Four months after a Cologne court rattled European Jews with a ruling that banned circumcision, the German government took the first step toward granting the ritual the formal protection of the law. Acting at the behest of Chancellor Angela Merkel, the 16-member cabinet voted in favor of a draft bill that will overturn the Cologne court and make circumcision legal throughout Germany if done by a trained professional, such as a Jewish mohel or ritual circumciser. If the bill is passed by the federal parliament, it will become law and remove the threat of prosecution that now hangs over mohels in Germany.
The odds are, that is exactly what the Bundestag will do in the coming weeks, though some Jews are worried that public sentiment is still against them no matter Merkel wants. As the Forward notes, German Jewish leaders fear that the ambivalence of all the major parties, as well as what may turn out to be spirited resistance from major medical associations, will derail the legislation. But even if Merkel succeeds, the question hanging over European Jewry is whether the bill can start to undo the damage that the court ruling created.
The prosecutions of rabbis for performing circumcisions, the decisions by hospitals to cease conducting the procedure, and incidents of anti-Semitic violence have all helped to create a hostile atmosphere for European Jews. While some put down the opposition to circumcision to a general lack of tolerance for faith and organized religion in Europe, the fact remains that Jews remain the leading targets for ostracism and hatred.
In contemporary Europe, hostility to Zionism and Israel has given a façade of faux legitimacy to traditional anti-Semitism. Combine that with a culture that views all religious observance as either primitive or foreign and it’s easy to see how the anti-circumcision movement has gained so much traction.
That means that Merkel is going to have put the whip out on her coalition members to ensure that the bill is passed without any changes that would make it impossible for mohels to do their job and thus render the whole exercise pointless.
Nevertheless, Chancellor Merkel deserves great credit for pushing the bill through this far. A failure to legalize circumcision will expose Germany to ridicule and anger. But even if it passes, there is no denying that this lamentable chapter has exposed a raw nerve of modern Jew-hatred.
Good post. n nMerkel, unfortunately, and as you imply, does not appear to represent her countrymen in her attitudes towards Jews and Israel. n n
> As the Forward notes, German Jewish leaders fear that the ambivalence of all the major n> parties, as well as what may turn out to be spirited resistance from n> major medical associations, will derail the legislation. n nAnd if "major medical associations" in Europe voice "spirited resistance" condemning circumcision of infants on ethical grounds (=nobody can force ADULTS to have parts of their genitals surgically removed after all) or from a medical point of view, I really don't see why Europeans should grant special privileges to Muslims and Jews in this particular case. n nDo COMMENTARY readers support forced female circumcision too if e.g. African immigrants claim their religious faith demands it? Or human sacrifice of children, which has been justified on religious grounds in the past. n nFinally, I find it a bit amusing that the same folks who condemn "multiculturalism" and warn about granting "Sharia law" exemptions to Muslim immigrants suddenly make a 180 degree turn when a religious practice (=involuntary circumcision of minors) clashes with the fundamental concept of individual rights here in the West.
Are those the same medical associations that once voiced spirited resistance to letting Jews practice medicine? n nWhen you can cite reliable medical evidence that male infant circumcision is harmful as are clitorectomies, we have something to discuss. Until then, particularly given medical evidence that the procedure can be beneficial and is at worst neutral, and the evidence that the later in life it is done, the more painful it is, your odious comparison remains merely an odious comparison.
It's a barbarous custom, but the parents, not the state, should make the decision.