There is an interesting article in the current issue of The Jewish Observer describing the events that took place last year in New York City with respect to the issue of Metzitza B’Peh. My purpose here is not to discuss the pros and cons of Metzitza B’Peh. Been there and done that. It is to once again show an instance of public Chilul HaShem that could have... and should have been avoided.
During the course of those events there were various meetings between Orthodox groups and city health officials as well as the Mayor to try and resolve a conflict between the city’s health safety concerns on the one hand and the religious concerns on the part of the ultra Orthodox on the other. In my view the New York health department took the appropriate and responsible action in handling the issue. They abandoned original plans to ban Metzitza B’Peh and settled on just issuing a fair warning to the community about the dangers involved and conceding that the instances of Herpes infection through Metzitza B’Peh are quite rare.
In the course of describing the events which took place, the author of the article Chaim Dovid Zwiebel wrote about the negative behavior of one particular group involved with this issue, the Hisachdus HaRabbanim (...otherwise known as the Central Rabbinical Congress which I believe is a rabbinical association of some very right wing Chasidim). The approach taken by them was not only alarming but counter-productive and a Chilul HaShem. After they and Agudah had vigorously argued for the government to not interfere in what they consider to be an obligatory part of Bris Milah saying that it would be a violation of the free exercise clause of the first amendment, they succeeded in preventing the government from outlawing Metzitza B’Peh.
But in a later attempt to restore the rights of the Mohel who health officials say was responsible for the deaths of three babies, members of the Hisachdus HaRabannim had a campaign which consisted of inflammatory posters egging on their community members by characterizing new York city health officials as monsters trying to destroy Torah Judaism. One poster accused the city government of attempting to “burn down the house of God”. Others called for massive demonstrations. They threatened to disrupt the inauguration of Mayor Michael Bloomberg by wearing yellow Mogen Dovid arm bands of the type worn by Jews during the holocaust... implying that city officials, who are in reality just trying to protect public health are akin to Nazis.
Is it really wise to portray city officials ...to put it the way Mr. Zweibel does... as the “second coming of the KGB” ...or to portray the campaign to inform the public about the dangers of Metzitza B’Peh akin to “flushing the Koran down the toilet”? They accomplished nothing except raise the ire of the media who reacted by portraying Metzitza B’Peh as threatening the lives of all babies undergoing circumcision. This is once again nothing short of a Chilul HaShem which did nothing except to create and exacerbate tensions between Chasidim and well meaning city officials. It also made ultra Orthodox Jewry look like a group of primitive religious fanatics not too much different from Islamic fundamentalists.
Once again we see a community who crossed the line of propriety and caused great harm to our image, just as the recent events with Arthur Schick and the police in Boro Park did. Only in this instance it was Chasidic rabbinic leaderhip, not just a random angry mob. What's the matter with these people?
