{"id":17775,"date":"2026-05-27T14:03:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T14:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/17775\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T14:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T14:03:20","slug":"jewish-leaders-say-belgiums-prosecution-of-circumcision-is-antisemitic-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/17775\/","title":{"rendered":"Jewish leaders say Belgium\u2019s prosecution of circumcision is antisemitic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dozens of European Jewish leaders, joined by Israeli and American diplomats, decried Antwerp prosecutors who plan to charge two Jewish men with performing illegal circumcisions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In an open letter on Tuesday to European and Belgian officials, 45 communal and religious Jewish leaders accused the Antwerp Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office of \u201ceffectively criminalizing the act of circumcision<\/a>\u201d and infringing on religious freedom.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, Belgian prosecutors announced their recommendation to refer two mohels, or ritual circumcisers, to the criminal court following investigations into alleged illegal circumcisions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In Belgium<\/a>, the law requires all circumcisions to be performed by licensed medical professionals. The two men would be charged with intentional assault or battery against minors and the unlawful practice of medicine.<\/p>\n

The European Jewish leaders responded that prosecuting mohels was \u201cantisemitic in nature, reminiscent of efforts taken in Europe against Jewish practice prior to the Second World War.\u201d<\/p>\n

They said the potential prosecutions sent a message that \u201cJews are no longer welcome in Belgium\u201d and \u201cBelgian Jews are now second-class citizens with limited rights.\u201d Their appeal was led by the chairman of the European Jewish Association, Rabbi Menachem Margolin.<\/p>\n

Israeli and US officials have also accused Belgium of targeting Jews for practicing their faith.<\/p>\n

Gideon Sa’ar, Israel\u2019s Foreign Affairs Minister, called the prosecutors\u2019 decision a \u201cscarlet letter on Belgian society.\u201d He was joined by the US Ambassador to Belgium, Bill White, who said on X that Belgium \u201cwill be thought of now as antisemitic by world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belgium\u2019s foreign minister fired back that it was \u201cinappropriate to publicly criticize a country and tarnish its image simply because you disagree with judicial proceedings.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI recall that the proceedings in question were initiated by representatives of the Jewish community themselves,\u201d said Maxime Pr\u00e9vot. \u201cTo portray those as a country\u2019s desire to undermine the religious freedom of Jews is defamatory.\u201d<\/p>\n

The mohels were first investigated after complaints lodged by Moshe Aryeh Friedman, an Antwerp rabbi. He alleged in 2023 that six local mohels practiced metzitzah b\u2019peh, in which the circumciser cleans the circumcision wound with oral suction<\/a>. Over the past two decades, several infants in New York City were infected with herpes as a result of the practice.<\/p>\n

The letter from European Jewish leaders did not address Friedman\u2019s claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dozens of European Jewish leaders, joined by Israeli and American diplomats, decried Antwerp prosecutors who plan to charge…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17776,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[236,4798,7,2042,1400,69],"class_list":["post-17775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-belgium","tag-antisemitism","tag-antizionism","tag-belgium","tag-circumcision-ban","tag-diaspora","tag-europe"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116646917295579190","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}