Henri Goldstein, president of Mosaiske, the representative group of the Jewish community in Denmark, slammed the bill, calling it “the worst threat since World War II” to the country’s Jews. He recalled that brit milah has been practiced in Denmark without any problems for more than 400 years.

 

The head of the Jewish community in Denmark has denounced a bill debated in the Danish parliament that would ban non-medical circumcisions.

The bill was proposed by the leader of a leftist party Simon Emil Ammitzboll-Bille, who is a former Interior Minister.

The Folketing, the Danish parliament,  is set to vote on the bill during its next session.

Ammitzboll-Bille stated: “I don’t think cutting little boys should be legal in connection with an old, religious ritual.’’  “That’s my principled stance. That a person’s body belongs to them and that young men should get to decide whether they want to be circumcised. That’s why I am in favor of introducing an age limit of 18 years for non-medical circumcision.”

If approved, the bill would mean a ban on brit milah, the Jewish ritual which sees a baby boy circumcised eight days after his birth.

Henri Goldstein, president of Mosaiske, the representative group of the Jewish community in Denmark, slammed the bill, calling it “the worst threat since World War II” to the country’s Jews. He said brit milah has been practiced in Denmark without any problems for more than 400 years.

In 2018, a petition demanding that the Danish parliament consider implementing a ban on circumcising boys under 18 reached 50,000 signatures required to force parliament to take up the issue but it didn’t went further.

Around 6,000 Jews live in Denmark of which most are living in the capital Copenhagen and the immediate surroundings.

Across Europe, the circumcision  is under attack by liberals who find it a violation of children’s rights and nationalists who argue it is foreign to European culture.