New York – NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg yesterday rebuffed rabbis’ threats of legal action if the city goes through with a proposal to restrict a controversial Orthodox Jewish circumcision procedure.
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“We have an obligation to keep people alive and safe and the courts have held that up repeatedly,” Bloomberg said yesterday at a press conference.
“There are certain practices that doctors say are not safe and we will not permit those practices to the extent that we can stop them. You don’t have a right to put any child’s life in danger, and this clearly does.”
His comments came in response to Orthodox rabbis who defended the controversial practice of “metzitzah b’peh” at a New York City Health Department public hearing this week. During the ritual, a mohel uses his mouth to suck blood from the circumcision wound, which has led to the transmission of herpes to some infants, in a few cases leading to their deaths. One mohel, Rabbi A. Romi Cohn, defended the practice, saying rabbinical law guidelines are “much stricter than the medical profession,” though he admitted some people without training as required by rabbinical law pose as mohels to make money, a practice he strongly condemned.
Here we go our dear health controller fellow Lib Jew has spoken.
One question…How come it is the ‘Jews’ that are bothered the most with MBP issue?
BTW, no one ever said anything about banning it…now here he’s taking another step..
The mayor seems to have forgotten that the virus is usually NOT from the mohel. Deep down the little tyrant’s issue with this is something else totally – not saving lives – v’hamayvin yovin!
MbP is something that was deemed good and healthy, by Greek and Roman doctors. Those were the sources, from where the Chazal got all Refuah Segilos mentioned in all the Mesechtos. See Rambam in Yod Hachazokoh and Moreh Nevuchim..
Lol, mr’ mayor, bigger & stronger people then you treid already in the history of jews to stop this holy mitzva & it didnwork for them, not even one jew will stop doing mtzizha bpah, we will all go in jail if needed we are not afaraid of you, what a shamfull mayor we have
Mayor Mike bring it on. Between your financial support of Gay Marriage, as well as this, your time will come.
mr, mayor: sham on you, time for you to get out of the office, why did you rejected to meet the rabbunim & listen to the other side as well? billions & billions of kids got matziza bpah & didn’t happen anything, the Torah does not say to do things what is in danger
yes king whatever you say. by theway can we vote you in again to another 4 years.
“You don’t have a right to put any child’s life in danger, and this clearly does.”
MBP “clearly” puts the child’s life in danger???!!! Does hizzoner have any medical statistics to show that MBP is a greater risk than other procedures that are OK?
Mayor Bloomberg is doing the right thing in the face of fanatical opposition. He should be congratulated by everyone who values the lives of our children.
Why didn’t you Tell us this before you ran in 2009 when the issue cam up I think it was in your 2nd term you let it go because you needed our votes if we would of known then we would have voted you out you won by 50,000 votes if the jewish people from borough park Flatbush and Williamsburg wouldn’t have voted for you Bill Thomson would win
how do we get the mayor to read our comments on vin news
Mike.when will you join my friend GOVERNOR SPITZER ?
Goldberger, Your comment #5 makes’Noiach mit ziben grazzen’ seem eloquent,
Thank your Mr. Mayor for taking steps to save the lives of Jewish babies.
Response to #1 : “The mayor seems to have forgotten that the virus is usually NOT from the mohel.”
So what? Let’s protect the lives of babies where the virus IS from the mohel.
Response to #2 : “MbP is something that was deemed good and healthy, by Greek and Roman doctors. Those were the sources, from where the Chazal got all Refuah Segilos … “
Exactly! Chazal were relying on outdated medical theories. Greek and Roman doctors knew far less than we know today about the transmission of disease.
Responses to #5 : “billions & billions of kids got matziza bpah & didn’t happen anything,”
Billions and billions!? Let’s ignore your hyperbole and examine the facts. MbP kills about one baby in ten thousand (that is without counting the cases of brain damage and disease that we can only estimate). So it’s true that 9,999 babies will survive the procedure. But al pi halachah, we must save the remaining one.
“The Torah does not say to do things what is in danger.”
Actually, the Torah forbid us to do a mitzvah — even milah itself — if there is even the slightest chance of danger.
Yasher koiach to all the Frum Jewish Leaders/Rebbes/Askanim,etc. who supported Bloomberg in his bid for another term. Now you have Gay Marriage and government dictating halacha.
Thank you Simcha Felder for overturning term limits and giving us Bloomberg for another 4 years so he can try to erase yiddishkeit.
Here’s another lone voice applauding the mayor. Folks, they’re not banning milah so stop with the hysterical rants about antisemitism. Would you ever lick or suck a bloody surgical site on your body in order to clean it or stop the bleeding?! No way! Chazal instituted that practice because at that time that is how they dealt with bloody wounds based on the information that was available to them at that time. That doesn’t mean thousands of years later that is how we must deal with bloody wounds.
Mr Mayor,
As a result of homosexual relations, many people are dying from Aids.
In the name of Freedom, you legalized Gay marriage.
Why were you not concerned for the 1 in a 1000 that will be infected with the Aids Virus?
You can not have it both ways.
Religous jews want to practice MBP and when 1 in 10,000 get sick as a result, butt out.
i don’t know if Bloomberg knows in what hot water he got into, he thinks its another obesity law…my friends! brace for the fun
why cant a mohel get certified by a doctor that he was tested for herpes, like this he will be safe.
maybe this comment by the mayer will give all those askonim who FAWNED over “mayor bloomberg” last summer 2011 when he campaigned upstate in woodbourne to pause and see if their support was misplaced.
mike bloombergs reign will end but mila and metziza will live on way past his memory. no frum jew will change our mesora since avrom avenu
(in a worst case senario which i dont dream will happen brisim will take place in NJ the caterers in nj will love it)but mike you showed your true colors to our community once too many times 1)when you removed the xtra $$ for yeshiva parents with learning disabled children and now again. your an oppurtunist at best and a meshumed at worst may hashem pay you your do on this world and the next world
What’s with immunization shots that cause autism?
According to Mohel Philip Sherman who was certified by Rabbi Yosef Halperin, the Chief Mohel of Jerusalem in 1977.
Performing metzitzah using one’s mouth is primarily a Chasidic custom. Many in the Chasidic community insist that direct oral contact (i.e. b’peh) is the only acceptable way to perform metzitzah. The Chatam Sofer (Rabbi Moshe Sofer) in his responsum to Rabbi Eliezer Horowitz defines the word metzitzah as “squeezing,” and not “suction.” The Chatam Sofer clearly states that if there is any danger whatsoever associated with metzitzah b’peh, it should not be done “b’peh” (with the mouth), but instead should be performed via the use of a gauze pad (s’fog).
Metzitzah can be performed; just the custom of performing it with the mouth (“b’peh”) should be eliminated.
The average Jewish family doesn’t know that most non-Chasidic Orthodox mohels don’t perform metzitzah b’peh. Not only do I not perform metzitzah b’peh, I wear gloves, autoclave my instruments and maintain the highest levels of aseptic technique. Even worse, this story has turned many Jewish families away from even having a bris altogether and given incredible ammunition to the anti-circumcision crowd.
Respondto # 12 &23;
If Chazal told us that this is the way to do it, you are not allowed to change it, maybe you shouldnt slaughter animals anymore because there are different methods today, or maybe you shouldnt light candles friday because you have lights.
Let’s face it although we are all equal but separate jews, there are many factions in judasim! and now we will have a new crietera MbP or not.
When Mayor Bloomberg ran for the third time there was a mass rally in Williamsburg and Rabbi Niederman from UJO supposedly told the Oilam that we need to sign 10,000 petitions to the mayor which will prevent the Mayor from going against MBP everyone diligently signed their names on it, a year later the Mayors office leaked the secret that Niederman told the Mayor that the signatures are from the chassidim of Satmar Zalmen who are begging the Mayor to let them keep their buildings and that the DOB shall give them permits, after such a dirty trick this Mayor does not care what the chassidim have to say! because everything is politics
They did not ban Milah, they only banned Metzitzah b’peh. Which is not practiced by everyone anyway. Most Beisin in Flatbush, Five Towns, Deal, Teaneck and other local areas don’t even practice it. So all the statisitics about the rate of health problems and death cannot count the majority of brisin in the tri-state area as they dont practice Metzitzh Bpeh.
If you’ll recall that Mesiras Nefesh for a Mitzvah goes till Vchai beham……. and then it stops, the only time when go further is when their is a Shmad ruling, if the government would have wanted to stop this for religious reasons (which of course they cannot do in the US) then we would not listen to them, however when they want to stop it becuase of health purposes Kol Hakovad!
I have 2 sons and had Metzitzah Bepah for both the first Mohel wasn’t so aseptic in his techniques so he just swashed his mouth with some wine and that was it, the other Mohel however was A+ in his aseptics smelled for a mile from mouthwash, which is what all Mohalim should do at a minimum.
If Metzitzah Bepah isn’t outlawed at least there should be some kind of certification and inspection system in place
Reading articles about this from other sources, it appears the Mayor isn’t trying to ban mb”p, but instead requiring a signed “informed consent”, kind of like the ones Doctors regularly have to get signed before surgeries that have known risks Parents would still be able to sign and proceed. From his perspective it makes mb”p more difficult. Perhaps it will cause some to question, or even want to talk to their Rov and/or a trusted pediatrician. Hard to fight a requirment of “informed consent” on religious freedom grounds if the religious act is permitted at the end of the day..
What it will do is put mohalim on the spot to make sure they get it signed and, I suppose, if they have a view of health risks (e.g. a kid they gave a milah to was known to them to have subsequently gotten sick) might make them uncomfortable about proceeding.
Anybody else know if the above is actually the story, or if he is trying to ban it outright?
The mayor said: “We have an obligation to keep people alive and safe and the courts have held that up repeatedly,”
Tell me, dear Mayor Bloomberg, since you approved the ‘Marriage Equality’ act does this not support male homosexuality? What are the AIDS (And other) statistics regarding health issues?
What does ‘…keep people alive.’ mean?
Mother ‘Rochel’ said that if she doesn’t have children she’s like dead. So Mayor, you want to keep people alive?
Percentage wise more people die of bacterias in hospitals, so maybe the next thing on his agenda should be not permitting to go to hospitals. Who knows what he’ll come up with next. P.s. if you didnt realize, i’m being sarcastic
About a week ago, WCBS 880′s Peter Haskell reported that: “Two children die every day from drowning and minority children are three times as likely as white children to drown. That’s why New York City is trying to teach kids to swim and is offering free lessons. The program is called Learn to Swim.”
This chilling statistic clearly shows us that swimming is an extremely (unnecessary) dangerous endeavor for children. 2 precious children die (needlessly) every single day! Is anyone suggesting to ban swimming for people under 18? 12? Is anyone suggesting that parent’s be required to sign a written consent before allowing a child into a public pool?
If you compare the percent of children who allegedly got sick from metziza b’peh this past year with the children who died in the pool, you will see that thousands of children clearly died in the pool, and ??? kids got sick from the traditional bris?
Yet, since a Bris is an ‘old fashioned, religious practice’ it’s fair game for attack, scorn, ridicule and government regulation…..
MbP will not be a problem soon. The way things are going in Europe, strong pressure will soon start to be exerted here in America as well to totally ban mila until the child reaches the age of legal maturity and can decide for himself.
The cognitive dissonance here is astounding. Apparently people think that the mohel should wash his hands, wear gloves, and use sterile instruments, but then it’s perfectly fine to put his mouth teeming with germs on the incision site. Are you kidding? In a world where now it’s possible to contract flesh-eating bacterial infections from a simple cut, why would anyone risk a herpes infection from MBP? The halacha is clear: if there is even the smallest risk, the shadow of a doubt, the practice should be avoided. Chazal were not scientists and the Torah is not a science book. The responses of those who disagree are clearly emotionally based, not rationally based.
MBP must be re-evaluated in light of modern science and medicial knowledge. Evidence that MBP is a risk to health anf life must be reviewed by a group of “frum” Doctors (many whom have a Rabinnical degree). Emotional declarations of protecting an important Jewish practice/”halacha” are out of place (as are emotional attacks on the Mayor). Perhaps a way out of this MBP situation is to have universial certification of the “Mohel” profession (including a frequent test, to be medically determined, for Herpes).
There is not sufficient proof that infections are common from MBP. Many mohalim are highly skilled and are trusted by doctors to deal with the halachic aspects of mila when there is a medical issue and they work in tandem in the OR. These same mohalim do and encourage MBP, and don’t consider it an issue. (Rabbis Cohn, Weinberger, and Belsky, for instance.) There are many more cases of people being killed by negligence or catching fatal infections in hospitals, and of people in same-gender relationships catching aids; the mayor isn’t going after hospitals, and certainly not after the others (unless they are c”v drinking 16 ounce sodas). Many more people get pulled under by rip currents and undertows at beaches, but he’s not closing them down (just preventing them from littering the beaches with soda cups >16oz).
He clearly has his own agenda here. This “informed consent” is just the beginning; next will be “informed consent” for mila, and for yeshiva education, forced “tolerence”of “alt lifestyles”, then comes legislation about shechita, about “wasteful” electricity use on Shabbos and YomTov, etc. Then it becomes a trend nationwide c”v.
Mr. Mayor is a self-hating Jew.
Time for the Rabbonim and Rebbe’s grow a set and put this momzer in Cherem. His punishment will come Min HaShomayim just like all teh Gush Katif criminals. We saw today an open case of Yesh Din VYesh Dayan with the deposal of Niso Shaham the maynyuk former police chief of Yerushalayim whose brutality in Gush Katif was worthy of an SS officer
Can someone tell me what is wrong with using a tube rather then direct oral contact?