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Israeli Minister Asks Merkel to Intervene Against Circumcision Prosecution

August 22, 2012 10:00 pm 0 comments

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Photo: wiki commons.

Times of Israel – Interior Minister Eli Yishai on Wednesday appealed to Chancellor Angela Merkel to intervene to prevent the prosecution of Jews for carrying out the ritual of circumcision — brit milah — in Germany.

Yishai wrote to Merkel a day after criminal charges were filed against Rabbi David Goldberg, a mohel — ritual circumciser – who serves in the community of Hof, in Upper Franconia (northern Bavaria). The criminal charge was based on a controversial ruling by a Cologne district court, in June, that circumcisions for religious reasons constitute illegal bodily harm to newborn babies.

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