'CBS Evening News' Anchor Tony Dokoupil Went Public With His Adult Circumcision Story

As the editor-in-chief of CBS News, Bari Weiss has a lot to do. She was hired in October 2025 when Paramount acquired her media company, The Free Press. Since that time, CBS Evening News anchors John Dickerson and Maurice DuBois both exited the long-running news show. It's been a staple of CBS for 60 years, which means Bari had to make a pretty big decision regarding who would be behind the desk.

In December 2025, CBS announced that Emmy Award-winning journalist Tony Dokoupil would be making the move from CBS Mornings to CBS Evening News. It sounds like he's going to get a bit more sleep out of the new schedule. Bari describes Tony as an "old-school journalist" who isn't afraid to ask the hard questions. Speaking of hard issues, Tony once wrote about his decision to get a second circumcision, if you will, as an adult. Let's get into it, but not literally.

In April 2014, Tony wrote about his decision to get a second circumcision, which came about after he got engaged to a "nice Jewish girl." We don't know much about Tony's first marriage. As of October 2023, his ex-wife lives in Israel with their two children, per The Hill. In his piece for The New Republic, Tony said he was taking conversion classes at a Jewish synagogue in Manhattan when one of the rabbis gave him the phone number for a mohel.

A mohel is a Jewish man who has been trained in performing circumcisions. Or as Tony wrote, this is a "professional snipper." Although Tony was circumcised as a baby, he knew he needed a hatafat dam brit, which translates to a drawing of blood. If he remained uncut, Tony was told he would be "spiritually cut off from the Jewish people."

Tony explained that Reform congregations have played things fast and loose with the idea of circumcision, but that was slowly changing. Over time, more and more Jews were returning to the ancient traditions that marked them as a people. "That’s how I found myself Biblically nude in a kind of spiritual locker room, a shower space in a converted brownstone, waiting on a man with a razor," said Tony.

Tony said the experience wasn't so bad. "There’s no need for any of us to go on treating our junk like our father-in-law’s scratch-free Ferrari," he joked. "It’s much tougher than you think." Evidently, the mohel who performed Tony's second circumcision looked a bit like Danny Devito, but with more curls.

There was a moment of silence, broken by Tony opening his towel so the mohel could take a look. He then proceeded to brandish a pen-sized lance. The mohel "sliced, sliced, squeezed, dripped, and was done," said Tony, who barely registered what had happened. He came away feeling like something profound had just occurred. Tony also came to the realization that at the end of he day, "It's only a penis."