Jacob Snowman (24 November 1871 – 28 February 1959)

M.D. A Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated MD, from the Latin ) is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the ''MD'' denotes a professional degree of physician. This ge ...

, M.R.C.S. was a British doctor and

mohel A ( , Ashkenazi Hebrew, Ashkenazi pronunciation , plural: , , "circumciser") is a Jewish man trained in the practice of , the "covenant of male circumcision". A woman who is trained in the practice is referred to as a ''mohelet'' (plural: ''mo ...

, notable for having reportedly

circumcise Circumcision is a procedure that removes the foreskin from the human penis. In the most common form of the operation, the foreskin is extended with forceps, then a circumcision device may be placed, after which the foreskin is excised. T ...

d King Charles (now

Charles III Charles III (Charles Philip Arthur George; born 14 November 1948) is King of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms. Charles was born at Buckingham Palace during the reign of his maternal grandfather, King George VI, and ...

) in December 1948, and possibly other members of the

British nobility The British nobility is made up of the peerage and the gentry of the British Isles. Though the UK is today a constitutional monarchy with strong democratic elements, historically the British Isles were more predisposed towards aristocratic gove ...

and

Royal Family A royal family is the immediate family of monarchs and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term papal family describes the family of a pope, while th ...

. Snowman was the son of Abraham Snowman (1849–1918), a picture dealer. He was the older brother to both painter

Isaac Snowman Isaac Snowman (1873 – 11 February 1947) was an Anglo-Jewish artist who made Jewish cultural themes his subject. Early life He was educated at the City of London School. In 1890 he entered the Royal Academy School, where he gained a free medal, ...

(1873–1947) and jeweller

Emanuel Snowman Emanuel Snowman OBE MVO (25 January 1886 – 27 February 1970) was a British jeweller, local politician and Jewish community leader. He oversaw the opening of the London branch of the Llandudno jewellers Wartski, having married the daughter ...

(1886–1970), who married into the prominent

Wartski Wartski is a British family firm of antique dealers specialising in Russian works of art; particularly those by Carl Fabergé, fine jewellery and silver. Founded in North Wales in 1865, the business is located at 60 St James's Street, London, S ...

family of jewellers and became the company chairman. Wartski has enjoyed generations of Royal patronage, supplying the

Welsh gold Welsh gold is gold found in natural geological deposits in two distinct areas of Wales in the United Kingdom. It has been prized for its origin and scarcity, particularly by members of the British royal family. It is not a unique material subst ...

wedding bands for Charles and the former

Camilla Parker-Bowles Camilla (born Camilla Rosemary Shand, later Parker Bowles, 17 July 1947) is List of British royal consorts, Queen of the United Kingdom and the 14 other Commonwealth realms as the wife of King Charles III. Camilla was raised in East ...

, as well as the bands worn by

Prince William William, Prince of Wales (William Arthur Philip Louis; born 21 June 1982), is the heir apparent to the British throne. He is the elder son of King Charles III and Diana, Princess of Wales. William was born during the reign of his p ...

and the former

Kate Middleton Catherine, Princess of Wales (born Catherine Elizabeth Middleton; 9 January 1982), is a member of the British royal family. She is married to William, Prince of Wales, heir apparent to the British throne. Born in Reading, Catherine grew u ...

. 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 Buckingham Palace () is a royal official residence, residence in London, and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and r ...

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 in 2013, that a Royal Family "circumcision tradition" extends back to

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in January 1901. Her reign of 63 year ...

's era, or even to

George I George I or 1 may refer to: People * Patriarch George I of Alexandria (fl. 621–631) * George I of Constantinople (d. 686) * George of Beltan (d. 790) * George I of Abkhazia (ruled 872/3–878/9) * George I of Georgia (d. 1027) * Yuri Dolgoruk ...

in the early 18th century, grounded in secretive

Davidic The Davidic line refers to the descendants of David, who established the House of David ( ) in the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah. In Judaism, the lineage is based on texts from the Hebrew Bible, as well as on later Jewish tradit ...

or British Israelist religious tradition. Snowman wrote specialist articles and at least four books, including ''Jewish Law and Sanitary Science'' (1896

''Clinical Surgical Diagnosis'' (Second English Edition, 1917

''Lenzmann's Manual of Emergencies, Medical, Surgical and Obstetric: their Pathology, Diagnosis and Treatment'' (1919, based upon ''Emergencies in Medical Practice'' by

a revised ''Manual of Emergencies, Medical, Surgical, and Obstetric'' (1926

''A Short History of Talmudic Medicine'' (with thirteen editions between 1935 and 1974

and ''The Surgery of Ritual Circumcision'' (1904). The latter book was published in at least three distinct editions, the last appearing posthumously in 1962 under the co-authorship of his son Leonard Snowman (1900–1976).

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Snowman, Jacob 20th-century British medical doctors Circumcision English people of Polish-Jewish descent Jewish English writers Mohalim 1871 births 1959 deaths

Jacob Jacob, later known as Israel, is a Hebrew patriarch of the Abrahamic religions. He first appears in the Torah, where he is described in the Book of Genesis as a son of Isaac and Rebecca. Accordingly, alongside his older fraternal twin brother E ...