Kenneth S. Lipman (son of an Orthodox rabbi), who has a Ph.D. in holistic health, has written and published a book providing a unique contribution to what in recent years has grown to become a virtual onslaught of books on male circumcision. Fair disclosure: Although I have never met Lipman face to face, he and I started corresponding a number of years back as he was writing this book and I am among those acknowledged in the book.

Circumcision: How an Ancient Ritual Became a Questionable Surgery is relatively short, which in my view is actually one of the book’s virtues. The work’s succinctness is especially notable when one realizes that it is extensively documented with no fewer than 869 references in a book whose conclusion ends on page 113, meaning that the notes take up almost half as many pages as the text proper. The author provides us with innumerable resources and references with which I was not previously familiar (and with which I suspect virtually no reader will be familiar). In my view, the book could have benefited from some judicious editing out of some of the more peripheral-seeming data points in the long chapters on religion and on medicine, as well as an expansion of the chapters addressing 1) circumcision’s ethical and legal status and 2) treating the stance of the US medical community.

On the other hand, infinitely more importantly, this book provides many valuable resources drawn from a variety of fields, and I am grateful that this author brought his unique perspective to this topic. Lipman, whose parents are Holocaust survivors and who still proudly identifies as a Jew, has serious concerns with circumcision and has written a truly excellent book outlining them. Jewish authors (Ronald Goldman and Leonard Glick among others) have previously addressed the topic at book length, although I am not sure that a writer still identifying with the faith has done so. This adds deep, possibly unprecedented background to Lipman’s analysis of religious doctrine that has of course been alleged to bear on, justify and even mandate the procedure. The book brings together in a short, accessible book evidence about the procedure’s lack of a sound scientific basis, its many risks, the great harm thereby caused to sex for both the cut man and his partner, and its lack of justification by Jewish and Islamic religious doctrine.

I recommend any interested person (presumably everyone reading this review!) buy Lipman’s book in your preferred format. If you do, you will find that your time and very modest expenditure will be amply rewarded.