Jonathan Abraham
Jonathan Abraham is a London-based Jewish rabbi and mohel. He is a member of the Initiation Society, which trains mohels to perform ritual circumcision.[1] He is not a registered medical practitioner.[2]
Alleged criminal act
Rabbi Abraham went to Dublin, Ireland where he allegedly performed a circumcision on a non-Jewish infant boy on or about 1 August 2024.[1]
According to the Jewish Chronicle:
Officers saw "a very young child on the changing pad naked” and another child who had already been circumcised.[1]
This is alleged to be a violation of the Medical Practitioners Act (2007), which allows Jewish boys to have a less rigorous standard of safety in circumcision surgical amputation than other boys.[1]
Abraham has posted €60,000 bail and is now allowed to return to his home in London while awaiting his trial in Dublin.[2]
Irish precedent
In 2015, a father-of-six, Philip Ogbewe, from Nigeria but living in Ireland 20 years and residing at Green Lanes, Drogheda, Co Louth, used a blade on the infant during a crude cultural circumcision. Ogbewe pleaded guilty to reckless endangerment of life by performing the circumcision on the baby which led to serious haemorrhaging which created a substantial risk of death or serious harm, at the infant’s home in a midlands town on December 4th, 2015.[3]
Legal commentary
Adler PW. Is circumcision legal? 
. Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest. 2013; 16(3): 439-86. Retrieved 9 November 2024.- Geisheker JV. The Completely Unregulated Practice of Male Circumcision: Human Rights’ Abuse Enshrined in Law? . New Male Studies. 2013; 2(1): 18-45. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
- Fox M, Thomson M. Bodily Integrity, Embodiment and the Regulation of Parental Choice. Journal of Law and Society. 2017; 44(4): 501-31. Retrieved 8 September 2020.
- Möller K. Male and Female Genital Cutting: Between the Best Interest of the Child and Genital Mutilation. Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. 9 November 2024; DOI. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
See also
References
- ↑ a b c d
Pope, Felix (2 August 2024)."London rabbi arrested in Ireland over ‘illegal’ circumcision of non-Jewish babies", Jewish Chronicle. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
- ↑ a b Tuite, Tom (22 August 2024)."Rabbi charged with performing illegal circumcision on baby boy allowed to return to London on €60,000 bail", The Irish Times. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
- ↑ Tuite, Tom (25 May 2020)."Man jailed for three years for ‘barbaric’ circumcision without anaesthetic", The Irish Times. Retrieved 9 November 2024.
