Jonathan Friedman: We have to create our own media!

Jonathan Friedman was raised according to Orthodox Judaism, and is now an ardent intactivist. He describes his awakening to the damage caused by circum­cision, how his frustration with that fact has been received by his mother, and the ways in which he has channeled his energies into productive work toward convincing others to relinquish this tradition of forcibly cutting up the genitals of completely healthy individuals.

Brian Levitt: My body was used in some Jewish ritual

Brian Levitt is a Jewish intactivist living in San Francisco. He describes his own story of the stages of awakening consciousness.

[19] The Cut Podcast: The Psychological Consequences of Circumcision

Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon conversed with Dr. Ronald Goldman, a psychologist and published Intactivist, about the psychological consequences surrounding the practice of circumcision. Here is the recording.

Transcript
(slightly modified)

Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon

From the White Letter Productions studios in Los Angeles, California, I'm [Eliyahu] Ungar-Sargon, and this is The Cut Podcast.

Welcome to another special edition of The Cut Podcast; I'm very happy to be sitting here with Ronald Goldman, and we're going to be having a conversation today about some of the psychological aspects of infant male circumcision.

This is a field [into which] I've been a little wary to wade; I think when I talk to people who don't necessarily agree with my position on this subject, I find it much easier to talk about things like Meissner's corpuscles—the hard scientific stuff [to which] I can just sort of point, [and for which] we have hard data; my impressions—and I would love to get your reaction and your opinion about this—is that when it comes to the psychological data, just by virtue of where we are in our understanding of the human brain and the human mind, it's a little trickier to get hard data on these questions. Is that right? or is this a misperception [that I have]?

Ronald Goldman

Well, I agree with you; part of the problem is there's a resistance to doing these kinds of [study]. Most of the researchers who do the studies on circumcision are looking for benefits, not potential harm. They happen to be medical doctors for the most part, so they're starting with what they're familiar with, which is the physical body. Studying behavior is a lot more complicated. You can't so much put it in a box and put it under a microscope [to examine] it that way. So, human behavior requires a different kind of research, and we haven't had the will to do that for the most part.

[05] The Cut Tour: Austin, Texas Q&A with Janet Heimlich

On Wednesday, 7 September 2011, this recording was made of the Q&A after the Austin, Texas screening of the film Cut by Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon. Eliyahu was joined by Janet Heimlich, author of:

Breaking Their Will: Shedding Light on Religious Child Maltreatment

Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon: Culture is Changing

Independent filmmaker Eliyahu Ungar-Sargon discusses the experiences that informed his film:

Cut: Slicing Through the Myths of Circumcision

Leonard B. Glick: Cultures Change

Jewish American scholar, Leonard Glick, speaks of his life, his academic career, his research on the history of circumcision, and his views on intactivism.

Miriam Pollack: Jewish Mother on Circumcision and Jewish Identity

Miriam Pollack, a Jewish mother and feminist and longtime intactivist, encourages fellow members of the Jewish community to give serious consideration to the issue of circumcision and to welcoming their boys into the world with love instead of pain.