If San Francisco succeeds in banning circumcision, some good may come of it.
Let me explain. I am a passionate advocate of Jewish ritual circumcision — the ritual circumcision of 8-day-old Jewish boys. I am even an advocate of circumcision generally. I was recently in Africa — in Zimbabwe and Zambia — where I delivered mosquito nets and seeds to the poorest of Africa’s poor. I saw giant billboards there, as well as in neighboring Botswana, exhorting men to get circumcised. The World Health Organization estimates that male circumcision reduces the rate of heterosexually transmitted AIDS by about 60 percent.
As regards Jewish ritual circumcision, I can only say that I cried like a baby at the brit milah of my two sons. All I could think of was that I had been given the gift of transmitting Jewish identity in an unbroken chain that dates back to Abraham, 3,600 years ago.
I find the arguments of those who campaign against the brit milah either specious or ludicrous. The notion that some terrible, lasting pain is inflicted on the baby is over the top. The average time the baby cries is probably well under the time it cries — and far less frantic than — when tired or desiring milk. I fully understand the conflicted feelings of the mother, and I see no reason for her to be present.
Does the baby experience pain and discomfort afterward? Yes. But it is temporary, and the baby heals quickly.
The advantages wildly outweigh the momentary pain. The brit uniquely strengthens a Jew’s commitment to Judaism and instills in the family and the community a profound identification with the Jewish people and with nearly four millennia of world-changing values.
As for the argument that the foreskin is important, I can only say that in my most self-pitying moments I cannot recall lamenting not having foreskin. As I have told anti-circumcision activists on my radio show, you have to be pretty bored with life to be preoccupied with not having your foreskin.
One might add that the same people who are profoundly upset over the removal of foreskin rarely have a problem with the removal of a living human fetus. San Francisco considers protecting the human fetus religious fanaticism, but is seriously considering protecting a newborn’s foreskin.
So, then, given my profound support for circumcision, what good could possibly come from San Francisco passing a ban on it?
If the most left-wing major city in America starts arresting Jews who have their children circumcised in that city, some American Jews might awaken to the threat to Jews posed by the left. Obviously, San Francisco’s already-existing bans on toys in Happy Meals, on soda in city-owned places and on plastic bags, and the city’s proposed ban on the sale of pets, even goldfish, have not moved many Jews (and non-Jews) to begin wondering whether left-wing governance is dangerous. But perhaps a ban on circumcision will.
