Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

Vandals in Belgium damage Holocaust memorial

Vandals damage a Holocaust memorial in the Belgian city of Ghent on the eve of a Kristallnacht commemoration.

The so-called Michaël Lustig monument, in the shape of a dreidel, is located at the confluence of a major canal.
The so-called Michaël Lustig monument, in the shape of a dreidel, is located at the confluence of a major canal.

Vandals damaged a Holocaust memorial in the Belgian city of Ghent, some 50 kilometers west of Brussels, on the eve of a Kristallnacht (“Night of the Broken Glass”) commemoration.

The so-called Michaël Lustig monument, in the shape of a dreidel, is located at the confluence of a major canal. It was ripped off its foundation and left on its side.

AIPAC, Friedman
U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman addresses the 2018 AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington, D.C. Source: Screenshot.

The monument, consisting of a marble floor with a copper toll, was installed in 1998. The artwork bears the names of the Jews in Ghent who were deported to Nazi camps during World War II.

The Jewish community of Ghent was founded at the end of the 19th century and grew between the two world wars.

Today, only a small number of Jews live in the city.

“I’m scared of what’s going to happen now,” Miri Bar-Halpern, a Jewish psychology lecturer at Harvard Medical School, told JNS. “I can already predict the backlash.”
Netanyahu remains 8 seats short of a Knesset majority as Eisenkot-led bloc secures 48 seats and Arab parties 19.
“The effect is to make the grief feel qualified, and the soldiers’ murders worth qualifying,” Vicki Kolomensky told JNS.
“They will push legislation very hard to end the Iran war, and it’s not inconceivable that they could get a fair amount of Republican support for that,” William Galston of Brookings told JNS.