Dozens of leaders of Jewish communities in Europe on Tuesday called on Belgian authorities to halt their prosecution of Jewish circumcisers, or mohels, from Antwerp.
“All the words of politicians about the importance of Jewish life in Europe mean nothing if they do not act immediately to stop this injustice,” said the signatories in an open letter addressed to unspecified European leaders, which the European Jewish Association (EJA) published online. The undersigned included leaders of communities from Paris, Milan, Amsterdam, Barcelona and Porto.
Belgian prosecutors in May reportedly decided to indict three Jewish circumcisers for unlawfully conducting brit milah, the Jewish ritual circumcision of boys, typically performed on eight-day-old infants.
Before the criminal investigation of the three mohels, which began last year, brit milah was tolerated in Belgium, though it might violate the legal requirement that any surgery be performed by licensed medical staff.
The prosecution triggered a diplomatic crisis between Belgium and Israel and the United States, the latter two of which have vocally criticized the legal procedure as antisemitic, amid other tensions with Belgium over its stance on military actions in Gaza and Lebanon, and the joint Israeli-U.S. operation in Iran.
“The message being sent here is clear: Jews are no longer welcome in Belgium. And Belgian Jews are now second-class citizens with limited rights,” the letter, cosigned also by EJA Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin, read.
“Based on the Belgian authorities’ outright refusal to seek an accommodation, [we believe] that this prosecution is antisemitic in nature, reminiscent of efforts taken in Europe against Jewish practice prior to the Second World War. That the same prosecutor’s office has too often closed clear cases of antisemitism but is now choosing to act against Jewish life itself confirms this belief,” the letter read.
The three circumcisers from Antwerp were first investigated due to complaints lodged against them by Moshe Aryeh Friedman, an anti-Zionist activist who has lobbied authorities to limit several Jewish customs, including the one that enables Haredi schools to separate girls and boys at state-recognized Jewish schools. The mainstream Jewish community of Antwerp, which is largely Haredi, shuns Friedman.
Belgium is among several European countries that have recently outlawed shechita (the ritual slaughter of animals to make the meat kosher) and its Islamic counterpart, dabhiha or zabiha. These religious slaughter methods, which require animals to be conscious at the time of killing, are criticized by animal-rights advocates as inhumane.
A similar controversy is playing out over the non-medical circumcision of boys. However, unlike slaughter without stunning, this practice has not been banned in any European country.
In 2012, a court in Cologne, Germany, briefly banned the practice, but the ban was overturned through legislation amid an outcry over the verdict.
