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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am also a non-Jewish woman married to a Jewish man. We had a lot of discussions about this issue before our son was born. My husband is not religious, but wanted to circumcise our son basically because he felt it was "weird" not to be circumcised. Judaism was about a 10% factor in his preference, I would estimate. If Judaism hadn't been an issue, I probably would have been about 30% against circumcision based on the idea that it's unnecessary and doesn't clearly confer health benefits. But the Judaism issue made me more 50/50 because I want my kids to have at least some degree of Jewish identity. I thought, what if my son grows up and wants to identify as Jewish and has to have an adult circumcision? That would be terrible (I assume).

As it happened, we decided to circumcise. But then my husband changed his mind after our son was born when he had a number of other medical problems.

I agree with the PPs that you shouldn't make this issue the battleground for your feelings about Judaism. If your husband wants to circumcise and you aren't really strongly against it, I would go ahead and do it. I think the fact that the father is the one with a penis gives him more than a 50% vote on this. If he really doesn't care and you are against it for non-religion-related reasons, then OK, don't do it.

[b]I also think you should also try to get a handle on your feelings about Judaism by reading about the reform or reconstructionist movements. They do not think it's necessary for the mother to be Jewish in order for the kid to be Jewish, for instance. If you are generalizing that the religion as a whole is sexist based on the rules of the ruling rabbinate in Israel, which is definitely very extreme, you are not giving the whole tradition and identity a fair shake. If it is important to your husband at all I think you owe it to him to have a more informed and balanced approach[/b]. [/quote]

OK, thanks. I have heard this about medical issues also.

Re: reform, again, my context for encountering this is Israeli due to my husband's family. They are secular like many others.  For this reason, I'd say my husband has a very different relation to religious Judaism than most American Jews who have the reform/reconstructionist options. He's not particularly interested in those or in any religion, so it doesn't seem my place to push him to be Jewish if you know what I mean.  I know the rabbinate in Israel is extreme.  But as this is the immediate context in which my children will also be encountering their "Jewish" (or not, as it were) identity, my thought has been that I have to take that into consideration as it will affect their own self-understanding down the line.[/quote]

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