Doctors Certified in Ritual Circumcision

Fourteen Southern California physicians will be certified to conduct ritual circumcisions in a ceremony today in Los Angeles, the first graduating class in a new program started by Reform Judaism.

Four of the doctors are women, which a spokesman said reflected the egalitarian nature of the Reform wing, which also ordains women as rabbis and cantors.

Many male infants, whether Jewish or not, have been circumcised in hospitals as a health precaution. However, Reform officials established a program in 1984 to establish standards for religious instruction and medical qualifications for mohalim and mohalot, the men and women who perform ritual circumcision, from the existing ranks of physicians.

The ancient ceremony of Brit Milah, or ritual circumcision, derives from an ancient Jewish custom mentioned in biblical times (Genesis 17).

Certificates will be awarded at Hebrew Union College, near USC, by Dr. David James, a New York obstetrician who chairs the Brit Milah board.

Crystal Cathedral’s Rev. Robert Schuller, who almost never takes public stances on social issues, recently agreed to join Catholic Archbishop Roger Mahony in an outdoor service Jan. 22 that will decry permissive laws on abortion.

His office in Garden Grove, however, later informed the Los Angeles archdiocese that Schuller would not be able to make it because he will be on a book tour promoting his best-selling “The Be Happy Attitudes.”

Schuller’s spokesman, Mike Nason, said the minister will send an audiotape to be played at the prayer service and rally, which will be at noon at the site of the Old State Building.

Even though Schuller will not appear in person, Nason said the minister’s participation “is a departure” from his usual avoidance of controversial social topics.