A leader of British Jews, the honorary president of the National Jewish Assembly, Gary Mond, called the implied comparison “obscene” and suggested it was rooted in antisemitism.

The draft document, which comes at a period of insecurity for British Jews due to rising expressions of antisemitism, concerns a key rite of Judaism that many Jews consider a prerequisite to the existence of a thriving Jewish community.

An activist defending the Jewish circumcision, Jonathan Arkush, told JNS he was “not concerned” that the document would lead to new restrictions on the custom. Arkush is a former president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and current co-chair of Milah UK, a nonprofit that aims to protect the custom.

The draft document follows the publication of a report on Dec. 29 about the death of a six-month-old Muslim boy in London in 2023 from complications caused by a circumcision by a family friend. The coroner’s report led to the formulation of the draft, Arkush explained.

According to Arkush, who is a lawyer, this wording “implies that perhaps it should be and they’re thinking it should be.” In reality, however, the prosecution service has no plans to outlaw circumcision, Arkush added, based on meetings with the prosecution service and talks with justice officials.

Authorities may introduce regulations, he said, but those would almost certainly be within the practices and precautions already taken by British Jews.

The risks attached to circumcision are “precisely why we regulate milah [circumcision]in our community as strongly as we do,” said Arkush.

In 2013, the Conference of European Rabbis created, with Milah UK’s assistance, a union of mohels, or ritual circumcisers, in an effort to standardize ritual circumcision and combat attempts to ban the rite.

Medical complications following Jewish circumcision “are not unknown, but almost unknown,” added Arkush. “I’m not concerned about the CPS,” he said, referring to the Crown Prosecution Service. “I’m more concerned by any mishap that may happen to a child as a result of a mishap in any circumcision.” Arkush is scheduled to meet with CPS officials next week, he said.

Gary Mond, the honorary president of the Jewish National Assembly, focused on the circumstances that led to the creation of the draft guidance. To compare circumcision “with a bizarre and damaging procedure such as breast flattening beggars belief and I suspect that antisemitism lies behind this,” he said. Equating the practice with forced marriages and honor killings “is obscene. Calling circumcision child abuse is fundamentally antisemitic,” he said.

Activists opposed to Jewish and Muslim presence in Europe have pushed bans on milah and shechitah, the Jewish kosher slaughter method, and its Muslim equivalent.

These pushes to ban the practices are often joined by advocates for the perceived rights of animals and children, respectively. In Belgium, shechitah has been banned in two of the country’s three regions since 2019.

In May, Belgian police raided the home of several mohels in Antwerp and confiscated the equipment of at least one of them, in connection with complaints lodged against him by a local Jew.

The homes of several other mohels were raided in addition to that of Rabbi Aharon Eckstein, one of the most experienced mohels in the country. None of the mohels has faced legal action since the raid.

Iceland debated a law banning milah in 2018, and a petition in Denmark prompted a parliamentary debate on the subject. In 2013, Norway passed new regulations on milah that required the presence of a physician at every circumcision. Sweden had passed such laws years earlier.

In 2012, a German court ruled that non-medical circumcision of children amounts to abuse, but the German parliament subsequently passed legislation explicitly allowing circumcision.

Arkush, whose Milah UK group has led efforts to thwart bans across Europe, said he was unaware of any new pushes to ban the practice in Europe.