Jewish American Circumcision: A Review Article

Abstract

Taken together, both of these books fill a major gap in the history of neonatal circumcision. While there have been other large-scale studies of circumcision by anthropologists, historians and Jewish Studies scholars, these have generally focused on either the symbolism and traditional meanings of the rite, or the medical and historical debates. None, however, approaches the topic from as many angles as these two books. Both authors do succeed in presenting broad historical overviews of the symbolism of, and debates about, circumcision. In discussions of circumcision, one’s choice of terminology can betray one’s position. Is it a cultural ritual, a religious obligation, an ethno-racial marking, a medical surgery, a brutal mutilation, or some combination of these? While Eric Silverman attends to many of these categories, he focuses his explorations on contradictory meanings of the ritual throughout Jewish history, literature and law. By not only providing a range of texts, but also reading many of the texts ‘against the grain’, he attempts to chart the dialogues and debates about circumcision without taking sides. By contrast, Leonard Glick argues that neonatal circumcision is a medically unnecessary surgery which amounts to a brutal mutilation of an individual who cannot speak for himself. Ultimately, Glick seems interested in texts only for the ways in which they demonstrate woefully primitive misunderstandings or actual negative effects of the procedure. In their presentations of biblical stories and commentaries, both authors explicitly note that they regard the texts as human compositions reflecting the culture of ancient Israel (rather than the social conventions and practices of the patriarchs or the absolute commandments of God). As Glick analyzes the biblical texts, he continues to insist on the human (male, power-hungry) ambitions of its authors. Throughout the book, he suggests that there is a clear distinction between those who ‘believe that they Theology & Sexuality