New York, NY – The two reported new cases of herpes in ultra-Orthodox Jewish newborns has once again thrust the ritual of MBP back onto the front page, sparking calls for either stricter enforcement of the city’s existing ‘consent form” policy or the fulfillment of an oft-spoken campaign promise by Mayor Bill de Blasio to deliver a “better plan.”
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NYDAILYNEWS.com (http://bit.ly/1AMG2uS) reports that despite the fact that the consent form policy was not followed in either of the two new cases, city officials have identified the mohel in one case and are working with ultra-Orthodox leaders in Brooklyn to identify the second.
In the second case, Orthodox rabbis in Brooklyn are asking for independent medical testing to see if the herpes can in fact be traced back to the mohel in exchange for his name.
Pressure is also being put on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office to deliver on his frequent campaign promise to deliver a more palatable, “fair” policy to the ultra-Orthodox who have by and large ignored former mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “consent form” law, citing “religious infringement.”
City officials would only say that they hope to announce a new policy proposal “soon.”
In the meantime, the city’s estimated 3,600 annual circumcisions involving MBP will proceed, with some ultra-Orthodox rabbis, including prominent mohel, 86 year-old Rabbi Avrohom Cohn, downplaying the role of MBP in newborn herpes cases.
“There are much more people slipping on a banana peel,” Cohn said when asked if there is a direct link to mohels. “We should outlaw banana peels.”
Information taken from NY Daily News.
Lets just ignore this jew haters, “the Torah not giving a mitzva where we can be heart”, in the last 5000 years a lot jew haters try to stop it but with no success same will be here
I highly doubt it was from MBP. Most likely the baby contacted the herpes from another source before the bris.
Amazing to me that we can, as a community, revile Hamas for callously putting their own children in harm’s way, but we can’t see to it ourselves that we quit having our own grown men with herpes putting their lips on the private parts of our 8-day old infants. This is not a religious issue, it’s an issue of willful ignorance, and putting a dubious minhag above the lives of our 8-day old children.
Assuming that 2 boys out of 3600 who had MBP is correct, I wonder how many non Jewish babies (where there is a certainty of no MBH) are infected with herpes? Will the NYC DOH also release that information?
Rabbi Cohn is a follower of the Chasam Sofer and should and does know better! The Chasam Sofer directed the community to discontinue MBP when informed of babies who had died because of it. Clearly the Torah does not ask this of us.
Herpes can also cause mental disabilities. Maybe that is why so many of our kinder in KJ and NS are disabled. The same infected moyles performed MPB on 2 of the babies who got herpes. The moyles were asked to stop, but they continued.
Lets just ignore this jew haters, “the Torah not giving a mitzva where we can be heart”, in the last 5000 years a lot jew haters try to stop it but with no success same will be here
Every precaution MUST be taken to insure the safety and health of every newborn child. That is first and foremost. A child who is jaundiced or underweight would never be allowed to have a bris. A Mohel who has Herpes should never be allowed to be a Mohel or never be MBP. Parents should NOT take this for granted and should be extremely careful who they choose for this specific mitzvah. As we have seen, we can’t be too careful who we trust and those who we have trusted in the past have proven to be more about themselves than about the K’lal.
Anyone who makes “light” of this situation, or makes excuses for it, no matter how “chashuv” one claims them to be should be looked at with a grain of salt. Parents must trust their own instincts and put their child’s welfare first before following the advice of any Rav. When there are options available those options must be considered. It is a father’s mitzvah to be MBP and that is the first option one should consider these days.
According to the CDC (I know they are all a bunch of anti-Semites,) 70 % of US adults have been infected with HSV1. Herpes is Much more prevalent now than way back when. You can shed the virus at any time, even if you never have symptoms such as mouth sores or a cold sore. The mouth is filled with hundreds of different kids of bacteria. To expose a newborn with an immature immune system to all those bacteria and viruses is just plain nuts. If you insist in using suction, use a glass pipette. The whole idea of suctioning off blood is based on the theories of Hippocrates, a Greek physician who said that disease was caused by an imbalance of humors in the body: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. If you are ready to believe that then there is a bridge I’d like to sell you. This willful ignorance is appalling.
Herpes, no herpes does it matter? a man is putting a bacteria infected mouth on an open wound on a fragile, 8 day old baby. Who thought this was ever a good idea?
Continue this custom if you wish, however, every mohel should be tested yearly and have to prove it to practice. If the parents don’t enforce it, child custody should take the child and arrest the mohel.