I’m a traveling mohel. My colleague’s unprecedented arrest in Ireland has shaken me to my core.
A mohel performs a circumcision ceremony in Israel, July 6, 2023. (David Cohen/Flash 90)
(JTA) — “What are these for?” the security guard at the Dubai airport asked as three others inspected my bris kit — the bag of supplies I carry when I perform circumcisions on Jewish baby boys.
Whenever I travel for work and I’m away from Israel for only a short time, I never check a bag, so this can make for interesting encounters at the X-ray machines. There are times I’ve lied and said I make jewelry, but since circumcision is a cultural norm in the United Arab Emirates and other Muslim countries, I decided to come clean. “I perform circumcisions,” I replied. They looked at me with blank stares. “You know, the operation done to a baby … on his…” The penny dropped and all three showed their recognition in unison. It felt like I was in a movie.
I have many stories like this, most of them involving my luggage. People love to talk about Israel, Judaism and brit milah, Jewish ritual circumcision, even in the most unexpected places. But as a recent trip approached, the news out of Ireland gave me pause.
Rabbi Jonathan Abraham, a well-respected mohel from the United Kingdom, was arrested in Dublin for performing circumcision despite not being a physician, on the basis that circumcision is a medical procedure. The details of the story are still emerging, but what is known is that the rabbi traveled to Ireland, which he had done many times before, to perform circumcisions for a number of non-Jewish boys.
In the court proceedings, a detective testified that she entered the home to find one baby on a changing mat, who had already been circumcised, while Rabbi Abraham was preparing to circumcise another child. The mohel was refused bail and could be sentenced to five years in prison and perhaps fined up to 130,000 euros ($143,000). The arrest has come as a deep shock, as it had appeared to be settled law in Ireland that circumcision carried out for religious and cultural reasons is not classified as a medical procedure.
For traveling mohels like me, this is a rather disconcerting story. I flashed back to all the brises I had done in the past. I have certification to perform them in Sweden, but no other Jewish community I’ve visited mentioned any legal requirements for being such a practitioner.
My mind has been flooded with questions. The most pressing: Why was this mohel arrested given the understanding of the law in Ireland? Many articles on the arrest quote a 2007 law that requires practitioners to be medical professionals, which this rabbi is not. But it is 2024 and this is the first time this has happened in the region. Could something else be at play?
It goes without saying that the climate for Jews is not good right now. Israel is a hot-button topic all over the world and every day there seems to be more news of a growing wave of antisemitism. Ireland in particular has been an epicenter of anti-Israel sentiment. I hate to say so, but it kind of felt that it was only a matter of time before something like this would happen.
And even before the current backlash against Israel and its supporters, Europe had become a hotbed of opposition to ritual circumcision, a ritual important not only to Jews but to Muslims. Some defenders of the ritual say such opposition is a byproduct of xenophobia.
The good news is Rabbi Abraham is a member of the UK Initiation Society, the institution which trains and regulates religious circumcisers. The organization has been on top of this case from the outset. Even though he was originally denied kosher food and tefillin with which to pray, the Initiation Society and local Jewish leaders are making sure that both Rabbi Abraham and our core religious values are safe. But there are no guarantees.
The same uncertainty applies for brit milah in Europe and around the world. There are many communities without a local mohel. The practice is kept alive in these areas by traveling mohels, like myself, who visit regularly to provide this essential service. It’s quite possible that mohels will be scared off from travel — or at least think twice before going for fear of such reprisals.
As far as I understand it, this is the first time a rabbi has been arrested for performing circumcision since the time of the Nazis. The tension surrounding Israel, and Jews more broadly, does not appear to be subsiding. I pray that next time I’m called on to perform a brit outside of Israel, I will have the strength to do so. I will definitely do diligent research beforehand to lessen the possibility of a run-in with the law. My hope is that Rabbi Abraham will be home with his family soon, and that we mohels can band together to keep our age-old tradition alive.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.
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