Day 624

ביל טאמפסאן (Bill Thompson)

September 14th, 2013



In his failed bid for the Democratic mayoral nomination, Mr. Thompson pushed hard to win the votes of the city's Orthodox Jews. The text of the second bullet point on these posters, from what I can cobble together (here's a closer look), trumpets his opposition (which in reality was just a vague call for compromise) to the "billionaire Bloomberg" administration's recent decision to require parental consent before the performance of metzitzah b’peh, an ancient but potentially risky circumcision practice in which the mohel uses his mouth to suck blood from the infant's wound. It might seem strange that such an issue would get second billing on a campaign ad, but the new regulation infuriated the city's ultra-Orthodox communities (the target audience of these Yiddish-language posters in heavily Jewish Borough Park), forcing all the Democratic mayoral candidates to publicly state their position on the matter.


3 Comments

  1. Ben says:

    You certainly got the gist of that part of the poster. Here’s my translation of the whole thing:

    Bill Thompson

    Supported by leaders of the Jewish community throughout his campaign, and not just when he was polling well…

    Almost defeated the billionaire Bloomberg, and will, with God’s help, annul all Bloomberg’s oppressive laws, and most importantly the decree against the mitzvah of circumcision as Jewish law requires.

    Is a true philo-Semite, a just man with whom leaders of the Jewish community have had a relationship for
    dozens of years.

    The candidate New York needs

    The candidate the Jewish community needs

  2. GordonSatteson says:

    This specific circumcision ritual (uses his mouth to suck the blood from the infant’s wound) comes from the same culture whose scripture is interpreted to be so anti- homosexuality? And we gays are the perverts? Wow. Religion freaks me out more all the time! Thanks for the enlightenment and I guess I’m glad I was circumcised but a Dr.

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