ABSTRACT
In the early months of 2006, Hasidic Jews in New York were confronted with what the Haredi rabbinic organization Hitahdut ha-Rabbanim d’Arzot ha-Berit vaKanada (Union of Rabbis in the United States and Canada) considered to be an existentially threatening situation. As a full page advertisement the organization placed in Satmar’s newspaper, Der Yid, stated:
Recently there has befallen us a horrendous decree from the government of the City of New York, in which we thought to be protected and to live according to the law of our holy Torah, for which our ancestors gave up their lives and offered their throat to the slaughter and did not transgress it. Who would have thought this possible? For about two thousand years we have experienced exile after exile, and did not retreat from observing the commandment of circumcision according to its law, including oral suction. And now those who wish us ill arose to abolish this commandment, which is a part of circumcision. Woe! The wicked come upon us and the cruel ones seek our soul. The foundation of our law, the covenant of our Father Abraham is in danger. That which the evil governments in the generations of exile did not dare to do, they dare do in our generation in the government of freedom. The danger is enormous and very close. What shall we do?1
