L ifestyles /C ulture
The Mohel Wore a Mask
JU DA ISM
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
THE GOOD NEWS: The ritual
known as the brit milah, or bris,
has not changed because of the
pandemic. The aim is the same,
and so are the blessings that are
recited. In fact, the improvements that
have been made in the millennia
since circumcision was described
in the Mishnah — certain
sanitary practices and numbing
agents — remain intact.

Scalpels, forceps and non-
woven dressing remain the tools
of the trade. A bris is a bris,
as permanent as ever. Eight-
day-old babies continue to be
gently laid upon big pillows.

The only changes are just
about everything else.

For a while, according to
several mohels serving the
Greater Philadelphia area, the
rate at which they received work
was down significantly. In some
sects, fewer mohels are being
trained due to the travel and
room occupancy restrictions that
have arisen in the last several
months. Mohels, like everyone
else, are wearing masks at work.

And perhaps most importantly,
what is meant to be a joyous
communal occasion has become
smaller, quieter and decidedly
without a kosher spread to follow.

“A bris does not make the
child a Jew. A bris brings the
child into the Jewish commu-
nity. So when you limit the
number of people who are
present, it’s almost antithetical
to the concept of a bris,” said
Cantor Mark Kushner. Kushner
has been a mohel for decades,
accredited in Israel, with an
honorary degree from the
Jewish Theological Seminary
and a master’s in education from
Gratz College. The homepage of
his website — with a collage
of smiling families tilting their
newly convenanted sons toward
the camera — testifies to the
number of ceremonies he’s been
a part of.

28 OCTOBER 15, 2020
Dr. David Rawdin, a mohel, with parents Jeffrey and Taryn and their newly
minted Jewish boy, Zachary
Photo by Dr. David Rawdin
But it wasn’t until the last few
months that Kushner led ceremo-
nies that relatives were watching
via Zoom, from Israel, South
Africa and elsewhere. Virtual
attendees with whom he might’ve
jostled for position at the bagels
and lox table instead watched
their newest family member be
brought into the global commu-
nity of Jews in pixels.

In the room itself, the number
of people who attend has been
limited to 10 or 15, and fewer of
the assembled end up holding
or touching the baby. When
Kushner walks in the house, the
first thing he does is cover his
shoes, wash his hands and put on
a medical-grade gown. Though
the atmosphere is dramatically
different, Kushner said, families
who contact him for help have
been “very receptive” to the
changes he’s implemented.

“People are frightened.

People want safety, and
anything that you can do to
help them towards that goal ...

my experience is that they’re
very accepting,” Kushner said.

Dr. David Rawdin, a pediatri-
cian in Merion Station, has been
a mohel for 10 years. However
many parents feel nervous about
bringing people into their home
at the moment, they’ll never be as
great in number as those that are
nervous about the circumcision
itself. Skittish parents and relatives
are nothing new for Rawdin.

Rawdin’s approach to britot
milah during the pandemic has
been to fold risk assessment
discussions into his typical
pre-bris conference with
families. Those meetings, once
in person, are conducted via
Zoom or by phone; the partic-
ulars of the service and the
simcha are still discussed in
detail, with extra time made
to discuss pre-screening the
reduced number of guests.

What made the profession
attractive to Rawdin was the
chance to be a part of a family’s
simcha, and those pre-bris
meetings, even with their new
character, are part of what
keeps him coming back.

“One reason I became a
mohel was to do it the way I
wanted to do it,” Rawdin said,
explaining that his way means
personal connections with the
people to whom he provides a
service. That element of his job
hasn’t changed a bit.

Howard Glantz does double
duty; he’s helped families reestab-
lish the everlasting covenant
since ’91, and has been a cantor at
Adath Jeshurun since 2004.

Glantz learned the trade from
an OB-GYN at Jacobi Medical
Center/Albert Einstein College of
Medicine, the OB-GYN himself
being a mohel, and the son of
another mohel at that. Between
JEWISH EXPONENT
Cantor Mark Kushner, aka Cantor K, with his now-customary mask, gloves
and gown 
Courtesy of Mark Kushner
the three of them, that’s a lot of
skin in the game; and yet, it’s safe
to say that neither Glantz’s teacher
nor his teacher’s father could’ve
known to teach Glantz how to
deal with, say, a pandemic.

Back in March and April,
Glantz found himself in a position
he never wanted to find himself
in, turning down opportunities to
shepherd a family through their
child’s bris. Traveling to northern
New Jersey and New York during
that time felt like entering a
conflict zone, he believed, and he
did not want to put himself or his
family at risk.

Just a few weeks ago, he
made the trek to Jersey, and
the danger that was in the air
back in the spring feels a bit
more distant. But still, Glantz,
who loves the profession, who
wants to sing with a sense of
celebration, and regrets that
he must put on gloves before
he gets out of the car, restricts
his services to those that have
acted responsibly.

Rabbi Betzalel Katkovsky,
who serves Jewish families in the
Northeast, feels the new normal
acutely in the way that the
memory of the bris is preserved.

Professional photographers,
begging extended broods to
squeeze together a little more,
have been done away with; in
their place are frequently the
mohels themselves, asking fewer
people for fewer smiles. And even
those smiles, Katkovsky said, are
hard to discern behind a mask.

“Part of the beauty of keeping
this commandment is the consis-
tency that we, the Jewish people,
have had for 4,000 years,” Kushner
said, reflecting on the changes he
and the families he serves have
made since March. “It’s what
makes this so intense, and so
emotionally gratifying, that you
know that you’re reaching back
to something that started with
Abraham. And there’s not much
else that you can do to reach that
far back, and connect.” l
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM