A British rabbi detained in Ireland and accused of performing illegal circumcisions has been granted bail and permission to return to the UK.
Rabbi Jonathan Abraham, 47, was arrested late last month when police officers found him scalpel in hand at a property in Dublin.
He was charged with performing a surgical procedure, a circumcision on a male child, without being a registered medical practitioner.
The Golders Green rabbi’s bail has now been set at €60,000 with €50,000 set to be put up by his solicitor and the remaining €10,000 by the chief rabbi of Ireland, Yoni Wieder.
Rabbi Abraham is a member of the Initiation Society, an Anglo-Jewish organisation which is associated with the London Beth Din and regulates brit milah in the UK.
He is also a registered mohel, and has been performing the religious procedure for the last 13 years.
Were Rabbi Abraham to be convicted of breaching the Medical Practitioners Act 2007, he could face a maximum fine of €130,000 and five years’ imprisonment.
Adressing a Dublin court following Rabbi Abraham’s arrest, Det Garda Megan Furey said police had entered a property in Dublin just after one pm on Tuesday to see him, “dressed in a white robe, a doctor-style coat, with blue gloves and a scalpel in his hand.”
A table in the room had scissors, a changing pad, and other medical equipment on it, she said.
Officers saw “a very young child on the changing pad naked” and another child who had already been circumcised.
While mohels perform circumcisions in line with Jewish tradition in Ireland and are legally allowed to do so, non-religious circumcision is considered a medical procedure rather than a religious ritual and requires a separate medical license.
Chief Rabbi Wieder previously told the JC the country’s Jewish community is “fully compliant” with all laws concerning brit milah.
He said non-Jewish parents would likely have employed a mohel to carry out a circumcision because of their high standards of care towards children.
“They have a reputation for performing the procedure competently,” he said.
The chief rabbi added: “The Irish Jewish community is fully compliant with law around circumcision and will continue to be so. We are doing everything in our power to ensure it will continue to be fine.”
A 2006 report on “cultural male circumcision” published by Ireland’s Department of Health and Children found that Orthodox Jewish circumcisions in the country are carried out with parental consent, are in the interest of the child, and are competently performed.
"The committee is not aware that any significant problems have been attributed to Orthodox Jewish circumcisions in Ireland,” it said.
"Rabbinical circumcisers are trained by the Initiation Society in the UK. The committee is satisfied that the practice of neonatal Orthodox Jewish circumcision be permitted to continue in this jurisdiction but recommends that the situation be kept under review.”
