And You Thought Brain Surgery Was Tricky

“We all find our niche,” says Dr. Fred Kogen, conceding that his is among the narrowest in this age of medical specialization.

Kogen, 41, is a professional mohel, a Sherman Oaks-based doctor whose popularity among Southern California Jews convinced him to leave his life as a general practitioner eight years ago to become a full-time practitioner of the ancient art of ritual circumcision.

Employing a cell phone, computer, fax-back service and Web site (https://www.ebris.com), as well as a “bris kit” filled with Hebrew scriptures, yarmulkes and sterile surgical instruments, Kogen has performed about 4,000 circumcision ceremonies in the past 15 years as part doctor, part religious officiant and part Borscht Belt comedian appearing up to eight times weekly.

Kogen’s career began in the mid-1980s during his residency at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. Although raised as a Jew and already trained in the technical aspects of the procedure (self-assessment of his first inexpert hospital circumcision: “I hope I never meet that young man”), he took a special course to learn more about the religious significance of the bris. When he finished, he decided to offer his services to the local Jewish community. Truth be told, he says, it also was a sure-fire way to meet Jewish women.

“There’s a great pickup line: I’m a mohel.”

Kogen says he was so terrified during his first bris that he had to brace his arm to keep his hands from shaking, and then calmed himself afterward with a double shot of vodka. But the pressure didn’t stop there. Try circumcising an 8-day-old infant in front of leather-clad bikers in a Mojave Desert trailer, as Kogen did a few years back, or worse, he says, in a room filled with opinionated doctors, lawyers and rabbis.

“I’m not just trimming toenails here,” he says. “Most doctors get to close the door. I don’t have that option. There’s no re-editing or post-production.”

Still, the job has its perks. Kogen has circumcised the sons of celebrities (he’ll drop the names of Jason Alexander, Michelle Pfeiffer and others without much prompting). Annie Leibovitz took his picture during her nephew’s bris. And last December, he flew to Beijing to perform what he claims was the first bris in the city’s history.

“It’s a great honor when a family uses me,” he says. “I’m proud of my Jewish heritage and cultural roots, and I get to facilitate a very powerful moment in this family’s life.”

He also gets between $650 and $950 for a ceremony that usually lasts about 20 minutes, a sliding scale based on travel distance, “more if I do twins.”

He did just that last year, and has posted the thank-you note from parents Steve and Mona Ross of Kern County on his Web site. “While you joked about not guaranteeing identical circumcisions for our twin sons, your surgical procedures were perfect and left Samuel and Michael in little discomfort,” the Rosses wrote. “And, as near as we can tell, they are still identical.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Bris Etiquette

Among the most intriguing set-up instructions for a bris ceremony as listed on mohel Fred Kogen’s Web site:

* “Have a parking space for the mohel. (I keep emergency supplies in the car.)”

* “No snapped one-piece suits.”

* “Make sure that there is good lighting.”

* “Please remember to raise the chandelier [above the ceremonial table] if it is suspended low!”

* “Babies definitely respond better to traditional Manischewitz red wine [as a mild sedative], but there are new kosher white wines available, too . . . better for light carpets!”

* “A large selection of kosher wine may be found at Wally’s on Westwood Boulevard. Mention my name to the manager, Judy Latkin. I performed her grandson’s bris!”