Immigrants Fulfill a ‘Covenant’ With God : Jewish tradition: A local rabbi has undertaken an effort to get Soviet newcomers circumcised. A Catholic hospital is helping out.

The boys were frightened.

Arriving at the hospital in a van about 7 a.m., they fidgeted in various examining rooms with their parents while the medical staff and rabbis prepared a nearby operating room for the morning’s circumcisions.

Finally a nurse summoned the first patient, a sturdy lad of 2 1/2 named Simon Elbaum. “This is what it means to be a Jew,” explained his father, Boris. “It will be physical proof that he is Jewish.”

Thus Simon completed a religious obligation. A recent immigrant with his family from the Soviet Union, the youngster had never had the foreskin of his penis removed--a procedure customarily performed on all Jewish boys eight days after birth as a mark of the Jewish people’s special “covenant” with their God.

In the Soviet Union, such rituals were until very recently against the law. As a result, tens of thousands of Soviet Jews remain uncircumcised and, in the eyes of their religion, unfulfilled. “If you are not circumcised there is constant conflict between your body and your soul,” said Rabbi Naftoli Estulin, director of the Los Angeles-based Chabad Russian Immigrant Program and a Soviet immigrant himself. “The soul is Jewish, but the body is not.”

As part of his ongoing effort to change all that, Estulin on Tuesday brought five Soviet Jewish children, ages 2 to 12, to St. Mary Medical Center in Long Beach. By next Wednesday he hopes that 23 children will have submitted to the knife wielded by a specially trained rabbi--called a mohel --followed by blessings over wine in the presence of family and friends.

“There was a religious and social need in the community,” said Dr. David Tillman, associate administrator of the hospital, which has donated the use of its operating room as well as the services of a staff urologist to act as an observer and an anesthesiologist to put the children to sleep. “As a Catholic hospital, we understand the importance of sacred ceremonies.”

Estulin, who has made it his personal mission to see to the circumcision of every Soviet Jewish immigrant in Los Angeles who wishes to undergo the procedure, says he has already overseen about 3,000 of the operations since 1974. But the real push, he says, started just last spring when the liberalization of Soviet emigration policies caused a dramatic increase in the number of Soviet Jews arriving in Southern California. Since June, Estulin says, he has overseen about 300 circumcisions--an average of more than 10 a week--on patients ranging in age from 3 to 57.

Most of the adults, Estulin says, undergo the procedure at regular Sunday clinics held in a Los Angeles urologist’s office, where they are given a local anesthetic and afterward stitched up.

But children, unlike babies who can be easily controlled and adults who can deal maturely with what they are experiencing, need to be given a general anesthetic, according to the rabbis. “They get nervous,” said Rabbi Gershon Schusterman, Estulin’s associate. “When they’re sedated and sleeping, it simplifies the procedure immensely.”

So the children are taken to hospitals where the circumcision ceremony--called a bris --is performed in an operating room with a proper medical staff in attendance.

“It is unbelievable,” Estulin said. “On one side they are scared, but (the parents) are so happy after you tell them it was done.”

That seemed to be the mood on Tuesday as the young patients awaited their turn.

“We want to be real Jewish people,” said Tamara Linchevsky, 31, whose 6-year-old son, Boris, was next in line for the operation. “It’s a good feeling.”

Linchevsky’s husband David, 32, said he also needs circumcising but would wait to see how his son fared before submitting himself to the procedure.

And Boris Elbaum, 29, said he had been circumcised just three months before and had now brought his son, Simon, in for the ritual. “It was a logical step in my life,” Elbaum said of his own circumcision. “This is one of the steps towards personal harmony; I’ve fulfilled my obligation. It’s a moving of the soul.”

Jews believe that the first circumcision was performed about 3,800 years ago by Abraham, who, at age 99, became his own first patient. Since then, they say, the rite, which Jews believe was commanded by God, has survived from generation to generation as one of the major distinguishing marks of Jewish identity.

Other groups practice circumcision, too. Most Muslim men are circumcised for reasons having to do with religion and culture. And in America, doctors say, about 85% of newborn infant boys are routinely circumcised for preventive medical reasons.

While the practice came under fire in the mid-1970s by people who considered it unnecessary, said Dr. Stuart Chalfin, the staff urologist who observed Tuesday’s procedures, recent studies showing that circumcised men are less likely to suffer from urinary infections and penile cancer have begun to swing the pendulum among medical practitioners back toward acceptance of the procedure.

“Now most urologists and pediatricians have come around to feeling that it is recommended,” Chalfin said. “I think it’s a good idea. A properly performed circumcision is safe and seems to be beneficial.”

Things went well on Tuesday, with the operations done by midafternoon. While the boys may experience some discomfort for up to two days, Chalfin said, they should have no difficulties after that and should be fully healed in about four weeks.

Following each operation, the two rabbis--Estulin and Schusterman--along with Rabbi Jacob Schechet, who served as the mohel , met with the patient and his family in the hospital’s recovery room. There they recited blessings over wine, offered their congratulations and bestowed Hebrew names on the still-groggy boys.

One observer added to the surreal quality of a scene featuring rabbis wearing prayer shawls and skullcaps over green hospital-issued surgeons’ gowns. She was Sister Anne Hynes, a hospital chaplain and nun, who said she had come to her first bris to show her support for the project.

“We’re all together on this,” Hynes said. “Reaching out to other groups is part of the hospital’s mission. These are our roots; the Jewish tradition. It gives meaning to Bible reading and Scripture studies and helps us be more effective in our ministries.”

Among the adult Jews, though, the dominant mood after the circumcisions seemed to be celebratory. “ Mazel tov , mazel tov ,” the rabbis said to the Linchevskys, enthusiastically intoning the traditional Jewish congratulation.

The parents beamed while their son bawled.