CITY ISLAND, NY — “Culturally Jewish” is the self-described label offered up by Russell Harmon, a 19-year-old City Island, NY, native currently pursuing a degree in computer science at Rochester Institute of Technology.
Increasingly, American Adult Jewish Males Request Ritual Circumcision
CITY ISLAND, NY — “Culturally Jewish” is the self-described label offered up by Russell Harmon, a 19-year-old City Island, NY, native currently pursuing a degree in computer science at Rochester Institute of Technology.
“I like the Jewish people. I like hanging out with Jews, the way they act, the morals they have,” he said. His Jewish mom told him most Jewish boys are circumcised at eight days old, but he was not. It didn’t bother him until he got to know many Jews, “and then it bothered me that I didn’t have this fundamental thing done. No one treated me differently, but I felt like an outsider.”
Harmon didn’t have a family rabbi to turn to for assistance, so he didn’t do anything until a friend took him on a tour of Jewish places in New York. They stopped at a Hillel House. They sampled kosher restaurant food. They joined the Chanukah party at Chabad of Riverdale, NY, where Harmon met Rabbi Levi Shemtov. They spoke of Harmon’s dilemma.
“Logic does not account for the powerful pull that a Jewish soul must feel to be part of the covenant of Abraham. I cannot fathom it,” said Rabbi Shemtov.
Rabbi Shemtov phoned Rabbi Yisroel Heller, a mohel – ritual circumciser – who has performed 2000 adult milah procedures. At first, Rabbi Heller told Lubavitch.com, most adult milah requests came from Jews born in the former Soviet Union. Now he fields requests from Canadians, South Americans, Hungarians, an array worthy of the United Nations. In the last two weeks, his ever-present cell phone rang with requests from Arizona, San Francisco and Connecticut – all American born men requesting a brit milah.
