Infant Has Right To Be Circumcised Against Mother’s Wishes, Rabbis’ Attorney Says

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com



An attorney advising a state rabbinical court wrote in an advisory letter that it was an infant boy’s “right” to be circumcised to save him from ostracism by his peers that “could cause him to feel inferior and to suffer serious emotional harm,” Israel HaYom reported.



The letter was written by attorney Shimon Yaakobi in response to a High Court of Justice petition by the boy’s mother asking that a rabbinical court ruling issued in her divorce case ordering her to circumcise the boy be overturned on constitutional grounds.



The High Court previously put a temporary hold on the rabbinical court’s order to fine the woman 500 shekels ($142) per day for every day that she refuses to have her son circumcised.



Yaakobi argues the High Court was wrong to stay the rabbinical court’s order and says the child – who is still too young to talk – has the “right” to be circumcised immediately.



"The petitioner is not doing a good thing, demanding to instill in her toddler a feeling of being an outsider that could cause him to feel inferior and to suffer serious emotional harm. The petitioner is not looking out for the boy's best interest. It is the child's right not to be different from his circumcised friends.



"The child's right and his best interest to be circumcised, like every Jewish boy in Israel, cannot be sacrificed, against his father's wishes, on the altar of the petitioner's right to religious freedom.



"My stance is that the appeal should be rejected and the interim order delaying the court's judgment should be cancelled. The child was born to a Jewish Israeli family. In another year or two, the child will go to nursery school, and there he will be surrounded by circumcised boys. It is no secret that toddlers notice everything that is different," Yaakobi wrote.