August 14, 2024 — In 2022, Brendon Marotta, who once explored the circumcision controversy in an independent film, self-published a book and wrote blog posts expressing his opinions about Jewish people related to circumcision. Both Jewish and non-Jewish individuals publicly criticized his writings. Subsequently, Marotta filed a lawsuit claiming he had been defamed, suing only…
April 5, 2024 — Bruchim, the nonprofit that is shattering taboos around Jewish circumcision, has launched a podcast to explore the practice through a critical lens. Founded in 2021, Bruchim supports non-circumcising Jews while encouraging synagogues and other Jewish institutions to accept the choice not to circumcise. This 10-episode debut season of The Bruchim Podcast tells…
July 28, 2022 — New York Times bestselling novelist Gary Shteyngart (Our Country Friends, 2021) and Bruchim’s Max Buckler appear together as guests on Evolve, the podcast of Judaism’s Reconstructionist Movement. Shteyngart and Buckler’s friendship began on social media after Shteyngart published a New Yorker essay describing his own botched bris. Buckler, a circumcision critic and…
March 2, 2022 — While there is no single definition of hate speech, the term generally describes public discourse (spoken or in print) that attempts to vilify, scapegoat, humiliate, or incite hatred against people or groups based on race, religion, ethnicity, country of origin, biological sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, and so on. Freedom…
December 1, 2021 — Five representatives of Bruchim will appear this week and next during two episodes of the podcast Judaism Unbound.
Judaism Unbound, a project of the Institute for the Next Jewish Future, is a project that catalyzes and supports grassroots efforts by “disaffected but hopeful” American Jews to re-imagine and re-design Jewish life in America for the 21st Century.
October 10, 2021 — Last week news outlets reported on Bruchim’s efforts to seek greater inclusion for non-circumcising Jewish families in Jewish spaces of all kinds, including synagogues.
Leaders from multiple Jewish denominations weighed in, making supportive, inclusionary statements that will shape the landscape going forward for those wanting to be involved in Jewish life and who, for whatever reason, opt not to participate in the circumcision tradition.
October 7, 2021 — It’s the new Jewish year 5782, and a new nonprofit, Bruchim, is seeking to disrupt thousands of years of status-quo. The organization is encouraging Jewish groups of all kinds to openly welcome and include those who feel differently about the ancient rite of circumcision.
“There is a growing number of engaged Jewish people who aren’t circumcising,” says Max Buckler, Bruchim’s Communications Director. “Many of these families are involved in Jewish life but aren’t sure how their community will react. Will their child receive a warm, spiritually fulfilling welcome?”
