Unlicensed mohel suspected of injuring infants

JERUSALEM POST, Jerusalem, Thursday, November 9, 2000.

Unlicensed mohel suspected of injuring infants

By Heidi J. Gleit

(November 9) - The Kfar Sava Magistrate's Court yesterday released a Ramat Aviv doctor on bail and did not bar him from continuing to circumcise infants, even though police are investigating complaints from half a dozen parents that he had maimed their newborn sons.

("I have no doubt of the need to investigate these complaints, and additional ones if they are filed... I did not find reason to grant the plaintiff's additional request to bar the suspect from performing the circumcision he was invited to perform today," Judge Clara Reginiano ruled.

(The Central District's fraud squad has received complaints from six families in the center of the country who had hired the doctor to circumcise their newborn sons. He is a general practitioner and had advertised himself as a licensed mohel. However, his name does not appear on the Chief Rabbinate's list of mohelim.

(The suspect acknowledged that he does not have authorization from the rabbinate, but denied that he had committed any offense.

(Police began investigating him two weeks ago when the first complaint was filed, police spokeswoman Ch.-Supt. Sivan Kedmi said. The parents said they engaged the suspect after seeing an advertisement of his in a hospital. Their baby had continued to bleed for nearly a week after the circumcision. When they took the child in for an examination, they learned that he had not been properly circumcised and had to undergo an operation to correct the damage.

(Several other families who had had similar experiences filed complaints after hearing of the investigation.

Citation:

Heidi J. Gleit. Unlicensed mohel suspected of injuring infants. The Jerusalem Post, Thursday, November 9, 2000.

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