BERLIN — German officials have been meeting here with Israel’s chief Ashkenazi rabbi over the past two days as they seek a way to enshrine some sort of legal protection for Jews and Muslims who circumcise infant boys as a religious rite, officials said Tuesday.

The effort follows a June 26 ruling by a Cologne court that equated the practice with inflicting bodily harm on boys too young to consent. The ruling brought a wave of international criticism as an infringement on religious freedom, and it created legal confusion. Although the court’s ruling was not enforceable outside its jurisdiction, it was disruptive enough that many hospitals in the country, and even in neighboring Austria and Switzerland, recommended that doctors refrain from carrying out circumcisions until legal clarity could be created.

German lawmakers passed a resolution weeks after the court ruling, asking Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government to draft legislation by the fall to ensure that the practice could be carried out safely. “Jewish and Muslim religious life must continue to be possible in Germany,” read the resolution, supported by the leading opposition and governing parties.

The visiting rabbi, Yona Metzger, told reporters on Tuesday that he was confident that a compromise could be found on the issue, but he insisted that mohelim, or those who carry out ritual circumcisions according to the Jewish rite, must be allowed to continue with the practice. He said that proposed compromises that would allow doctors to perform the rite in the presence of mohelim, or the use of anesthesia during the practice, were seen as unacceptable because of the sacred significance of the rite, passed down as a decree from God, for Jews.