NYC Health Dept. Stays Enforcement of Milah Regulation

Two years and two months after it was implemented, an unprecedented regulation of bris milah that sent shockwaves throughout the Jewish world, New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene revealed on Friday that it had implemented an indefinite stay of enforcement — effective immediately.

This latest development comes days after the de Blasio administration announced a tentative agreement with community representatives that would end the highly controversial regulation enacted by the Bloomberg administration. In its place, a new protocol will be implemented, one that will use cutting-edge DNA testing to determine the real source of herpes infection in infants.

“With boundless thanks to the Ribbono shel Olam, it is a humbling but distinct pleasure to announce that today, Shushan Purim, the NYC Health Department agreed to indefinitely stay enforcement of the mbp regulation,” Yerachmiel Simins, an attorney for the Jewish groups who had filed a lawsuit against the regulation, said in an email to Hamodia on Friday.

The city’s Law Department, who until now had been leading the legal battle to defend the regulation, will now join the attorneys for the plaintiffs in seeking a joint stay of the litigation.

The Board of Health is expected to take up the matter in the summer. Once the process begins, a public hearing and comment period will likely take place before the board decides to vote on the actual repeal..

This article appeared in print on page 4 of the March 9th, 2015 edition of Hamodia.