German lawmakers back circumcision bill – Lauder: ‘Renaissance of Jewish life in Germany can continue’
The World Jewish Congress (WJC) has welcomed a vote by German lawmakers who overwhelmingly backed a bill which aims to provide legal safety for the circumcision of underage boys. 434 members of the 580 members of the Bundestag who voted were in favor of the government bill, 100 against it and 46 abstained. WJC President Ronald S. Lauder said in reaction to the vote in the Bundestag: “Today, representatives of all major parties have made it clear that the renaissance of Jewish life in Germany can and should continue. The bitter debate that followed the Cologne court ruling on circumcision has irritated and unsettled many Jews around the world, and we hope that a clear legal basis has now been put in place that will prevent the criminalization of religious circumcision in the future.”
Lauder went on to say: “Jews could really have done without this acrimonious debate, and it was even more saddening that it erupted in Germany, of all countries. The efforts to ban, outlaw, define, limit or otherwise curtail circumcision were an affront to freedom and morality, even though they were sometimes motivated by good intentions. Although people are being slaughtered in many parts of the world and massacres are occurring in Syria on a daily basis, the commentarial and activist classes in Germany preferred to occupy themselves with denying Jews – and Muslims – their religious rights.”
Lauder thanked the German government and the leaders of all major political forces for not giving in to the populist temptation to lend their backing to a ban of circumcision. “It seems that Germany’s leaders have realized what it would have meant to allow the courts to criminalize one of Judaism’s most ancient and sacred commandments,” he added. Lauder expressed hope that the circumcision debate, which had pulled up a lot of anti-Semitic resentment in German society, would now be over. “It is now time to move on and try to heal the wounds. And it is important to ensure that the rights of Jews and other minorities are safeguarded everywhere in Europe,” the WJC president emphasized.
