Dozens of European Jewish leaders on Wednesday condemned the May 14 raid by Belgian authorities on the home of several mohalim, or ritual circumcisers, urging the European Union to reprimand the country.
The Belgian police’s actions “represent a breach of an E.U. fundamental right, that of freedom of religion,” the 60 rabbis and Jewish community leaders, led by the Brussels-based European Jewish Association, wrote in a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
According to the missive, Jewish communities across Europe “remain horrified of what took place in Antwerp” two months ago, when police, “in echoes of one of the darkest chapters in European history” raided homes of mohalim, in search of a list of infants they had circumcised.
Brit milah is “much more than a key tenet of Judaism,” they added. “It is what defines the Jewish male, a religious commandment. It represents a core pillar of our faith and a practice carried out over millennia without incidents by meticulous and highly-trained mohalim.”
The European Jewish Association attached an open letter by 19 doctors from across Europe affirming that the benefits of circumcision “greatly outweigh the potential negatives, over the lifetime of a male.”
According to the missive signed by the 60 rabbis and Jewish leaders, “attempts to ban male circumcision in Belgium or criminalise it are associated with some of the darkest chapters of European history.”
“We urge you, Madam President, to register the deep concerns of Jews in Europe on this matter to the government of Belgium,” the open letter to von der Leyen concluded.
Belgian had police raided the home of at least one mohel in Antwerp and confiscated his medical equipment in connection with complaints lodged against him by a fellow rabbi, JNS reported on May 14.
According to reports, the homes of several other mohels were raided in addition to that of Rabbi Aharon Eckstein, one of the most experienced mohels in the country.
The search was based on a complaint filed against the mohels by another rabbi, Moshe Aryeh Friedman, who has criticized multiple customs that are important to Haredi Jews in Belgium and Antwerp, where they account for most of the city’s 18,000 Jewish population.
Friedman claimed the six mohels, whom he identified to police, had endangered newborns by sucking the blood from their penises after performing the Jewish ritual, a custom known as metzitzah b’peh.
Eckstein does not perform this controversial custom, he and several people who had their children circumcised by him confirmed to JNS.
Belgium is among several European nations that have recently outlawed Jewish kosher slaughter and its Islamic counterpart, dabhiha or zabiha. These ritual methods, requiring animals to be conscious at the time of their killing, are criticized by animal rights advocates as inhumane.
A comparable controversy is playing out around the circumcision of Jewish and Islamic boys. However, unlike ritual slaughter, the latter practice has not yet been banned in any European country.
