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generations shall be circum-
cised ..."
The covenant was inti-
mately bound up with God's
promise of the Land of Israel
as an everlasting possession
of Abraham's descendants.
So, at the age of '99, Ab-
raham was circumcised. He,
in turn, circumcised his 13-
year-old son Ishmael and all
the males of his household.
When Isaac was born the fol-
lowing year, the patriarch
circumcised him on the
eighth day.
An uncircumcised male,
Abraham was warned, would
be cut off from his people.
Brit milah is considered so
important, that it may be
performed even if the eighth
day falls on Shabbat or Yom
Kippur. It is the only
mitzvah permanently part of
the flesh.
According to our sages, brit
milah sanctifies the human
body; an act which completes
the process of creation begun
by God.
Still, it is surprising that,
despite assimilation, the brit
remains one of the most
enduring of American-Jewish
observances. Although no one
has studied how many Jewish
families choose a brit for
their sons over a routine cir-
cumcision in the hospital (or
no circumcision at all), local
doctors with a large Jewish
clientele estimate that be-
tween 80 and 90 percent of
Jewish boys are given ritual
circumcisions, performed by a
mohel, almost always at
home. The Brit Milah Board
of New York concurs with the
doctors' assessment.
Detroit's Sinai Hospital,
which recently began to com-
pile such records, reports that
of the 363 Jewish males born
there in 1986, 29 were given
routine circumcisions in the
hospital. It would not be far
off the mark to guess that
most, if not all the rest, had a
brit milah.
One local mohel, who asked
not to be identified, says he is
"puzzled" by the sway brit
milah has over American
Jews. "I come to homes and
there's a Christmas tree
there and still they want a
brit by a mohel. It's happened
more than once. It is amaz-
ing. People who know and
care nothing about Judaism.
But that one thing they hold
on to."
He feels that people opt for
a brit because one cannot
easily "undo" a routine cir-
cumcision. "You can eat a
Continued on next page
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Sowing The Wind?
he Reform movement
is currently training
medical professionals
as mohelim and
mohelot, according to
Rabbi Lewis Barth, co-
chairman of the Brit
Milah Board of Reform
Judaism.
The training program
was set up around the
time the movement ruled
that a child born of a
Jewish father and a non-
Jewish mother was a Jew
if he is raised Jewishly —
the so-called patrilineal
decision. "Although it
began for other reasons
(namely that mohelim
were refusing to perform
britot on boys whose par-
ents were married by Re-
form rabbis), there became
a direct link-up with is-
sues raised by the pat-
rilineal decision," he ex-
plains.
In Los Angeles, where
Rabbi Barth is a professor
at Hebrew Union College,
and Reform mohelim are
already at work, the Brit
Milah Board has begun to
develop an outreach pro-
gram to follow up on the
brit with intermarried
families who choose to
have a Jewish home.
"We are excited about
helping such families as
they begin to develop a
T
home environment and
Jewish identity of the
child," he says.
The follow-up does not
include arranging for a
mikveh, he adds.
The movement has plans
to extend the training pro-
gram beyond its home
base in Los Angeles.
"What we hope to do is to
develop course materials
which will make our pro-
gram available to Jewish
communities around the
U.S. ,
"Our hope is that other
movements will come to
recognize the wisdom of
this decision in a post-
Holocaust world, in terms
of strengthening the
Jewish people," he says.
Will this solution to a
problem faced by this gen-
eration only create larger
troubles for the next gen-
eration? What complica-
tions does Rabbi Barth see
down the road, caused by
the advent of the "Reform
brit?"
"Where there are
strongly differing perspec-
tives on Jewish identity,
some Jews may be con-
cerned about checking
other Jews' lineage," he
replies, adding, "That's
something we find very
distasteful."
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