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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Just want to point out that there is no test to be part of the American Jewish community.

Nobody is going to pull your son's pants down to determine if he is welcome to join a temple, or attend services, or go to Jewish day camp, join Hillel at his college, eat at Katz's, vote Democratic (ok, that was a joke), take the day off at work/school on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, stick up for/criticize Israel, or do any of the many, many things that define the community of "American Jews."

I can't speak to Israel, but i can tell you that in my almost 50 years as an American Jew, not once have I been asked about circumcision - at a Jewish event, or elsewhere for that matter.[/quote]

The only one who is going to pull his pants down is a future wife or girlfriend. If she is Jewish, it might become a point of conversation - though if he is of mixed parentage and raised in a non-observant household, she should not be surprised by what she finds. [/quote]

She won't be surprised because it sounds like OP's son will not identify as Jewish, and that is fine. He will know he has Jewish heritage but if they are not raising him Jewish -- which it sounds like they aren't because [b]DH doesn't care and OP has major issues with Jews or at least Israeli Jews[/b] -- he won't be Jewish. So if he marries a Jewish woman he's going to have to have that conversation anyway. Hopefully before she pulls down his pants.

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Nope, inaccurate.  Learn to read before you comment.  DH is a secular Israeli, if you know some you know what that means. They are against religious Judaism.  I do not "have major issues with Jews," I find that certain interpretations and applications of Jewish law are against my personal values.  Big difference.  As for Israel, this came into the discussion because many people were urging us to look into Reform/reconstructionist Judaism so I had to explain why this isn't relevant to our family.  I am guessing we would be more ideologically aligned with Reform, but it's not of interest to my husband.

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OP, I've read the whole thread. You may not think you have issues with Jews but all your posts are complaining about how you feel excluded by the Jewish community and you don't like this or that aspect of Judaism and you think the practices are barbaric, etc. You are entitled to your opinion. I truly do not care. But it comes across clearly even if you are not aware of it.

Look -- you don't want to circumcise your son. So don't! Easy as that.[/quote]

From the Haaretz link posted earlier:

Among those in the latter group are Eran and Maya Sadeh, who live in the north of the country. They say that the most shocking piece of information they came across about circumcision, and the one that influenced them most deeply was the view of Maimonides on the subject ?(see Circumcision in Judaism below?). The great 13th century physician and philosopher “accorded emasculating justification to circumcision,” Eran Sadeh says. “He maintained explicitly that it is done in order to affect male sexuality and reduce the pleasure of the sex act. For me, that connected with female circumcision and shocked me. I immediately read up on the physiological aspects and understood that what Maimonides said is correct: Circumcision affects the functioning of the genital organ in sexual relations.

“I connected that with my legal knowledge about human rights and understood that it’s wrong from that point of view as well. You take a person in the most vulnerable and helpless condition and amputate part of his body. Maimonides talks about that, too. Circumcision is performed when the infant is eight days old, because the bond between the parent and the child is not yet very strong and the parent is capable of inflicting this on his son. It is a gross violation of human rights, perpetrated by none other than the child’s parents, those who are responsible for protecting him.” 
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/even-in-israel-more-and-more-parents-choose-not-to-circumcise-their-sons-1.436421

So... does Eran Sadeh have "issues with Jews," because he finds circumcision barbaric? Give me a break.  If you really think about it, it's going to be one of those practices that is increasingly difficult to justify as society becomes more secular.  Along with Israeli marriage laws and the rest.  It has nothing to do with having "issues with Jews," and everything to do with opposing a certain kind of fundamentalist thinking based on literal interpretations of a text written a very long time ago.
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