Ban the Ritual That Can Kill Jewish Newborns

NEW YORK
The Daily Beast

PAUL A. OFFIT

On March 29, 2017, the mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, admitted defeat. “We tried a new policy,” he said. “It didn’t work, which I’m very unhappy about.” During the previous two years, six newborns in New York City had suffered severe infections with herpes simplex virus (HSV)—a situation de Blasio had been hoping to avoid.

Adults infected with HSV typically develop ulcers in their mouth or blisters in their anal and genital areas. For newborns, however, it’s a different story. In babies, HSV can enter the bloodstream and infect the liver (causing hepatitis) or the lungs (causing pneumonia) or the brain (causing encephalitis). Unlike first-time infections in adults or older children, newborn HSV infections can cause permanent brain damage or death. Typically, newborns come in contact with HSV when they pass through the birth canal of a mother who is infected. However, none of the six infants who were infected with HSV in New York City got it from their mothers. So where did they get it?

In the Bible’s Genesis 17:10-11, God made a deal with Abraham, the father of the Jewish people: “Every manchild among you shall be circumcised. And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin, and it shall be a token of a covenant between me and you.” Of all the mitzvahs (or good deeds) mentioned in the Torah, circumcision—a sacred covenant between God and every Jewish male—is second only to “Be fruitful and multiply.” Unfortunately, this practice, which is at least 4,000 years old, has a darker side.

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