The great California foreskin fight of 2011

By Jonah Lowenfeld
Published on June 21, 2011

As luck would have it, the day local Jewish leaders gathered in Santa Monica to discuss the community’s response to a proposed ballot measure aimed at banning circumcision in that city was the very same day the proposition was rescinded by its proponent. Twenty-five people came to the meeting at the Milken Family Foundation offices on Fourth Street on June 6, including high-ranking Jewish professionals, local rabbis of all stripes and other Jewish community leaders.

Circumcision Opponent Abandons Santa Monica Ballot Initiative

By Jonah Lowenfeld
Published on June 6, 2011

In foreskin fight, even terminology is being disputed

By Jonah Lowenfeld
Published on May 31, 2011

According to the proponent of a ballot initiative to prohibit the act of surgically removing a male baby’s foreskin, the term “circumcision” is nothing but a euphemism. “Having your foreskin amputated is probably more like it,” said Jena Troutman, a doula and mother of two sons, who initiated the process of petitioning Santa Monica to include the initiative on a future ballot.

S.F. archbishop raps proposed circumcision ban

Published on May 25, 2011

San Francisco’s Catholic archbishop expressed his opposition to a city ballot initiative that would ban circumcision for minors. Archbishop George Niederauer condemned the initiative in a May 23 letter sent to the San Francisco Chronicle, his archdiocese’s newspaper reported.

S.F.‘s new Contemporary Jewish Museum meshes art, ideas and architecture

By Sue Fishkoff
Published on June 5, 2008

"We want people to ask questions -- what does 'contemporary' mean?"

-- Connie Wolf, Executive Director, Contemporary Jewish Museum