As many of you may have heard, anti-circumcision advocates in San Francisco recently gathered enough signatures to allow voters to decide to ban circumcision in the city. You can read all about it here.
I've read a few articles lately, many written on behalf of Jewish organizations, making the case for why circumcision is a medically sound practice. They claim it results in fewer urinary tract infections, a decrease in the transmission of STDs, and that it's "cleaner." I have no idea if any of that is true, but I know that it's not important. Banning circumcision is not a matter of health. If circumcision resulted in more UTIs and more STDs, would Jews agree to ban it? Of course not.
Banning circumcision in San Francisco or elsewhere violates the rights of Jews to freely practice their religion. The circumcision ritual is, I would argue, one of the most important in Judaism, symbolic of Jews' relationship to God. That voters will be able to decide to allow or disallow it is ludicrous, for the same reason that voting on same-sex marriage is ludicrous. Though I have faith that San Franciscans would never pass such a measure, the possibility that they could is very troubling.
