BY AMY SARA CLARK The Jewish week
The same day the city’s health commissioner confirmed that two mohels have been banned from practicing the risky circumcision ritual metzitzah b’peh, the health department quietly adopted a more stringent policy against mohels linked to newborns who develop herpes simplex virus-1.
“Moving forward … Every time there is a mohel who performed MbP [metzitzah b’peh] on an infant who has contracted HSV-1, the Health Department will serve them with Commissioner’s orders banning them from performing the ritual,” the new rule says.
A city spokeswoman said that if the mohel tests negative for HSV-1, the ban would be lifted.
The plan is in sharp contract to the previous policy, which only banned the mohel if both he and the infant tested positive for the same strain of the virus.
Under both the previous policy and the new one, the city is relying on the mohels to self-enforce. A city spokeswoman said HIPAA rules prevent health officials from releasing the names of banned mohels, but that they expect the mohels to comply and that banned mohels will be hit with a $2,000 fine if they don’t.
In metzitzah b’peh, the mohel sucks on a newborn’s penis to cleanse and draw blood away from the incision. It is practiced by more than 200,000 chasidic and black hat Jews, who see it as a religious mandate. About 5,200 circumcisions with MbP are performed each year in New York City. However, the practice can lead to brain damage or death if the mohel transmits herpes to the newborn in the process. Since 2000, there have been 24 such cases reported. Two of the infants died, and at least two others suffered brain damage.
MbP critics called the change a good first step, while charedi community leaders characterized it a “witch hunt.”
“Do we just blame people by means of association?” said Rabbi Levi Y. Heber, a prominent Crown Heights mohel. “This is what some would call a witch hunt or a modern-day blood libel, where you blame the mohel for something without looking into facts or evidence.”
The city had considered doing DNA testing to confirm that a mohel, and not a family member or caretaker of the infant, was the source of the infection. However, in 2015, the de Blasio administration instead adopted the plan to have the baby and mohel tested to see if the herpes strains matched. (In 2014, a Rockland County health official said that DNA testing exonerated two mohels who were believed to have transmitted herpes to infants they circumcised. Other medical officials have disputed the validity of the finding.)
Asked how the health department can be sure the mohel is the source of the infection if no testing is done to match the strains, a de Blasio spokeswoman said that other factors, such as the timing and location of the outbreak and other data points, give enough information to allow the city to conclude that the mohel is the source.
Rabbi Heber argues that determining that the mohel has HSV-1 is not enough to peg him as the source of the infection because 70 percent of the population has the virus, which causes cold sores. Most cases of neonatal herpes come from the mother during birth. Some come from parents and other caregivers after birth. For example, if the mother touches a cold sore on her lip and then rubs cream on her baby’s bad case of diaper rash, the virus could be transferred that way.
Mohels in Heber’s community would gladly cooperate if the city would determine the source of the infection through DNA testing, he said. “There is the means of testing whether the mohel is the cause or not, and the city is just not interested,” he added. “If a mohel is linked, he should be banned from the practice.
“What is the logic of not doing DNA testing?” he added. “What is the logic to just come out and defame a Jewish religious practice without looking for hard evidence?”
But Marci A. Hamilton, a legal expert on church-state issues and head of the advocacy organization CHILD [Children’s Healthcare Is a Legal Duty] USA, called the new plan “an important and welcome step forward for infant safety.”
The health department’s policies on child health “should be child-centered,” she wrote in an email. “In contrast, deference to a religious organization at the expense of infant health betrays its very reason for existence. The next needed step is enforcement of such a ban. By creating this bright line rule, the department has created predictability and acted on the right side of preventing harm.”
Can someone please explain this custom to me? Haven’t gotten an answer and have been asking for the source and reason for mbp for a while.
the source of metzitza bpeh is not something to be taken lightly- yesudasa bharerei kodesh. We must stand firm on this issue for the kedusha of am yisroel!
We’re headed backwards if we don’t do everything we can to get this new ruling or policy revoked ASAP! What’s happening to us are we becoming complacent idiots?
If you kid died because of a MOHEL being infect would you wave you right to sue?
I didn’t read one comment…no names.
The Rebbe, MH”M wanted to make ‘leaders’ not ‘followers.’
We don’t need fear, but courage.
I didn’t see any clear answer why the city won’t do the DNA testing.
If they really cared and really wanted the truth, why are they afraid to get their facts straight by doing the proper testing? Maybe because the results won’t fit in with their theory that demonizes MbP…
NY is looking where the money goes out of the health system to the private pockets ….
if mohel sick he can’t do it mbp use the staw or ask other mohel …. it’s still surgery must be careful
Well…I read the article. R A B B I S ATTACK! The Mohels are on the defensive, perhaps they should be on the ‘offensive?’ How? Tell Marci Hamilton et.al. that their society causes far more harm to children than do ‘mohels.’ When they stop their evil practices, then we can consider them ‘models of virtue.’ Which? Look at their jail system (There is NO jail system in ‘Torah.’ It’s considered ‘Death’ and ‘barbaric.’) How? What gives this government the right to separate families? If you, or i separated a family we’d be considered evildoers. Non-violent prisoners are no physical danger… Read more »
If your great-grandfather would be saying what you wrote ( other known as the reformed way of thinking) we wouldn’t be Jewish today!!
That’s a scary thought
If you only would have known what the real intention is, you wouldn’t be writing like that. When you give a finger they want a hand! Today it’s MBP tomorrow it’s BRIS (check it up yourself, not just from collive posts) !!
If there’s a real issue, speak to Jewish professionals like HEBER and they’ll will be more than happy to address /take care of it !! We don’t need any Health Department telling us what to do regarding an essential practice in the Jewish religion!!
Ehem, I think Rabbi Heber is a professional and knows more in this area than you will probably ever. So please, do be quiet.
Trust me they are not after mbp, that’s just a front give up on this fight they’ll go after the Bris.
There’s about 500,000 brisim in New York per year they managed to concoct 2 Cases, and this is they’re phocus!?
When every patient in New York that walks in to a hospital sick from one thing, when they get heeled They’re sick from another 3 thing!, and there’s no mention !
Pure antisemitisim!!
Indeed. Also, the laws of kashrus aren’t needed anymore now that we have safe food-handling regulations; those should be junked too. Next is Shabbos: c’mon, is it really “work” to turn a light switch on or off? Thw laws about not taking interest: clearly, only a “fanatic” would still think to hold by those in a modern economy. And so forth…
Let’s wake up and be super careful with health! It’s our babies!!!!
let the avi haben that satisfies all the arguments
Metzitza bpeh is based off outdated medical theories, and completely not necessary today. The use of a glass straw is more then OK. People need to stop being such fanatics, and look at things logically and Al pi halacha, not based off their own irrationalities.
Stop complaining and calling wolf wolf Heber. If a mohel knows he has a sore in his mouth then he should never do the metziza! I have seen many times where a mohel has asked someone else to do it because he did not want these things to happen. Stop making excuses and go about this policy as a means to be safe.