Circumcision
Circumcision is very important to most branches of Judaism, with over 90% of male adherents having the procedure performed as a religious obligation. The basis for its observance is found in the Torah of the Hebrew Bible, in Genesis chapter 17, in which a covenant of circumcision is made with Abraham and his descendants. Jewish circumcision is part of the "brit milah" ritual, to be performed by a specialist ritual circumciser, a "mohel", on the eighth day of a newborn son's life, with certain exceptions for poor health. Jewish law requires that the circumcision leaves the glans bare when the penis is flaccid. Converts to Conservative and Orthodox Judaism must also be circumcised; those who are already circumcised undergo a symbolic circumcision ritual. Circumcision is not required by Judaism for one to be considered Jewish, but some adherents foresee serious negative spiritual consequences if it is neglected.
Jacob Snowman
John Cozijn and Robert Darby, who is an historian of the British circumcision movement, have suggested that the British Royal Family invited Rabbi Snowman ("rabbi" is an honorific commonly afforded to mohels) to circumcise the infant Prince Charles at Buckingham Palace most likely because of his extensive experience with circumcision, and perhaps because non-Jewish family physicians were deemed less familiar or adept with the procedure (which was widely performed on British middle- and upper-class male infants from the 1890s through the 1940s). Darby and Cozijn have cast doubt on claims, arising in the 1990s and widely reported after the birth of Prince George of Cambridge in 2013, that a Royal Family "circumcision tradition" extends back to Queen Victoria's era, or even to George I in the early 18th century, grounded in secretive Davidic or British Israelist religious tradition. It is unknown whether this putative "circumcision tradition" was continued with the birth of William in 1982, as Diana, Princess of Wales is believed to have disapproved of it.