The U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Bill White, on Monday criticized what he termed local authorities’ “antisemitic harassment” of mohels, performers of Jewish circumcision.
White, an appointee of U.S. President Donald Trump, undertook the unusual intervention in a pointed 316-word post on X, in which he appeared to reference a criminal investigation that led last year to raids on the homes of several mohels in Antwerp.
The post was addressed to Belgian Health Minister Frank Vanenbroucke, and it rebuked him for allegedly having an anti-American bias.
U.S. diplomats have in the past expressed support for enshrining the religious rights of minorities in Europe and beyond, but they rarely comment publicly in such harsh tones on the internal affairs of Western allies such as Belgium. White penned his post amid concern about plans for legislation to limit nonmedical circumcision in Belgium, a leader of Belgian Jews told JNS under condition of anonymity.
“Antisemitism is UNACCEPTABLE in any form, and it must be rooted out of our society,” White wrote as a preface to the post, to which he copied the accounts of Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others.
“To Belgium, specifically, you must drop the ridiculous and antisemitic ‘prosecution’ now of the three Jewish religious figures (mohels) in Antwerp! They are doing what they have been trained to do for thousands of years,” the text read, all in capital letters.
The reference to the mohels seems to have been about three religious Jews who, in May, saw police raid their homes due to a complaint by a local Jew.
The complainant, Moshe Aryeh Friedman, claimed that six mohels, whom he identified to police, had endangered children by sucking the blood from the penises of babies on whom they’d performed the Jewish ritual, a custom known as metzitzah b’peh. One of the mohels denied these claims in a May interview with JNS.
Israel’s minister of Diaspora Affairs, Amichai Chikli, thanked White on X for White’s “determined rearguard battle” and added that “The Islamic Republic of Belgium is becoming increasingly unfit for Jewish life.”
Banned in Belgium
Belgium is among several European countries that have recently outlawed shechita 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 around the nonmedical circumcision of boys. However, unlike slaughter without stunning, this practice has not yet been banned in any European country.
White continued his post with a rebuke of “the (very rude) Belgian Minister of Health Frank Vanenbroucke,” as White described him.
“You must make a legal provision to allow Jewish religious MOHELS to perform their duties here in Belgium. It’s done in all civilized countries as legal procedure. BELGIUM is a civilized country. Stop this unacceptable harassment of the Jewish community here in Antwerp and in Belgium. It’s 2026, you need to get into the 21st century and allow our brethren Jewish families in Belgium to legally execute their religious freedoms!”
White then offered an account of talks he’d had with Vanenbroucke, in which the ambassador suggested the health minister had opted not to interfere with the case so it would peter out and resolve itself.
“Frank, do not ‘wait for this case to end.’ You told me that this is your sneaky tactic in our first meeting where you refused to shake my hand or be photographed with me in your conference room, named after our GREAT First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, because it was clear that you dislike America, the country that fought and where tens of thousands of our nation’s sons died for Belgium’s freedom twice—in WWI & in WWII. Take action NOW! The world is watching. America is counting on you to do the right thing. Frank, you should do it NOW so this case ends,” White wrote.
White added that he planned to visit Antwerp next week to meet with the mohels and their families. “Frank, you and Conner Rousseau should come with me,” added White. Rousseau is the chairman of the left-leaning Vooruit party, to which Vanenbroucke also belongs.
“It’s disgusting what’s happened to these fine men and their families because of your inaction,” said White.
