Posted on 08/02/24
| News Source: Arutz-7
The Chairman of the European Jewish Association (EJA), Rabbi Menachem Margolin, is demanding the immediate release of a British rabbi who was arrested in Ireland for performing circumcision.
Rabbi Margolin is calling on the President of Ireland, Michael Higgins, Prime Minister Simon Harris, and the Speaker of the Irish Parliament to intervene for the immediate release of the certified Mohel who was arrested yesterday in Dublin, Ireland, without bail, for performing circumcision.
The certified mohel, Rabbi Yonathan Avraham, 47 years old, father of 10 children, works legally in England. He has decades of experience, performs circumcisions all over Europe, and is recognized as a leading expert and practitioner of this important rite. In Ireland, though, he was arrested in a raid by the Dublin police on the house where the religious ceremony was performed.
"Circumcision is not a crime but a commandment practiced by the Jewish religion for more than 3000 years,'' said Rabbi Margolin.
''The last time anybody was arrested for performing circumcision was under the Nazis, whose first laws in their blind and irrational hatred of the Jewish people targeted this practice. That the Irish legal system is now second to Nazi Germany is a sad and incongruous indictment.''
''Circumcision has been adopted by other religions and recognized as a practice by the World Health Organization, which recommends in many cases the circumcision of boys. About thirty percent of the men in the world - and not only Jews, are circumcised and live healthy lives,'' notes Rabbi Margolin.
The chairman of the European Jewish Association stated that the arrest sends a clear message that Jews are no longer welcome in Ireland and demands that the Mohel be released even before Shabbat begins on Friday evening.