. “We have to stand unified and strong against the uninformed and the ignorant that are trying to uproot the covenant of Jewish life that’s been practiced from almost the beginning of time.”
wouldnt it be funny
Is this proposed ban in the city proper or does it include the county or is it the metro area?
The reason I ask is because the city proper is only 45sq miles meaning no matter where you are in the city you could be outside it in under 20 minutes.
I think it would be such a slap in the face to these people if brisim were conducted just outside of the “no fly zone” and a big deal should be made each time.
on the other hand the supreme court rulled that a group of haitians could buy and smaoke marijana for eligious purposes it seems highly unlikly that they would find this worse.
Yid
The Romans also banned us to perform bris and we didnt listen than. And that was under penalty of death!
Do they actually think a year of prison and a 1000$ fine will stop us?
Andrea Schonberger
I think the group wanting to put a ban on circumcision is equating circumcision with the horrible female genital mutilation that is committed upon young females in many African countries, and you cannot in any way compare the two.
We must chop
The sodomites are at it again
R. Gould
what can you expect from a city dedicated to “alternative” relationships and feels hetero couples are a blight. the greeks and the romans were also blatant sodomites so it goes without saying as to why they also banned circumcision
under 18??
i didnt even read half of it, but UNDER 18??? after 8 days a bris gets more and more painful…
sorry if my comment isnt right, i didnt read the article and will now procede to do so
Y M G
Depraved minds inevitably will outlaw the right laws. Anyway, Israel is becoming home to more and more Yidden. Israel: it’s where we belong. Come home!
Ron Low
Circumcision is NOT a medical procedure when there is no diagnosis of defect or disease, and no record of other less-destructive remedies tried before resorting to the drastic last-resort step of amputation.
NOT ONE national medical association on earth endorses routine circumcision.
It’s settled law that the 1st ammendment doesn’t grant the right to harm or neglect a child in the name of religion. Just ask a Snake Handler, Jehovah’s Witness, Christian Scientist, Latter Day Saint, or Muslim.
The 14th ammendment demands equal protection under the law.
Surprised
I’m surprised that these 12,000 that signed the petition are able to communicate in more than just grunts and clicks.
Anonymous
To Mr. Low/# 8
Nobody said circumcision was a medical procedure except YOU. This is a religious and spiritual custom, period. Nobody here is calling this “routine” either. This is a custom for JEWS, not for everybody, not as “routine.”
As for your comment about the 1st amendment, we do not consider circumcision harm or neglect. In fact, if a Jewish child was NOT circumcised, we would consider THAT to be spiritually harmful and neglectful.
I find it interesting that this topic is coming up just as Rambam discusses it in Sefer HaMitzvos. The consequence of not being circumcised is kares, to be cut off from the Jewish people.
Equal protection under the law enforces the first amendment’s right to practice freedom of religion. Circumcision is a thousands-of-years-old custom and it is also a biblical commandment. So as long as we are one nation UNDER G-D we will continue to keep G-d’s commandments and evoke our first amendment right to do so. Banning circumcision is unconstitutional.
Hugh7
@ #10 Anonymous: “As for your comment about the 1st amendment, we do not consider circumcision harm or neglect.”
Perhaps not, but will HE, when he is old enough to consider the matter for himself? More and more men – including plenty of Jews – do.
Ages ago, people did many horrible things to each other and circumcision did not stand out. People thought more communally and the individual’s rights were of no account. Times have changed.
@ #6 under 18? That is folklore, and an adult can regulate his own pain-control as a baby can not.
@ #3 Andrea Schonberger: It is as human rights violations that they may be equated. ALL female cutting, no matter how minor, is outlawed in the US, with no exemption for the beliefs of many Muslims. Why the double standard?