Dear Fellow Jews

Dear Fellow Jews,

My name is Naomi. I'm a Jewish mother of 3 and currently living in Boston. As a Jew, I understand the religious and social pressure to circumcise your sons. It's apart of the Law. However, I believe, after many years of never questioning circumcision, that it goes against Jewish values. And I'm going to explain why I think so if you'll please read.

Circumcision risks life.
Circumcision is commanded by the Torah. However, the Law also places a high value on the preservation on life. The preservation of life is so important that if needed, we may break the Law. Circumcision poses a very real death threat to anyone, adult or child, who undergoes it. Forcing your child (and yes, you are forcing because he cannot consent) to be circumcised risks his life. Even in modern day with sanitary tools and techniques and trained professionals, death is always a lurking possibility. One thing I believe the Tanakh teaches us is to not go out of our way to risk human life and one thing I believe the history of Jews teaches us is to not take life for granted. To deny your child a chance of life is certainly not apart of my Jewish values.

G-d made us perfect.
If man is made in the image of G-d as our Torah tells us, then man is perfect as he is. I believe altering G-d's creation is a form of blasphemy. It's saying that G-d, who chose to put a healthy body part on all men, made a mistake that had to be corrected.

Circumcision will affect sex.
Judaism is a religion that no doubts places much emphasis on the importance of a healthy sex life with one's spouse. Studies show that removing the foreskin can affect both spouse's sexual pleasure negatively. Circumcised penises are unable to keep a woman lubricated properly during sex and can cause inflammation of vaginal walls (which can lead to UTIs and discomfort to the point that a woman may have to abstain from sex for several days to recover). The Tanakh gives us many laws on how to have healthy sex lives and circumcision can interfere with that.

It's no longer the mark of a Jew.
Circumcision was once considered the mark of a Jew; a sign of our convenant with G-d. However, circumcision is no longer the mark of a Jew. Christians, Muslims, Americans, and African tribes regularly circumcise their males. There are more circumcised non-Jews than all Jews combined. This makes circumcision obsolete in Jewish identity. Jewish identity is so much more colorful and historical than circumcision. It was also a practice of the Ancient Egyptians, who enslaved us. Should we really carry on the practices and beliefs of those who brought such hardship to our people?

Anyone born to a Jewish mother/father/parent is Jewish.
Depending on your sect of Judaism, anyone born to a Jewish mother/father/parent is a Jew and always will be. This alone is enough to establish that a man is a member of the Jewish community from birth. Circumcision will not make a man more of a Jew or a better Jew. There are no degrees of Jewish-ness. You either are or you aren't. Circumcision won't give you Jewish-ness or make you a Jew.

We no longer practice all Jewish laws.
We don't kill men for sleeping with other men because we know that sexuality isn't a choice. We no longer practice slavery and are (usually) against it because we believe all people have rights. Most of us no longer abide by a ger to divorce and remarry because we think that is unfair to a woman ("agunah"). More than half of us probably don't even keep Kosher. Many of us don't even marry Jews. Judaism has evolved and changed with the times as Jews have become more away of the effects certain laws and practices have on mankind and the world. If we regularly do away with the practicing of these laws, some of which (like not keeping Kosher and marrying non-Jews) are damaging to the survival of Judaism, why is circumcision still carried on when it causes many social and medical problems for Jewish men everywhere everyday?

What I am trying to explain is that a man's Jewish-ness is not based upon his circumcision. There are many Jews in the past, present, and future who were unable to be circumcised (either due to the law forbidding it, lack of access to a mohel, or for health problems like hemophilia) but they were most definitely Jews nonetheless. Though the Jewish community is international and divided by oceans and borders, we are all united under G-d and we feel the spirits of our culture and fellow Jews within us at all times. To outcast men from our community or deny them the right to take part in our beautiful traditions because they are uncircumcised is rather unhospitable and not what I believe G-d would want us to do. Does not the Torah give us numerous stories about the joys and rewards of being welcoming to others and the dangers of turning others away? It was because Angels were welcomed that Sarah was able to conceive and it was because of Sodom's inhospitality that the city was destroyed.

So I am humbly asking all fellow Jews who read this letter to please take some time to reflect upon the issues I've covered here. Thank you for your time and I gladly appreciate it.

Sincerely,
Naomi