Risky circumcision rite

Health officials have said that a particular type of Jewish circumcision is high risk:

A form of religious circumcision holds "inherent risks" for babies, the city health commissioner said yesterday.

Dr. Thomas Frieden's comments came the day the Daily News reported that his agency is investigating whether an infant who died of herpes last year contracted the disease from the rabbi who circumcised him.

Two more city babies were found to have contracted herpes after they were circumcised by the same rabbi, Rockland County-based Yitzchok Fischer.

Fischer practices a ritual used mostly among ultra-Orthodox Jews called metzizah bi peh, in which the person performing the circumcision draws blood from the wound using his mouth.

"We do believe that there are inherent risks to this practice and we're discussing those in a respectful" way with ultra-Orthodox leaders, Frieden said.

Why not just tell them that it is a disgusting practice that spreads disease? And apparently the rabbi is not co-operating with authorities:

In November and again in December, the city ordered Fischer, a prominent mohel who claims to have performed more than 12,000 circumcisions, to submit to a blood test to determine whether he has herpes simplex 1 virus.

Neither Frieden nor Fischer's lawyer would say yesterday whether the test had been done.

The issue of metzizah bi peh has been debated in recent years within the Jewish community. Some, like Yeshiva University Prof. Rabbi Moshe Tendler, argue it's not required and too risky.

But Frieden's comments touched off concern among other Jewish leaders, who said they were leery of government intervention in religious custom.

Chana Ausband, a Rockland County mother, said Fischer performed her baby's circumcision. "What he's doing is following tradition. For years and years, that has not caused any problems," Ausband said.

Spreading herpes is not a problem?