As a mohel, I see the current panic swirling around Brit Milah from a distinct perspective. Roughly 80% of the country’s mohalim have the certification of their teacher alone. While that might sound ...

When I first met Cantor Phil Sherman, New York’s mohel to the stars, I didn’t know what was in store. A mohel is a professional circumciser who carries out the circumcision ceremony known as a Brit ...

Mention circumcision in a crowd — even a virtual crowd — of liberal Jews (or liberal anything, I guess) and it never fails to spark rhetorical fire. And so, when I saw a recent post on the Park Slope ...

The Guide to Jewish Living offers a comprehensive, up-to-date directory of Chicago-area Jewish organizations, resources, products, and services. The guide acts as a community driven lexicon sponsored ...

VALERY WAS more than just a comrade. He was brave. A rock in times of chaos. A man of quiet courage and deep conviction. Bobby often spoke of how Valery made him a better soldier and a better man.

Brit milah (Jewish ritual circumcision) may be uncomfortable to watch, and naturally makes many of us ambivalent in a time of celebration. But is it cruel? Living in California, where calls for the ...

David Abramson is only a few days old, but already he has made a huge impact on Prague’s Jewish community. Last week he became the first child in at least 30 years to be circumcised at the 98-year-old ...

Recent reports of police raids targeting unlicensed ritual circumcisions in Antwerp’s Jewish community have understandably caused concern, particularly among those who view brit milah as a core ...

I called Rabbi Jacques Cukierkorn at his home in Kansas City, Kan., where he’s rabbi at that city’s New Reform Temple. Was it true that he had told the group in Mexicali that it wasn’t necessary for ...

Before we get to Lech Lecha, let’s take a look at the timespan of the whole Torah as compared to Parshat Bereishit and Parshat Noach. We will not count the first two pesukim – “Bereishit bara…” and “V ...

Becky Lustgarten is due to give birth to her first child, a boy, at the end of April. Pre-pandemic, she and her husband, Taylor, felt committed to following the Jewish mandate for circumcision on the ...

My son was born on the first day of Rosh Hashanah. The Jewish New Year. Of course he was. The ritual is precise. The father whispers the name into the sandek’s ear—quietly, gently—before it’s ...