In an unusual event: Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the European Jewish Organizations Federation, sent an urgent letter last night (Friday) to Irish President Michael Higgins, Prime Minister Simon Harris, and the Chairman of the Irish Parliament, Seán Ó Fearghaíl, demanding the immediate release of a certified mohel who was arrested in Dublin yesterday without bail for performing a circumcision on a male infant as prescribed by Jewish law.
The Federation stated that the certified mohel, Rabbi Jonathan Abraham, 47, a father of 10, who operates legally in England, travelled to Ireland to fulfil the mitzvah of circumcision and was detained during a Dublin police raid on the house where the religious ceremony took place.
Rabbi Margolin remarked, "This is the first time since the Holocaust that a government has arrested a Jewish rabbi for performing a circumcision on male infants." He emphasized that "this is not a crime but a religious commandment practiced by the Jewish faith for over 3,000 years, adopted by other religions, and recognized as a practice even by the World Health Organization, which often recommends circumcision for boys. Approximately thirty percent of men worldwide – not just Jews – are circumcised and live healthy lives."
Rabbi Margolin further argued that the arrest sends a clear anti-Semitic message suggesting that Jews have no place in Ireland, and demanded the mohel's release before the Sabbath. He underscored that "the arrest not only harms religious freedom but also humiliates Jewish parents, implying that they do not truly care for their children. All those parents who circumcise their children have undergone the same process themselves and would not do so if it involved 'physical or psychological harm to the infant.'"
Rabbi Margolin also appealed to the Chairman of the Irish Parliament, who visited Auschwitz with the European Jewish Organizations Federation earlier this year, to act immediately for the mohel's release and to promote legislation to prevent such arrests in the future. He also reached out to Israeli President Isaac Herzog, whose grandfather, Isaac Halevi Herzog, served as Chief Rabbi of Ireland before becoming Chief Rabbi of Israel, as well as to European Parliament President Roberta Metsola and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, asking them to urge Irish government leaders to secure the mohel's immediate release.
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