Sep 11, 2008
Get him to the brit on time.
Cantor Philip Sherman takes off by cab
to perform another circumcision.
Mohel on the move
Cantor Philip Sherman is a busy man.
Having performed his first brit mila of the day at the Ritz Carlton in New
York City, he is out the door, whistling for a cab and apologizing for the
rush. He has three more circumcisions today, the last of which is scheduled
for the late afternoon, dangerously close to Shabbat.
Perhaps it's not surprising that New York's leading mohel, who performed
the circumcisions for the sons of actress Rachel Weisz, PR pro Lizzie Grubman,
actor Richard Kind and sportscaster Iain Eagle, has a record of nine such
ceremonies a day. What is surprising is that a growing number of Sherman's
clients are not Jewish.
With more than 18,000 operations under his belt, Sherman calls his services
to non-Jewish clients "holistic circumcision," and feels it's
all very natural. "Holistic circumcision reflects an ancient technique
in modern context," he says. "The technique is holistic by nature.
It's the most efficient, quickest and gentlest way [to circumcise], a combination
of technical skill and spirituality, and whether it's Jewish, interfaith
or non-Jewish, that context exists."
When their son Louis Michael was born, Rev. Louis DeCaro, an evangelical
pastor, and his wife, Michele Sweeting, an educator and gospel recording
artist, didn't know much about mohalim. "We had assumed that a circumcision
would be performed routinely but discovered after the fact that he would
not be circumcised unless we scheduled what amounted to a separate in-patient
hospital procedure - a surgery," says DeCaro.
The couple searched for an alternative and their pediatrician suggested
a mohel and recommended Sherman, who performed the circumcision at their
home. DeCaro and Sweeting say they were touched by a moment which they
wouldn't have witnessed if Louis Michael had been circumcised in the hospital
like thousands of other baby boys every year.
"Although it was not a religious matter for us, it was very special
- something more than a procedure or surgery," says DeCaro. "In
fact, it really struck me that Cantor Sherman said, 'I don't do circumcisions.'
In other words, it was no mere cutting of the flesh for him; it was of
religious significance, something very reverent and he was sharing that
with us, with our son, even though we are not Jewish."
For Sherman, an associate cantor at the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue
on the Upper West Side, this is part of his general mission to make circumcision
as easy as possible on the baby and his parents. Born in Syracuse, Sherman
was studying to be a cantor. "My grandfather was a mohel. I didn't
know if I would make a good hazan, so I learned to be a mohel," he
says. In 1977 he spent a year training with Rabbi Yosef Halperin, chief
mohel of Jerusalem.
Even during his initial training, he witnessed a non-Jewish circumcision,
when his mentor was asked to perform the ceremony for the son of the Italian
ambassador. "The British royal family always used a mohel," says
Sherman, whose clientele is composed of 30-40% non-Jews and interfaith
couples.
Gentile families' choice to hire his services doesn't seem odd to Sherman.
He describes the hospital circumcision as a situation in which "the
baby is strapped down to a cold, molded plastic bodyboard, placed on a
table and the procedure can take up to a half an hour or longer, depending
on the ability of the individual doing the circumcision... It is very clinical
and very difficult for the baby. The technique that I, and other traditional
mohels, use is very different. The baby is not strapped down. Instead he
is placed on a double pillow, on the lap of the sandak, held by warm, loving
hands. With this technique, the brit takes 40 seconds or less."
A growing number of non-Jewish families agree. Sherman's records show
that the number of holistic circumcisions he has performed doubled from
14 in 2006 to 28 in 2007, and he expects the numbers to double again this
year. He doesn't include interfaith families in these statistics. "If
the mother is Jewish, the baby has a regular brit," he explains. "If
the mother is not Jewish, the ceremony I perform is the first step in becoming
Jewish, and I make sure the family knows that."
At the same time, more and more Jewish couples opt for the hospital or
doctor/mohel option. They do so, according to Sherman, because "they
are not observant and because some doctors give receipts that can be submitted
to the insurance companies."
While he takes his job very seriously - "I don't tell jokes and
I don't hand out refrigerator magnets" - one can't ignore Sherman's
humor, which helps put nervous new parents at ease. Having explained the
procedure to everyone present at the Ritz Carlton and playfully introducing
himself to the great grandmother, Sherman calls to the newborn's mother:
"Allison, I need a baby." The crowd laughs and the tension is
lifted.
Seeing him in action makes sense of his business card, which notes he's
a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Sherman played the rabbi in a dot.com
commercial with Whoopi Goldberg. No audition was required. The people connected
with the commercial knew him from various circumcisions he had performed.
article by HILA PERL
