Rabbi Eliyahu Asulin, of Hadera, above, is being paid thousands by students wanting to become official mohels (circumcisers) and are being sent unsupervised to mutilate Ethiopian and Somalian infants.

According to this report, an investigation conducted by Kan, Israel’s new public broadcasting corporation, revealed that Asulin’s totally inexperienced students are conducting circumcisions among poor families, without accompanying them himself.

He described the young victims as being like “cannon fodder”.

Asulin, a rabbinate-approved mohel with over 30 years’ experience, explained to a Kan investigative journalist that he first instructs the students to make business cards describing their profession as “Mohel.” Then he tells them to distribute their cards at nurseries and post-natal clinics.

In a recording Asulin says:

I’ll lodge a mohel certificate in your name with the rabbinate. That will already give you a year’s head start.

The rabbi goes on to explain why the students practice on the babies in the weaker strata of the population:

Why not?. They have no father. No mother … There’s no problem. Even if your cut isn’t straight, they won’t say anything, because they don’t understand anything.

He later told the investigator – who by then had signed up for the course at a price of around £8,800:

They’re Ethiopians, you’re doing it to Ethiopians … There are the regular Ethiopians and then there are the Sudanese. They’re the worst. They’re as black as natives.

Asulin, according to the Kan investigation, is not the only mohel who sends students to practice on poor families. Kan says it has recorded conversations with others who do the same thing.

Asulin said in response that the video footage of him had been edited and that the exposé had been ordered by “political elements” in Hadera.

I have circumcised thousands of Ethiopian babies and I see it as a holy work. I will continue to dedicate my life to the public.

In a statement reported by Channel 2, the Chief Rabbinate said:

If the incidents described in the video are true, we see it as a very grave incident.