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The Libertarian
Citizen
Username: Local_1_crew
Post Number: 1217
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 6, 2006 - 8:37 pm: |     |
Don Hogan Charles/The New York Times
Orthodox Jewish men visited Gracie Mansion Thursday for a meeting with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg.
When one of the most revered Orthodox leaders, Rabbi David Niederman, addressed the throngs, he praised the mayor for his push to create more affordable housing, his takeover of the public schools and his support for the constitutional separation of church and state.
For many in the crowd, the last reference was code for the administration's decision to hold off from taking action against an ancient form of ritualistic circumcision practiced by some Hasidic rabbis that had been linked to three cases of neonatal herpes in late 2004, one of them fatal.
But now, with the election over, the city's Health Department, while not banning the procedure, is angering those Hasidic leaders just the same by pushing a public health campaign against the rite, in which the practitioner, or mohel, sucks the blood from the circumcision wound to clean it. The department took the action after linking the rite to additional cases of herpes in infants, one of whom suffered brain damage as a result. |
Dr. Winston O'Boogie
Citizen
Username: Casey
Post Number: 1831
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Friday, January 6, 2006 - 8:44 pm: | |
geez, you act like sucking the blood out of a circumcision wound is unusual... |
The Libertarian
Citizen
Username: Local_1_crew
Post Number: 1219
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Friday, January 6, 2006 - 8:48 pm: | |
BLECH!
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LibraryLady(ncjanow)
Supporter
Username: Librarylady
Post Number: 2919
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Friday, January 6, 2006 - 8:58 pm: | |
There was a previous thread on this sometime ago, but I don't know if you can still access it through search. I've been to many a bris but not like that! |
Fight the power
Citizen
Username: Tookiew
Post Number: 19
Registered: 12-2005
| | Posted on Friday, January 6, 2006 - 11:00 pm: | |
Mohels on the "down low." Oh yeah, just performing an ancient ritual. |
anon
Supporter
Username: Anon
Post Number: 2474
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Friday, January 6, 2006 - 11:30 pm: | |
This is controversial among the Orthodox themselves. |
ess
Citizen
Username: Ess
Post Number: 842
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, January 7, 2006 - 10:34 am: | |
Tookie, given what we've seen from you on other threads, you are best suited to stay out of this discussion. |
campbell29
Citizen
Username: Campbell29
Post Number: 313
Registered: 4-2002
| | Posted on Saturday, January 7, 2006 - 9:11 pm: | |
What is suddenly up with this? I've never heard of this ever, and suddenly its all over the news. I would have completely been astounded if I saw this at a bris. I've been to many a Reform and Conservative bris, but never seen it. Is it limited to the ultra-orthodox, or is it "coming soon" to a rabbi near us. |
Debby
Citizen
Username: Debby
Post Number: 2167
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, January 7, 2006 - 10:39 pm: | |
It's exceedingly rare, with even mainstream orthodoxy rejecting it. Most Jews in America and Israel have never seen it done, and it is a non-issue for almost the entire Jewish population. Evidently this one "old-school" mohel was the common link between 3 infants who contracted an illness and were hospitalized.
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ess
Citizen
Username: Ess
Post Number: 843
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Saturday, January 7, 2006 - 11:33 pm: | |
I am actually very curious as to how an old-school Orthodox mohel would have contracted herpes in the first place. Seems counterintuitive.
Otherwise, from what I know about this, this is a very very ancient and mostly non-practiced part of the ritual. |
e roberts
Citizen
Username: Wnwd00
Post Number: 367
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Sunday, January 8, 2006 - 7:56 am: | |
it is prety easy to obtain herpes especially oral. it could be as simple as the rabbi getting it from an eariler infant during the same procedure because the infant got it from the parents. along with many many other routes of transmission. |
Debby
Citizen
Username: Debby
Post Number: 2168
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, January 8, 2006 - 2:07 pm: | |
ess- the kind of herpes at issue here is herpes simplex I - the garden variety "cold sore" virus. Evidently 80% of adults are carriers, though many less get the eruptions or "fever blisters". This has nothing to do with an STD. It is a virus that most of us carry, and is inconsequential to all but the most immune compromised and neonates.
Like other herpes viruses, a person can transmit the virus before the blister erupts. |
ess
Citizen
Username: Ess
Post Number: 844
Registered: 11-2001
| | Posted on Sunday, January 8, 2006 - 3:38 pm: | |
Eeks. Debby, thanks for the explanation. |
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