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Mohel in Pittsburgh, PA — A Bris at Home

Pittsburgh's Jewish community is around 49,000 people, and an unusual share of it lives within walking distance of itself.

The community we come to

Squirrel Hill holds roughly a quarter of the city's Jewish households — about 15,000 people — and has been the geographic and institutional centre of Jewish Pittsburgh for generations. It is one of the few American neighbourhoods where the synagogues, the schools, the shops and the families are all genuinely in the same place, and where a bris can fill a living room with people who walked there.

We also come to Greenfield, Point Breeze, Fox Chapel, Mt. Lebanon and across Allegheny County, and further out into Butler, Washington and Westmoreland on request.

Rabbi Tzvi Fischer is a certified mohel, trained in New York, certified by the International Bris Milah Association, performing circumcisions since 2001 — the seventh generation of his family to do this work. He travels to you.

THE EIGHTH DAY

Pittsburgh is a planned trip, and the date will not move

This is the page on this site where calling early matters most, and it is worth being blunt about why. Pittsburgh is an out-of-state journey for us, several hours each way, which we plan rather than fit around a day. A brit milah is on the eighth day — not the eighth-ish day, and not the first convenient weekend.

Those two facts only sit together if you call before the birth. With a due date we can plan the trip around your date. With a three-day-old baby, sometimes we cannot, and we would rather you heard that from this page than from us on the phone.

Travel to Pittsburgh is a genuine line item rather than a token one, and it is on your quote before you commit to anything.

If your son is not well on the eighth day, the bris waits — jaundice, prematurity, low weight or illness all postpone it. Jewish law puts his health first, explicitly, and a postponed bris is correct practice rather than a compromise.

Pittsburgh bris questions

Do you really travel to Pittsburgh for a bris?

Yes, regularly. It is a planned trip rather than a short-notice one, which is why we ask Pittsburgh families to call with a due date rather than a birth date wherever possible.

What does travel to Pittsburgh add to the cost?

It depends where in the region you are, and you will have the full figure — fee plus travel — before you commit. As an out-of-state trip it is a real line item here, not a nominal one.

Can the bris be held at a hall in Squirrel Hill rather than at home?

Yes. Plenty of Pittsburgh families gather somewhere with more room. Give us the address and we bring the setup there.

It is a real circumcision, properly done

A local anesthetic, sterile professional-grade instruments, and screening beforehand — prematurity, feeding, weight, jaundice, bleeding history, vitamin K. There are findings, hypospadias among them, that mean we decline and tell you why. What the visit involves · the ceremony in full · mohel vs. doctor.

If you want no religious element at all, that is also the visit — families who are not Jewish choose a mohel for the specialism rather than the tradition.

What it costs

A $980 professional fee, plus travel expenses, quoted upfront. No separate ceremony charge. Pittsburgh travel reflects an out-of-state trip and is quoted before you decide.

Planning a bris in Pittsburgh?

A consultation is free and commits you to nothing. If you have a due date rather than a baby, this is the call worth making now.