Anti-Semitic Cartoon Depicting 'Monster Mohel' Published by Proponents of Circumcision Ban
The circumcision debate is heating up, and it's getting ugly.
Recently, we reported about a proposed ban on the practice of cutting a baby boy's foreskin, that was making the rounds for signatures in Santa Monica. A bill with the same language will be put before voters in San Francisco this November.
The issue has already attracted a great deal of controversy, but now, to add fuel to the fire, a cartoon called "Foreskin Man" has hit the internet -- originally reported by the San Francisco Chronicle -- and it's increasing concerns about the religious undertones of the ban.
Created by Matthew Hess, the president of MGMbill.org, the group that's leading the charge on the circumcision bans, the illustrated cover of Issue 2 depicts Foreskin Man -- young, blond and buff -- as he prepares to do battle with a character called Monster Mohel (a Mohel is a person in Judaism that performs a bris, or circumcision).
The entire scene inexplicably takes place in a billiards hall, with the Mohel standing in front of a baby who is lying on a pool table. A woman who appears to be his mother stands by, looking distraught.
The cartoon just made the news this week, but it's been in existence for at least a year; this article about Foreskin Man at Comics Alliance is from 2010.
For more information about the characters in Foreskin Man -- and by the way, there are more Jewish bad guys in there -- head over to the cartoon's website. Also of note is the resemblance that Foreskin Man's alter ego's name, Miles Hastwick, bears to the name of its creator.
