Chaptzem Blog!      

Her full-time gig is as an OB-GYN who practices at University Hospitals Suburban Health Center in South Euclid. But when duty calls, Dr. Karen Jaffe becomes a mohelet, or a female mohel, a central figure in one of the most revered traditions in the Jewish religion.

The brit milah -- or bris, as it is more commonly known -- is the ritual circumcision of a newborn Jewish boy, usually performed on the eighth day of life. The procedure, the surgical removal of the foreskin of the penis, is an outward sign of the covenant between God and Jewish people.

Jaffe is the only female mohel (rhymes with "oil") in Ohio and one of only a few dozen mohelets in the United States. Traditionally, mohelim were Orthodox men who received special training to perform circumcisions. Often that training was handed down from father to son.

The need for more mohelim became apparent as the number of American Jews belonging to the religion's Reform and Conservative movements grew. Two problems existed:

One was a religious issue. If the father is Jewish but the mother is not, for example — or if the mother is a convert but is not recognized as such by Orthodox Jews — many Orthodox rabbis or cantors choose not to perform the bris.

The other was the scarcity of people qualified to do a bris.

http://www.cleveland.com/healthfit/index.ssf/2009/09/cleveland_obgyn_dr_karen_jaffe.html