New York - Jewish Leaders Have New Concern Over Metzitza B'Peh

New York - Eliot Spitzer’s transition team has yet to decide a single appointee. But speculation that the Democratic governor-elect may tap New York City health commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden for the state’s top medical post has some Orthodox activists worried.

Crain’s New York Business reported that Frieden’s efforts seem to have caught the eye of the reform-minded Spitzer.
Placing Frieden at the helm of the state health department would likely signal an end to the state’s relatively passive approach to the metzitza b’peh controversy. Earlier this year the state’s current health commissioner, Dr. Antonia Novella, met with Orthodox leaders and announced a set of guidelines that practitioners of metzitza b’peh should use to avoid the transmission of herpes to infants. Those nonbinding guidelines were rejected by Frieden.

“It would alienate a very large faction of our community,” said Rabbi Jacob Spitzer, a Borough Park activist on health-related issues who has met with Frieden to discuss the city’s investigation of neonatal herpes, “I would strongly advise the Spitzer administration to look for another candidate.”