In war-torn city of Zhytomyr, local Jewish boys undergo ritual circumcision at Chabad-run summer camp; community leaders call joint ceremony ‘unprecedented and powerful sign of resilience and renewed connection to Jewish identity’
ed note–it is unknown at this time if the boys were subjected to the perverse and medically-dangerous religious practice of ‘Metzizeh b’Peh’, where the ‘Mohel’, who performs the religious act, uses his mouth to suck the blood out of the wound on the boy’s sexual organ as required by Judah-ism.
Ynet News
In a rare communal event in the western Ukrainian city of Zhytomyr, six Jewish boys underwent circumcision one after another during a summer camp organized for Jewish children.
The ritual circumcisions, known in Hebrew as brit milah, were held as part of the Gan Israel YEKA summer camp and took place under medical supervision, according to local community leaders. Educators and members of the city’s Jewish community were also present.
The boys, all from Jewish families, are students at the Or Avner-Chabad Jewish school in Zhytomyr, which provides a framework for Jewish children, including those without family support.
Community leaders said circumcisions are performed periodically in Zhytomyr, but an event in which six boys undergo the ritual together is highly unusual.
‘This was an extraordinary moment for us,’ said Rabbi Shlomo Wilhelm, who has led the Zhytomyr Jewish community for three decades. ‘Six children in one day, in the heart of war-torn Ukraine, choosing circumcision — it is not something we take for granted. Each child felt a deep, personal connection to Judaism, and it came from their own initiative.’
The circumcisions marked the highlight of the summer camp, which was organized in cooperation with the Chabad-affiliated Jewish Relief Network Ukraine. The Zhytomyr camp is one of several Jewish summer programs operating across Ukraine and the former Soviet Union, drawing thousands of children and offering educational, cultural and religious activities despite the ongoing war.
I thought male babies were circumcized not children.
ed note–usually this is the case, and why exactly these Jewish boys were not mutilated at birth is not explained in the news piece.