The Quest for the Missing Piece

The Quest for the Missing Piece could also be titled "the unkindest cut of all." It’s a funny, disconcerting romp through the debate over circumcision. Using a gentle touch in a sensitive area, filmmaker Oded Lotan takes us on a bris tour: a Jewish baby, a Moslem seven-year-old, and an adult Russian-Israeli soldier. Circumcision may be a Biblical mitzvah, but many commandments are routinely ignored by most Jews. Why not this one? Lotan introduces us to his gay, goy lover (oy); to his mother, who endorses circumcision, but not gay love (oy yoy); and to a Tel Aviv anti-circumcision group dedicated to having "intact" Jewish children (oy yoy yoy!). Does secular circumcision survive because Jews are afraid their children will no longer "look like" them or because this sign carved in flesh is really what binds the tribe?