Miriam Pollack, M.A., has published a number of articles on the subject of circumcision, beginning with “Circumcision:  A Jewish Feminist Perspective”, “Jewish Women Speak Out:  Expanding the Boundaries of Psychotherapy”, and “Circumcision:  Redefining the Sacred” in Sexual Mutilations: A Human Tragedy.
 
When Miriam’s two sons were born in 1978 and 1982, she had arranged for their ritual circumcisions, believing that both as a Jewish mother and a modern woman, she was making an informed, intelligent, and, indeed, sacred choice on their behalf. For years she anguished silently about the traumas she had not only witnessed, but facilitated.  Finally, in 1991 she decided to attend a symposium on the subject of circumcision.  Three and a half days of presentations on the anatomy and physiology of the foreskin, the  history of circumcision, and the psychological sequellae of neonatal trauma more than realized her worst fears.  With a completely shattered heart, she began to write in hopes that she might spare other Jewish mothers and newborn babies, the grief that she might have been spared, had she only known then what she now knows only too well.
 
Miriam’s most recent writing entitled, If “It Isn’t Ethical, Can It Be Spiritual?” will be part of the book, Human Rights Under Assault: The Atrocity of Circumcision.  She appeared in the documentary, “Whose Body, Whose Rights?” and has spoken at a number of international symposia in Baltimore, Lausanne and Seattle.  She has also been invited to present her newest work at the Tenth International Symposium on Circumcision, Genital Integrity, and Human Rights: Anthropological, Medical, Legal, and Ethical Analyses in September 2008, Keele University, Staffordshire, UK.

Miriam’s Presentations:
The Intact Boy