Thread by @BruchimOrg

Critical Jewish perspectives on infant circumcision. A thread.

Posted ahead of @JudaismUnbound's two-part unit on brit milah and circumcision, featuring our team.

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1/12 Speaking critically about circumcision in the Jewish community requires sensitivity. Brit milah is an historically important religious/cultural ritual & almost every Jewish person today—religious or not—has undergone the procedure or has a loved one who has.

2/12 When engaging with circumcision in a Jewish context, it is crucial to respect that doing so touches on the extraordinarily personal: our bodies, beliefs, experiences, fears. Many circumcision critics forget this point of empathy when rushing to express an ethical conclusion.

3/12 Bruchim is committed to making Jewish conversations about circumcision safe. We are an interdenominational team of committed Jews with diverse, significant Jewish education and experience.

4/12 On intactivists: they should be warned that railroading Jewish discourse is not only harmful—it is counter-productive to their own aims. Disrespectful, absolutist rhetoric makes people feel unsafe, & Jewish people have every right to be guarded on this topic.

5/12 Bruchim does support use of the word, “intact” over “uncircumcised.” The prefix “un” implies that circumcision is the normal or preferential state. Babies are born with intact (whole, unaltered) genitalia. The term “intact” is descriptive & accurate.

6/12 More honesty & integrity is needed. The Jewish community should recognize that rhetoric aside, critics of infant circumcision have a point. The act of permanently altering a child’s genitalia for ritual purposes deserves serious ethical scrutiny, especially from within.

7/12 As a culture with a major interest in social justice and human dignity, we have the tools to understand perfectly well why child genital cutting rituals should be controversial, and why some Jews would personally abstain or object.

8/12 We should not be dismissive of people whose grievance is that their genitals were surgically altered without their consent and without medical indication. It’s a reasonable, serious, grievance.

9/12 Bruchim advocates for Jews who abstain from circumcision and those who object to or simply want to learn about the practice through a critical lens and have felt the taboo has meant they can’t discuss or ask questions.

10/12 Jews who question circumcision are Jews.

Jews who oppose circumcision are Jews.

Bruchim will not accept the language of “self-hating,” “apostate,” “anti-Semitic Jews,” etc. as applied to non-circumcising Jews.

11/12 For the Jews out there who feel violated by, rather than grateful for what was done to their genitals, we see you. For the parents who had doubts but felt they had no choice, we see you.

You are not alone.

12/12 For the thoughtful religious authorities who have been supportive of us so far, thank you! We look forward to working towards an inclusive Jewish community.