IRELAND (VINnews) — A Rabbi trapped in prison because he performed a bris, has won the right to be given kosher food after he filed a lawsuit against the Irish prison service.
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Rabbi Yonasan Abraham, a mohel, was arrested two weeks ago in a private home in Dublin, where he was reportedly carrying out a circumcision. He is accused of performing the operation without having local certification and faces up to five years in prison if found guilty. Shockingly, he has been forced to subsist mainly on breakfast cereal for the past two weeks, and has apparently not had daily access to Tefillin.
Rabbi Abraham had told the court that he had asked the prison authorities for kosher food on “numerous occasions”, according to the Irish Times. He said he had received a piece of chicken in a cardboard box with the word “kosher” written on it.
Explaining the complex details of kashrus, he said the chicken had been on a tray where there were many other pieces. “There is absolutely no way that such a piece of chicken can be kosher.”
In response to the ruling, Chief Rabbi Yoni Wieder told the Jewish Chronicle: “It is very disappointing that it’s taken so long to resolve the issue of kosher food, and that a case had to be taken to the High Court before a resolution was obtained.
“Since Rabbi Abraham was first taken to Cloverhill [prison], I raised this issue with several of the prison officers. Everyone I spoke to agreed that Rabbi Abraham ought to be provided with kosher food and expressed a willingness to help. Yet regrettably, no adequate solution materialized.”
Rabbi Wieder added, “When I continued to raise the issue last week, I was told by officers that Rabbi Abraham was indeed being served kosher – even though no expert guidance on kosher requirements had been sought, and even though no kosher supplier in Dublin had been contacted.
“I informed prison staff several times that kosher meals must be prepared in kosher utensils, using certified ingredients, and under rabbinical supervision. There was no feasible way the requirements could be met without outsourcing to a kosher supplier.
“I appreciate, of course, that there is strict protocol regarding bringing food into prisons from outside. Nevertheless, this is a matter of the human right to freedom of religious practice, and it is easily accommodated by other prisons when necessary.
“Up until the court proceedings, Rabbi Abraham was eating little more than breakfast cereal in the mornings. But for the case, it is likely this would have continued for weeks. Members of the Jewish community have been shocked to learn that Rabbi Abraham has not had access to kosher meals up until this point.”
He said he was delighted that “Rabbi Abraham will now be provided with foods that are fully compliant with kosher standards, and that he will have daily access to tefillin.”
Please don’t call it a bris. It is plainly a circumcision, “mila”. Bris is the unique covenant of H-shem and the descendants of Avraham Avinu, born to Yitzchak Avinu, not to Yishmael.
The fact that it was a non-Jewish baby completely changes the picture. If it had been a Jewish baby, maybe he would not have been arrested since it is a religious procedure. But on a gentile baby, it is a medical procedure.
Why is everyone upset about the Muslim aspect? Avraham was specifically told to circumcise yishmael (17:10 with rashi). If they kept this up since those times then they are doing the ratzon Hashem. And if it is part of their religion so why isn’t it the same religious persecution as if it was a Jewish child?
Other sources say he did a bris on a Muslim???
He did not perform a bris – a bris is a covenant (basically an agreement or contract) between Bnai Yisroel and Hashem.
He performed a circumcision, a medical procedure, on a non-Jewish child. There is clearly so much more to this story.
While I certainly believe he should be treated with the same religious rights in prison as anyone else (I’m sure Muslims are given their halal food), let’s not perpetuate this idea that he’s being penalized for performing a bris and that Jewish rituals are under attack. Sadly there are enough real, terrible, antisemitic issues in Ireland these days. Let’s not muddy the waters – it detracts from our just causes.