Circumcision Causes Herpes

As reported on March 7 by the New York Post, the death of a 2-week-old baby boy who contracted herpes following an ultra-Orthodox circumcision is being investigated by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office. A spokesman for DA Charles Hynes confirmed that prosecutors are looking into the Sept. 28, 2011, death at Maimonides Hospital. The infant had been circumcised in a controversial religious ceremony in which a rabbi or mohel draws blood away from the freshly circumcised penis with his mouth. In 2004, another baby died after catching herpes from a Rockland rabbi who performed the bris.

An aside: I believe they mean "Hasidic" by "ultra-Orthodox". It's ironic because Hasids used to be (correctly, in my opinion) considered heretics by the real orthodox, the Misnagdim.

My son's circumcision was also performed by an "ultra-Orthodox"--you wouldn't entrust your child to be circumcised by a reform rabbi, would you?  Even though my wife and I are non-believers, we figured this would lessen the possibility that our son won't grow up an anti-Semite.

Anyway, there appears to be a (relatively) new alternative to circumcision: http://intactnews.org/node/142/1327690351/progressive-rabbis-creating-jewish-covenant-without-circumcision. I don't think it would serve as a prophylactic to the boy growing up to be an anti-Semite, though.