He said it was the first time a religious court in Israel has punished a parent for refusing to circumcise a child. A year ago, a civil court also ruled in favor of circumcision in a parental dispute.
There is no law requiring circumcision in Israel, but the vast majority of Jewish boys undergo the procedure at the age of eight days in line with Jewish law, which sees the ritual as upholding a covenant with God.
The mother, whose named was not released in court documents, has argued that the rabbinical court does not have authority over the matter. The Justice Ministry, which is representing the mother, said Thursday it likely would appeal the case to Israel's Supreme Court.
There are no precise statistics on circumcisions in Israel. While most families perform the procedure either out of religious belief or to preserve an ancient tradition, tens of thousands of children are not circumcised, activists say.
Ronit Tamir, an anti-circumcision activist, called the rabbinic court's ruling "dangerous for democracy."
"It turns the government into a theocracy," she added.
Although most Israelis are secular, Israel's founding fathers gave Judaism a formal place in the nation's affairs. This has led to persistent tensions in Israeli society.
Jewish law defines a Jew as one who is born to a Jewish mother or who undergoes a demanding conversion process overseen by rabbinic authorities. People who do not meet these requirements, such as someone with only a Jewish father, can face difficulties with the religious authorities.
Civil marriage, for instance, is all but banned, forcing thousands of couples who either do not want a religious ceremony or don't qualify for one to travel abroad each year to marry. Likewise, soldiers who die in battle but are not Jewish under religious law are buried in separate cemeteries.
More liberal streams of Judaism popular in the U.S., such as the Reform and Conservative movements, have struggled for recognition in Israel and have little authority. At the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest prayer site, liberal female worshippers have clashed with Orthodox activists who opposed their attempts to perform rituals traditionally reserved for males.
Uri Regev, a Reform rabbi who leads Hiddush, a movement that promotes religious pluralism in Israel, said the circumcision dispute had no place in the rabbinical court. He said a circumcision should only take place with the consent of both parents.
He said attaching "legal sanctions" to an ancient religious commandment "will undermine popular respect for circumcisions."
The ritual of circumcision has generated controversy in Europe. Last year, a German regional court said the procedure amounted to bodily harm, though it stopped short of banning it. Germany subsequently passed a law explicitly permitting male infant circumcision.
More recently, a European advisory council passed a nonbinding resolution calling circumcision "a violation of the physical integrity of children." Israel condemned the move, saying that circumcision is a tradition in both Judaism and Islam.
