Questioning Circumcision: A Jewish Perspective

The book seems to be what I expected, although several pages had pen scribbles over the text itself and will make it difficult to read.Either way, the book will help my wife and myself in deciding whether or not circumcision is something our family will be doing.

As a urology resident, I realized circumcision made no sense whatsoever from a medical perspective. However, I am not an expert on religion and still don't feel qualified to comment on it as a religious practice. Reading this book was really eye-opening for me and I believe any parent who is considering circumcision from a religious perspective would greatly benefit from reading this book! I am really grateful that Dr. Goldman is sharing his experiences!

Interesting book!

An interesting and thought-provoking book, that gave a very needed point of view from a person from the Jewish community.

An extremely well researched and thought out book from a Jewish perspective. Parents and parents-to-be ignore it at their peril.I say this both from the perspective of a sociologist, a Jewish mother, and an ordained Maggidah.I hope it will be released in electronic form so that it is more accessible.I encourage you to read the book and if you have found it in time, to seek out a rabbi and Jewish community who will support you. These things, too, must be understood and talked about.This is a time in the world where we all need to carefully question received teachings to ensure that they are in keeping with the sacred bond of mother and child and of us all with Mother Earth and creation.I am very grateful to Dr. Goldman.

Bravo to Goldman! Exposing this brutal nightmare of a "practice". And it happened again...Another child mutilated for life: Google 'Rabbi botched circumcision'. This moron completely severed the child's penis. And for what? Religion? Yeah, ok folks! Crazy much??This poor infant was rushed to the hospital, spent 8 HOURS!!!!! in surgery, HAD 6!!!! blood transfusions and had to stay in the hospital FOR 2 MONTHS!!!That this happens TO ONE CHILD is too much!!"Your average pediatric urologist probably spends about 20% of his or her time repairing children who have been circumcised.""According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, 1 in every 500 new born boys experience significant acute complications as a result of circumcisions."ENOUGH!!!!!!!

I wanted to like this book; I really did. I so badly wanted it to be the answer I was looking for, but it wasn't. For the most part, this book was nothing more than a collection of your typical anti-circumcision arguments written by a guy who happens to have a very Jewish name and a Ph.D. Many of the statistics and studies cited in this book were of highly dubious origin and quality, and the so-called "Jewish perspective" made up only a minute part of the book. I wanted to see an intelligent, detailed dissection of Jewish law and teachings showing that the tradition of circumcision is outdated and in violation of God's teachings. There were very few arguments to that extent, and what little there were could have been condensed into a three page paper. Instead, they were painfully protracted into a book padded with emotional appeals and specious correlations, such as circumcision being responsible for anti-semitism. Save your money.

If there was one thing that Jews of ALL "denominations" practiced until recently, regardless of level of observance, it was bris milah. I myself have had a milah, and trust me, I have suffered ZERO psychological, physical, sexual, or any other "harms". I agree with the author's right to express his feelings about this, but some things (mitzvot) you just don't discard and still call yourself a Jew. And do we have the "ethical right" to circumcise ? I think it's a MORAL OBLIGATION, and thousands of years of Jewish history are on my side. Goldman's argument is a good one, but one that I think is just very un-Jewish. It would be like not requiring the mikvah for conversions either. If one leaves out the most important rules to "join the team", then the new "member" isn't really a member,are they ?

A well written book but, way too short for the price - I felt cheated! The first book is excellent and I really didn’t want to not have this book but, I think the author should have made way more effort to write a lot more on the subject from a Jewish perspective .