JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Supreme Court nullified a rabbinical court ruling that required a mother to circumcise her son.
In a 6-1 vote, the high court on Sunday decided to move the case involving divorcing parents to family court, saying that only a civil court can impose such an action.
The father told Israeli media that he would file the case in an Israeli family court.
The Netanya rabbinical court, which is handling the divorce, ruled last October that the mother must have her son circumcised within a week. A month later, a Jerusalem rabbinical court upheld the ruling and ordered her to pay a fine of $140 a day that it is not done.
The boy was not circumcised on the eighth day, as per Jewish custom, due to medical problems, according to reports. He is now more than a year old.
“I started reading about what actually happens in circumcision, and I realized that I couldn’t do that to my son,” the mother, identified as Elinor, told Haaretz last November. “He’s perfect just as he is.”
