Brooklyn, NY – Authorities are being stonewalled by the family of a newborn boy who died after contracting herpes through a controversial religious circumcision ritual, the Daily News has learned.
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Multiple sources in the Orthodox Jewish community said the 2-week-old boy’s parents were related to a herpes-infected rabbi who conducted the circumcision according to tradition — using one’s mouth to remove blood from the wound.
The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office is investigating the death and trying to identify the rabbi, or mohel, but family members have not been cooperative, sources said.
“You guys are barking up the right tree,” a law enforcement source said of word that the mohel was related to the boy. “But we don’t know yet who did what.”
City health officials have criticized the religious practice, saying that putting the open wound into contact with the mouth of the rabbi carries “inherent risks” for the infant.
The unidentified infant died at Brooklyn’s Maimonides Medical Center last Sept. 28. An autopsy listed the cause of death as
“disseminated herpes simplex virus Type 1, complicating ritual circumcision with oral suction,” according to a spokeswoman for the city Medical Examiner.
if hes related it shouldn”t be too hard to figure out. i’m assuming as well that there were other people at this bris and they know who the mohel is . im surprised that they still don’t know
If this mohel starts doing Milah again, here or anyplace in the world the parents are responsible. They are not correct if they trust it will never happen again.
If they don’t know who the mohel was, then how can they say that he caused it? Even if he tests positive now, maybe he caught it from the child?
All child abuse is criminal and there can be no worse abuse than killing. The criminal responsible for this death should be turned in to the police not be kept from them.
I’m sure a reward will cause them or others present to speak.
This is proof that they are looking to make a story before they have the facts.
The baby died from herpes, but they don’t know where it came from, yet right away blame circumcision.
Does our Torah need us to hide the truth? Shouldn’t we determine the source of this infection so that a proper Beis Din can hear the evidence and favorably consider a more sterile form of Metzizah, as did the Chasam Sofer, the Chofetz Chaim, the Brisker Reb Chaim, Rav Shimshon Rafael Hirsch, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach, etc, etc, etc, or are we captives to the Kanaus of the Hungarian world?
Maybe the baby caught it in the hospital. How could they say that the baby caught it from the Mohel when he wasn’t tested?
course they are stonewalling. after what they did to Rabbi Fisher by destroying his livelihood, when he was totally innocent, of course we wanna protect this Mohelf rom such an attack. in every generation goyim try to prevent you from doing circumcision. we will dye al kidush hashem and we wildocontinue it
If the mohel isn’t the source of the infection, why doesn’t he come forward and be tested instead of hiding beehind his family?
They had to cut the dead kid open to “figure out” what nebach killed him?!?!?!?
It’s sad to see all of these foolish comments from Yidden denying that there is a problem with this practice. Nebech, more children are going to die because of this “minhag”.
There is no reason to be moser the mohel in this case. In all likelyhood, the infection is due to the non-carrier status of the mother, who did not provide immunity to the child. HSV-1 is carried by most all people. This is just another excuse for the goyim to try and ban bris mila and make religious Jews look immoral.
A baby is dead. At a time where governments are trying to pass laws banning circumcision some of you are advocating a practice that can easily be done through a glass straw. There is no reason in today’s day and age for a Mohel to put his lips directly on a child. Why give the goyim and jewish anti semites more fodder?
Ridiculous. Stonewalling is a chilul Hashem. Dina D’Malchusa Dina – if this guy broke the law, we are obligated to help the government.
The apologists are already out in force. We know the boy was killed by HSV-1. That’s oral herpes. That means someone’s diseased mouth was in intimate contact with a wound. The only wound here is the circumcision site.
But that doesn’t matter. We’ve already seen these people are immune to facts and logic. They believe what they want to because their fanaticism requires it.
The mohel won’t stop unless he is stopped because he can’t believe anything he could do could possibly be dangerous. If he isn’t stopped he will kill again and again. The family knows who he is. If they don’t come forward they have the innocent blood of his future victims on their hands. That’s why the DA needs to be harsh. Obstruction of Justice. Contempt of Court. Jail them until they give up the name. Because they and the killer are a clear danger to other innocents.
All I can say my baby a day after the bris started having complications and the first thing the hospital ER asked who was the mohel and right away blamed it on the bris. Further testing of the baby showed that the doctors in the ER had no idea what they were talking about.
The best was I called the mohel and told him whats going on he came to the ER himself and spoke with the doctor with no fear at all and showed them that the symptoms has nothing to do with the bris. The doctors were ashamed of themselves after accusing the mohel before any blood work was done.
B”H I transferred the baby to a top notch hospital and the baby is healthy as they come.
Stop jumping to conclusions before we have all the facts
Think about the known facts for a moment and you can see clearly that it’s all an Alilas Dam with no yesod at all.
Who ever considers themselves to be “the authorities”, these geniuses:
1) Don’t even know yet ho the Mohel is!
2) Obviously haven’t even spoken to the Mohel
3) Obviously couldn’t have even tested him to see if he does or does not have herpes in the first place.
Even though they haven’t done any of the 3 fact findings, they already concluded the investigation before even starting and are sure the child died because of the Mohel.
Maybe they should have the mother tested for herpes.
It’s known that if the Mother has it at birth it can be transfered to the child.
It’s also known that the Hospital is the most likely place to contract most diseases. There is no place on earth as full of germs as a hospital and more germs are contracted form hospitals, far more than from any place else.
Yet the mother hasn’t been tested
The Hospital hasn’t been tested.
And the Mohel hasn’t been tested or his identity even known.
But they already CONCLUDED to “blame metzitza bepeh”.
Purely ant-semitic and has no yesod in science not in common sense at all.
even if one has doubt that MB can cause death in rare cases. How can one say to do it since at beat it is a minhag. And the minhag is based of the false premise that MP cleanses the wound and helps healing which we know today is simply false.
Is continuing a minhag worth the lives of a few children?
I guess to some yes
Read comment 22. The child probably unfortunately died due to the poor quality care received at Maimonides. The doctors are throwing off their own guilt onto the mohels. Check the bloods again and do a thorough investigation. We may all be pleasantly surprised, that it has little to due with the mohr
I would hope that even if the mohel had a cold sore in September, it is healed by now. Was every nurse/doctor on duty at the time the child was born, tested for the virus? a nurse could have had a cold sore and transmitted it to the baby when she diapered him. but that wouldn’t make such lurid headlines.
the ME determines the cause of death but I didn’t know they can determine the source or person who gave the child the virus.
i am not familiar with the halachos…..when my sons were born, that was the first time i heard about matziza pbeh…as my father in law was sandek and he nearly fainted while watching it…a fight broke out between him and my husband…and the entire family (whom are modern orthodox) were pissed at my (black hat) husband for many months…
what is the halacha?
what is the minhag?
which gedolim support metziza bpeh?
which gedolim suggest other methods of metziza pbeh?
i am not educated in this field and thinking about is freaks me out a little…so i want to know the clear facts….if and when i have another boy….i would like to know if i should support metziza bpeh or try to avoid it.
I would really appreciate any knowledgable answers and clarity on this issue (with proof of statements if possible…)
Thank you very much! May we only hear of simchos! a freilichan purim to all!!!