London mohel arrested for circumcising Muslims in Ireland: Circumcision "illegal""

August 2, 2024   

Rabbi Yonatan Avraham, a 47-year-old mohel from London, a father of 10 children, has been arrested in Ireland after performing what authorities described as "illegal" circumcisions on five Muslims. The mohel was charged with "performing a surgical procedure" in Dublin without being a doctor. He will remain in custody until at least Tuesday - after the District Court yesterday rejected his request to be released on bail "due to the seriousness of the case". The mohel was arrested in a raid by Dublin police on the house where the circumcision was performed. The investigator said during the court hearing that the offense of performing the circumcision was done in violation of the Doctors Act 2007. The mohel has a specialist certificate, but according to Irish law he must be registered as a doctor to perform circumcisions. If the case remains in the Dublin District Court, the penalties will be considerably lower, with the maximum penalty being six months in prison and a fine of €5,000, but in a higher court the penalty could be very heavy: a fine of €130,000 and five years in prison. The mohel’s lawyer argued that if he had performed the same procedures in England, it would have been perfectly legal. However, the judge noted that this was a separate jurisdiction. Rabbi Yoni Wieder, the Chief Rabbi of Ireland, issued an official statement, noting that the mohel did not circumcise Jewish babies. "We are well aware of the developing case involving a rabbi/mohel from London who has been accused of performing an illegal circumcision and is accused of performing a medical procedure without a license. It is important to note that this case is not directly related to anyone from the Jewish community in Ireland and he did not circumcise Jewish babies." Rabbi Wieder also wrote: "We have been in this story from the beginning, we and other relevant parties are doing everything we can to assist this man, and to ensure that circumcision continues to be performed traditionally, circumcision can continue to be performed legally in Ireland." The chairman of the Union of Jewish Organizations in Europe, Rabbi Menachem Margolin, sent an urgent letter to the President of Ireland, the Prime Minister, and the Speaker of the Irish Parliament, demanding the immediate release of the certified mohel who was arrested in Dublin. He noted that the arrest sends an anti-Semitic message. "This is the first time since the Holocaust that a regime has arrested a Jewish rabbi for performing circumcision. This is not a crime, but a mitzvah that has been practiced in Judaism for more than 3,000 years, has been adopted by other religions, and is recognized as a practice by the World Health Organization, which in many cases recommends performing circumcision. About thirty percent of men in the world - and not just Jews - are circumcised and live healthy lives," Rabbi Margolin wrote. Rabbi Margolin emphasized that "the arrest not only violates religious freedom, but also humiliates Jewish parents and makes it seem as if they do not really care about their children. All those parents who circumcise their children have themselves gone through the same procedure and of course would not have done so if it involved "physical or mental harm to the newborn." Rabbi Margolin also appealed to the President of the State of Israel, Yitzhak Herzog, whose grandfather Yitzhak Halevi Herzog served as Chief Rabbi of Ireland, to the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Mazzola, and to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, with a request that they work with the leaders of the Irish government today to secure the immediate release of the mohel.