JTA: The Global News Service of the Jewish People

Debating circumcision

By Ami Eden · July 17, 2008

With a lawsuit pitting a mother and father against each other over whether to circumcise their son, the Oregonian takes a look at the ritual – and the forces fighting against it.

In addition, the paper interviews a Jewish woman about her decision not to circumcise her son:

Was [the father’s] argument persuasive?

Well, I couldn’t get my mind around it. If I were having a daughter, why wouldn’t she want a visceral, spiritual experience?

Then I asked myself, would I really accept this practice without question? It’s not something I do, especially in regards to another person’s body. I had been doing so much to protect my son – eating well, walking, doing prenatal yoga. And no matter what people told me, I could not imagine a way in which circumcision would not hurt him.

What about medical arguments?

Research suggests no medical reason to do it. Why cut off a piece of a child’s body if I don’t have to? I didn’t believe this is what would make my son Jewish.

What will?

Celebrating Shabbat, keeping Tikkun Olam (Hebrew for “repairing the world"). Being Jewish is internal, a way of connecting to the rest of the world, to tradition and to history. It is a way of questioning as well.

What about the argument that circumcision connects generations of Jewish men to each other and to God?

I did think about the Holocaust, how people had not been able to practice circumcision – or risked their lives to do so. That was impressive to me.

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Power Bris

By Ami Eden · June 2, 2008

Here’s something you don’t see every day ... a Power Bris:

Real Estate’s Next Generation….

Zina Sapir, daughter of real estate mogul Tamir Sapir and her husband real estate mogul Rotem Rosen, CEO of Africa Israel USA welcomed a baby boy last week.  The bris is scheduled Sunday, June 1st at the grave of Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson, a prominent Hasidic rabbi who was the seventh and last Rebbe (spiritual leader) of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.  Real estate and diamonds magnate Lev Leviev, the biggest contributor to Chabad in the world, personally arranged for the bris to take place at the grave site, which is considered a huge honor.  Rotem Rosen, Lev Leviev’s right hand man, is very grateful as the grave is believed to be a holy site where millions of people come from all over the world to receive inspiration and blessing from the Rebbe.

The guest list for the bris on Sunday reads like a who’s who in real estate with such names as Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, Joe Monahan, Joseph Chetrit, Steve Witkoff, Robert K. Futterman, Meir Tepper, Giuseppe Cipriani, Andre Balazs, and Amy Sacco all expected to attend.

The Sapir-Rosen offspring already owns more than half of New York City as Africa-Israel owns half of the Upper West Side landmark the Apthorp; the New York Times Building, the Clock Tower on Madison Avenue, much of the land around Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal; and massive downtown holdings including Downtown by Philippe Starck.  The Sapir Organization owns some of New York’s largest commercial buildings and developing such high profile buildings as Trump SoHo and the William Beaver House among many others.

Zina and Rotem just recently tied the knot on December 20, 2007 at Trump’s Mar-A-Largo retreat in Florida in front of 600 guests and included performances by Lionel Ritchie and the Pussycat Dolls.

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Boot camp for mohels

By Ami Eden · April 15, 2008

“For 19 years, Dr. Bob Levenson, 60, was one of the most sought-after mohels in Greater Boston,” the Boston Globe reports. “But now he is retired and his shoes have not been easy to fill.”

The solution?

A boot camp for mohels.

Last weekend, 21 students from across the country - mostly pediatricians, urologists, and obstetricians - converged for an intense three-day certification course on how to become a mohel. The first Boston-area training session in 20 years, the workshop was an attempt to replenish the dwindling number of mohels in the region and enliven the connection between Jews and the ancient ritual that symbolizes the Jewish covenant with God.

With just two dozen or so active mohels serving Eastern Massachusetts, many young parents seeking a traditional berit mila - religious circumcision in accordance with Jewish law - describe a frantic and stressful search to book a mohel in the days following their newborn’s birth. To increase the numbers requires lobbying an already busy group of men and women to take on a time-consuming and important religious responsibility.

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