A big social trial against the rite of circumcision is being staged at Minsk, says a report received here, the occasion being provided by the death of a child after the operation. Radminski, the Mohel, who is also a Shochet, is being charged with the death of the child.
The Jewish Communists in their campaign against the Jewish religion have made circumcision and shechita the special objects of their agitation. The Yiddish Communist organ of Minsk, the “Stern”, has frequently published long articles denouncing the practice of circumcision. In one issue the paper complained that the Jewish clericals exploit the backwardness of the Jewish woman, her ignorance and prejudice with the object of chaining her to religion and to religious usages and prejudices. The Jewish reactionary gang bribe the mother to allow her male child to be circumcised even if it is against the will of the father, it wrote.
Similarly, the Yiddish Communist organ, the “Stern”, in the Ukraine, protested recently against the practice of circumcision, denouncing it as a barbaric rite which must be exterminated.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.