NEW YORK (AP) -- City health officials are investigating the death of a baby boy who was one of three infants to contract herpes after a rabbi circumcised them.

Ten days after Rabbi Yitzhok Fischer performed religious circumcisions on twins last October, one died of herpes and the other tested positive for the virus, according to complaint filed by the health department in Manhattan Supreme Court.

The complaint, reported in Wednesday's edition of the New York Daily News, also said health officials later found a third baby who had contracted herpes after being circumcised by Fischer in late 2003.

Under Jewish law, a mohel -- someone who performs circumcisions -- draws blood from the circumcision wound. Most mohels do it by hand, but Fischer uses a rare practice where he uses his mouth.

Fischer's lawyer, Mark Kurzmann, told the Daily News that Fischer was cooperating with the investigation, although it's unclear whether Fischer submitted to the city's request for a blood test.

"My client is known internationally as a caring, skilled, and conscientious mohel," Kurzmann said.




"Fischer uses a rare practice where he uses his mouth" WTF?

This is too disturbing to really comment on.

Alright, anyone here know enough about Jewish law to make this sound less scary? Please, I mean, I'm very, very frightened right now.

No. That doesn't make sense to me. When my son had his bris, the mohel was also a physician. He used anesthetic, and modern tools, and to my utter amazement, I watched the whole thing. Honestly, I don't think there was any blood at all to speak of the way our mohel did it because he basically cut off the circulation to the foreskin for several minutes before it was removed.

The fact that the Rabbi in the story had herpes also makes me think that these might not have been the only dicks he was sucking either.

--PunkDavid

LOL

i've heard of mohels using their mouths before.. sucking blood of the baby's dick. it's just fuckin sick.

You would think someone would have noticed the large canker sores on his lips and thought twice about that particular method.

While I respect the Jewish faith and its customs, I think circumcision is completely unnecessary in this day and age. I left my son the way nature made him.

To quote Dr. Perry Cox:

"What I am going to tell our son when he says 'Why is my pee-pee different than yours, dad? Why does mine have a turtle neck?'"

--PunkDavid

Ha! I've got that one coming in a few years.

As an aside: My Dad/Stepdad were both circumcised but my mother nearly hit the doctor when he suggested my brother be circumcised. They never had a problem with the "why does mine look different to yours".

If I ever have a son he won't be circumcised, but hypothetically, if he was, anyone who then tried to suck the wound would be hit. That is just disturbing.

I don't see why children are circumsized anymore, unless of course for religious reasons. I always here about these health benefits but thats bullshit. It's all to make you look like the majority and that's what everyone else does but it's a totally unneccessary procedure. Plus guys are worried about what women think. They'll think it's gross. It's not. Most women don't care but you might have a few cock snobs out there but the truth is they're just not used to it. It not being circumcized became the norm in America then no one would care.

Good god man...

i agree wholeheartedly

my son isn't. there's no reason for it.

Just for the record ... I have no foreskin, and I don't care.

That's beyond fucked up.

quite disturbing

I know that the majority of men probably are circumcised, but this question can't really be answered by them, so I'm going to ask you, David, as a parent who has had their child circumcised.

I'm pretty much in the dark about it for the most part. None of the boys in my family have been circumcised, so I haven't really seen that side of it. Was it painful for him afterwards? I realise they use anesthetic for the procedure, but my mother has told me about a baby that was in hospital the same time she had my brother. the baby was circumcised and apparently cried his eyes out every time he peed his nappy (diaper). From a parent's perspective, what is it like for the baby?

I've had a discussion about this twice over the past couple of days both with men who are circumcised and both said that they would have their sons circumcised. I guess the main reason why I wouldn't is that I don't think it's necessary and I don't really like the idea of a parent making the decision on behalf of a child. Plus... i'd feel guilty as all hell if my baby was crying for 2 days straight because it hurt every time he peed.

Any information you have will be most useful if I ever have a son. Thanks

Oi Vey

Well, he was a week old when it was done. He cried a little when he got the injection of the anesthetic, but then he didn't make a peep and actually slept through most of the procedure. And I don't remember him having any particular discomfort that was noticable to anyone else in the days afterwards. Within a week, it was totally healed.

I really believe that somebody who really knows what they're doing can make this procedure virtually painless. Honestly, I think the worst part for the boy other than the anesthetic injection, was cleaning it the next day, and after that he didn't even whimper about it.

I'm not a religious person. But believe it or not, I'm a traditionalist. This is something that the men in my family have been doing since time immemorial, and that sort of thing is important to me. I hope it will be to my son as well.

--PunkDavid