Nineteenth-century hygiene concerns pushed acculturated Jews to abandon circumcision

Evidence

This debate about the special relationship between Jews and ritual circumcision and the health exception is reflected in the Verein der Reformfreunde (Society for the Friends of Reform) in Frankfurt in 1843, which said that ritual infant male circumcision was neither a religious obligation nor a symbolic act. This was in response to the 8 February 1843 finding of the Frankfurt public health authority that circumcision had to be carried out under medical supervision. However, the end result of concerns over hygiene and deformation was that ritual circumcision was less and less undertaken by acculturated Jews in Central and Western Europe. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 903 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Public health regulations effectively pushed acculturated Jews to abandon circumcision — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 903; Nineteenth-century medical debates on circumcision were never neutral, being framed by anti-Semitic attitudes. — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in…, 904

Broader Connections

• Public health regulations effectively pushed acculturated Jews to abandon circumcision #corroborates (0.95) — James Renton, Ben Gidley (eds.), Antisemitism and Islamophobia in Europe, 903