Belgium is once again facing claims of antisemitism.
Since the raids on the homes of the three mohalim in Antwerp and the confiscation of their tools in May of 2025, there has been a great deal of tension between the Jewish community and the local government.
The case began a few years ago when Rabbi Moshe (Aryeh) Friedman, a controversial local figure, alerted the health ministry that the mohalim were practicing metzitzah b’peh, or direct oral contact on the wound. The ritual is known to be life-threatening if, for example, a newborn contracts a resulting infection like herpes.
In February of this year, the controversy intensified when U.S. ambassador to Belgium Bill White openly criticized the investigation as antisemitic and demanded that the health ministry carve out protections for the millennia-old ritual. Although some at the time said claims of antisemitism were unwarranted, the question remains as to what prompted White to speak out on the issue almost a year after it went public.
Belgian Parliament member Michael Freilich of the nationalist, conservative and liberal-conservative Flemish Alliance (N-VA)—the only Orthodox Jewish Member of Parliament—visited Washington around the time of the raids and discussed the issue of protections for circumcision. Freilich insists that his visit was to better understand how the United States has balanced the separation of church and state, thus protecting ritual circumcision. He was looking for a diplomatic solution to the crisis back home.
Even though these conversations preceded White’s comments by several months, there are those who attempt to draw a causal link.
The Federal Ethics Committee in Belgium recently delivered a sharp rebuke of Freilich, saying that he prioritized religious/communal advocacy over his duties to the Belgian state. By engaging with foreign powers on an ongoing criminal case, the MP had attempted to bypass the judiciary, thus undermining state sovereignty. He had also sown distrust in Belgian institutions by insinuating that there were “hidden motives” in the mohel investigations.
The real question is not whether Freilich’s conduct deserves scrutiny, but whether Belgium applies the same scrutiny when lawmakers lobby foreign actors on causes more fashionable than Jewish religious freedom.
Opposition parties (the Greens and Ecolo, a French-speaking green political party) demand a formal reprimand and the initiation of the 2017 transparency log of all tax-funded trips to avoid shadow diplomacy. Freilich and his party have pushed back, claiming that the investigation is a character attack intended to show his “split loyalty.”
Even granting that MP Freilich was lobbying a foreign body for political ends, he’s far from the first to do so.
Flemish and Walloon ministers have often sought international support for Flemish autonomy and economic interests. Members of the Green Party (as well as other left-leaning parties) have consistently lobbied international bodies to pressure Belgium on issues ranging from Xinjiang forced labor to Palestinian rights. These actions have been overlooked because they are framed as advocating universal values as opposed to intervening in Belgian law and are rarely referred to the Ethics Committee.
Those claiming outrage about Freilich’s behavior are attempting to conceal the selective nature of their claims by demanding blanket transparency for all future government travel while at the same time ignoring all past infractions. The demands also overlook the fact that the 2017 recommendations were voluntary as opposed to legally binding.
The heart of the matter is Belgium’s discomfort with exemptions for religious practice. Beyond the embarrassment caused by White’s criticism of the mohel investigations, Belgium is a secular society, which helps explain why charges are rarely leveled against MPs lobbying for so-called “human rights” issues.
The Belgian government is attempting to save face against the charges of Jew-hatred lodged by a politically controversial Trump appointee. None of this is to say that public-health standards and interference in open court cases should be ignored. The solution to this crisis is clear legislation protecting freedom of religion—namely, the practice of brit milah.
Instead, Belgium is digging a deeper hole and providing fresh ammunition to its critics. Pursuing the lone Orthodox Jewish MP during an antisemitism scandal doesn’t dispel the accusations. It lends credence to them.
