Everyone’s favorite anti-circumcision duo is back - The New Yorker and Gary Shteyngart. Their latest collaboration is a movie version of the author’s article on botched circumcision from October 2021. If you thought it was difficult to read his graphic descriptions, just wait until you watch him act it out in living color.
There’s nothing new brought to light in this most recent exposé. It’s just a video rehash of Shteyngart’s venom towards the procedure. My take on the content can be found here. But the real question is why is this happening?
Shteyngart would like you to believe that this is a man baring his soul after struggling for years with discomfort from a procedure that went awry. And there’s what to be said about that. No one is happy that he has had to deal with negative repercussions from our most sacred tradition.
However, this isn’t the whole story. Shteyngart has become a poster child for the anti-circumcision movement. There’s nothing they love more than showcasing a Jew who rejects the practice. Whatever the cause of his ire may have been, Shteyngart insists circumcision is wrong at its core and must be eradicated.
Let’s change the case for a moment. What if someone underwent an elective procedure that resulted in a painful outcome. Unintended consequences of operations are unfortunately all too common. As high as 50% of all patients report chronic pain after operations lasting upwards of six months. Does the New Yorker devote a 20-minute video to any of these people? Do they attempt to take down the medical establishment? Of course not. That would be nonsensical. But when it comes to circumcision, all bets are off.
The late Rabbi Dr. Lord Jonathan Sacks, during Germany’s attempted ban on Brit Milah in 2012, pointed out the root of the problem. He deemed the move to be an attack on the Jewish people. During the Holocaust, Hitler and the Nazi party attacked the Jewish people on genetic grounds. The Jew was not human because his genetic make up was different and inferior. In today's culture, the way to dehumanize our enemies is to attack them on humanitarian grounds. If you can prove that one has violated the norms of humanity, then the culprit deserves no mercy.
These attacks on the Jewish people are not limited to Brit Milah. The onslaught of hate the Jewish State is enduring in regards to the Gaza war are of the same ilk. Claims of genocide, starvation, the killing of civilians, especially chidren appear daily in news media around the world. It’s not just that those levying the attacks ignore the root causes of the problem. It’s that they can’t help but demonize the only Jewish homeland.
In some ways, I’m sure Gary Shteyngart is unaware that he’s doing the bidding of antisemites throughout the world. I’m sure that his checkered past with Judaism and specifically Brit Milah, blind him to these facts. But nonetheless his attacks are antisemitic.
What’s hard to ignore is how each of these New Yorker pieces coincide with the release of Shteyngart’s books. The first was published in 2021 just before his previous work and this one was released just after his newest book. In fact, it’s actually odd that this round didn’t follow the former pattern. But it’s probably no accident that the video was released on Rosh Hashanah. The good news is Yom Kippur is right around the corner. It’s never too late to do Teshuvah.