President Pinchas Goldschmidt of the Conference of European Rabbis issued the following statement on Thursday in reaction to the news that Sweden’s Centre Party voted in favor of banning male circumcision in the absence of a medical reason during the party’s annual meeting in Karlstad last weekend:
"The Swedish Centre Party’s decision to promote a ban on religious circumcision is a request for Jews to leave Sweden, the most liberal of EU states. We mourn the lack of tolerance and loss of diversity in today’s Sweden."