A London synagogue representative on the Board of Deputies of British Jews has been removed from her position after advocating a ban on circumcision

The New West End Synagogue, a modern-Orthodox synagogue in west London, rescinded Rebecca Steinfeld’s position as the Under-35 Observer on the Board of Deputies, after referring to circumcision as “male genital mutilation” in recent newspaper article. “If we oppose female genital mutilation, has the time not come for us also to oppose male-genital mutilation?” she asked in the article. A student at Oxford University, Steinfeld is a member of the anti-Israel group Jews for Justice for Palestinians. Her doctoral thesis looks at whether Israel had a fertility policy in order to fulfill its demographic need from the establishment of the state until today. In her research she says that “Israel has established and maintained an ethnically selective pro-nationalist policy that seeks to simultaneously encourage a higher Jewish birth-rate and a lower non-Jewish one – specifically Palestinian-Arab – with the aim of ensuring a Jewish majority through internal population growth.”