Belgium is a European country with a Jewish population of approximately 35,000 out of a total population of about 11.4 million. It is among the countries experiencing an increase in both antisemitic attitudes and in physical attacks on Jews.
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Belgium is a European country with a Jewish population of approximately 35,000 out of a total population of about 11.4 million. It is among the countries experiencing an increase in both antisemitic attitudes and in physical attacks on Jews.
The 1980s were marked by a number of anti-Jewish attacks, the most notorious being the deadly 1980 Antwerp summer camp attack on families waiting with their children for a bus that would carry them to a Jewish summer camp. This attack was part of a wave of attacks on Jewish targets worldwide that included the synagogue in Copenhagen, the bombing of a synagogue in Paris, the 1981 Vienna synagogue attack, attacks on a synagogue in Johannesburg, South Africa in 1983, attacks on synagogues in Buenos Aires and Rosario Argentina in 1984, an attack on a Jewish film festival in Paris in 1985, the 1982 Great Synagogue of Rome attack, and the 1981 Antwerp bombing in which three people were killed and over 100 wounded. [1]
In April 2002, the facade of the Charleroi synagogue was sprayed with bullets. [2] In 2003 a 33-year-old man of Moroccan descent parked a car alongside the synagogue of Charleroi, poured gasoline over the car, and set it alight in an attempt to destroy the synagogue. [3] Authorities investigated it as possible terrorism. Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt condemned the attack but stated that he saw no need to raise security around Jewish institutions in Belgium. [3] Firefighters were able to douse the fire before it destroyed the building. [4]
According to a report by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), the number of antisemitic incidents in 2012 had been the highest since 2009. 80 antisemitic incidents were reported throughout Belgium in 2012, a 23% increase from 2011 and an overall increase of 34% since 2000. Five of the incidents involved physical attacks, three of which occurred in Antwerp. [5]
In October 2013, Isi Leibler, the former president of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, reported on the alarming increase in the levels of antisemitism in Belgium. Leibler described a wide use of antisemitic caricatures in the media including a caricature on the official central Flanders educational website, comparing Israel to Nazi Germany. In addition, he described an increase of 30% in the number of antisemitic incidents including physical assaults and vandalism of Jewish institutions. [6] Furthermore, according to a survey conducted among eight Jewish communities in eight European Union countries, 88% of Belgium Jews feel that in the course of recent years, antisemitism has intensified in their country. 10% of the Belgian survey respondents reported suffering from incidents of physical violence or threats due to their Jewish affiliation since 2008. Most of the victims did not report the incidents to the police. [7]
2014 was marked by an increased frequency of antisemitic attacks, with antisemitic attacks recorded by the government increasing by 50% over the previous year. [8] The increase is often dated from the May 2014 Jewish Museum of Belgium shooting. [8] [9] Two days later, a young Muslim man entered the CCU (Jewish Cultural Center) while an event was taking place and shouted racist slurs. [10] A month later, a school bus in Antwerp, that was driving 5-year-old Jewish children was stoned by a group of Muslim teens. [11] Towards the end of August 2014, a 75-year-old Jewish woman was hit and pushed to the ground because of her Jewish-sounding surname. [12] Belgian politician Hassan Aarab, running for municipal office in Antwerp on the Christian Democratic and Flemish list, publicly apologized for antisemitic statements. [13]
In July 2014, a doctor refused to care for Holocaust survivor Bertha Klein, telling her son "Send her to Gaza for a few hours, then she will get rid of the pain. I’m not coming". [14] [15] The incident was ranked as the worst anti-Semitic incident in 2014 by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. [16]
In 2014 The New York Times reported on crowds of protestors near the European Parliament building in Brussels shouting “Death to the Jews!” [17] On 14 September, a crowd that had gathered in Brussels to dedicate a plaque memorializing the Holocaust was attacked by "youths" hurling rocks and bottles. [17] On 18 September, a synagogue in the Anderlecht neighborhood was set on fire in a suspected arson attack. [17] These were among a series of incidents, including an ethnically Turkish butcher in Liège who put up a sign stating that he would serve dogs but not Jews, and a commuter train announcement that the next stop would be “Auschwitz” and ordering all Jews to get off, that caused growing numbers of Jews to leave, or to consider leaving Belgium. [18] [8] [17] [19] The incidents are concentrated in Brussels, where anti-Jewish activity is driven by Muslims, who constitute about a quarter of the population of the city. [18] [17] [20] In June, the government earmarked $4 million for increased security at Jewish institutions. [21]
In 2015 Prime Minister Charles Michel declared a "zero tolerance policy" towards antisemitism. [22] His government fired the operator of a government hotline assisting victims of the Brussels bombings; the operator had responded to a call requesting assistance transferring two of the wounded home to Israel by insisting that Israel does not exist. [23] [24] The number of families moving from Belgium to Israel in 2015 reached a 10-year high. [25]
In 2016 the government-funded, Catholic Sint-Jozefs Institute secondary school in Torhout declared that it was "very proud" of a retired teacher who won a prize for his antisemitic cartoon at the International Holocaust Cartoon Competition in Iran. Despite a backlash from the Jewish community, the cartoonist was celebrated as a champion of "free speech." [26]
In January 2019, Flanders banned the kosher and halal slaughter of animals (schechita), which Jewish and Muslim community leaders denounced as racism and a violation of their freedom of religion. [27] From 1 September, the French-speaking region of Wallonia adopted a similar ban. [28]
In March 2019, a parade float featuring stereotyped Jewish figures at the Carnival of Aalst near Brussels was widely criticized as antisemitic. The float in the town of Aalst, 25 km (15 miles) from the European Parliament, featured grinning figures of Orthodox Jews standing on large piles of money. Local Jewish organisations said it was "typical of Nazism of 1939." [29] The organizers claimed there was "never any intention to insult anyone" and defended it as "a celebration of humor." [30]
In August 2019, Dimitri Verhulst wrote in an op-ed in the newspaper De Morgen that "being Jewish is not a religion, no God would give creatures such an ugly nose", a misquote from French singer Serge Gainsbourg. He also accused Jews of harbouring a superiority complex due to the notion of Jews as the chosen people, and said "talking to the Chosen is difficult" because they unjustly accuse critics of antisemitism. De Morgen's editor-in-chief defended Verhulst on the basis that the op-ed was "a harsh criticism on Israel's politics towards the Palestinian people." [31]
Belgian-Jewish journalist Cnaan Liphshiz has written that what is most troubling about the current state of antisemitism in Belgium is the fact that officials and opinion-shapers have often defended the perpetrators of antisemitic incidents on the grounds of "free speech" or that no offense was supposedly intended. According to Lipshiz, "classic antisemitism" of a type he had thought "impossible in an established Western democracy in the heart of Europe," is now "mainstream" in Belgium. [32]
In 2023, the Israel-Hamas War caused antisemitism to spike, with 1,676 antisemitic incidents reported in 2023, compared to the 436 in 2022. More than half of these incidents occurred online. [33] In February 2024, Belgian Minister of Justice confirmed that Hamas had been using "non-profit organisations" to lobby and raise funds in Belgium. [34] [35] [36] In April 2024, homes of Belgian Holocaust survivors in Fléron were subject to vandalism. [37] [38] [39] [40] [41] [42] [43] [44]
In June 2024, a Holocaust memorial and a memorial for Nazi resistance fighters at park Bois de la Cambre were defaced respectively, with the latter spray-painted with a white swastika and Celtic cross. [45] In the same month, the European Jewish Congress found in a survey that [46]
Whereas, in July 2024, EU's Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA) found in a survey that [47] [48]
In August 2024, Belgian novelist Herman Brusselmans published a controversial column in Dutch-language magazine Humo in relation to rising tension from the Gaza War, where he threatened, "I want to ram a sharp knife through the throat of every Jew I meet". [49] [50] The column was condemned by the head of the Brussels office of B'nai B'rith International as a "blatant incitement to violence against Jews, in one of Belgium's largest magazines." [51] The Brussels-based European Jewish Association (EJA), representing hundreds of Jewish communities across the continent, declared to have started legal actions against Brusselmans' genocidal threats. [52] [53] [54] [55] [56] [57] [58]
In September 2024, Belgium’s federal equality agency reported a 1,000% increase in antisemitic incidents in the two months following the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas War when compared to similar periods in previous years. [59] In the wake of these staggering statistics, the International Movement for Peace and Coexistence (IMPAC) raised concerns about issues of bias regarding how the Palestinian-Israel conflict is presented in Belgian schools. [59]
The history of Jews in Sweden can be traced from the 17th century, when their presence is verified in the baptism records of the Stockholm Cathedral. Several Jewish families were baptised into the Lutheran Church, a requirement for permission to settle in Sweden. In 1681, for example, 28 members of the families of Israel Mandel and Moses Jacob were baptised in the Stockholm German Church in the presence of King Charles XI of Sweden, the dowager queen Hedvig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, and several other high state officials.
The history of the Jews in Belgium goes back to the 1st century CE until today. The Jewish community numbered 66,000 on the eve of the Second World War but after the war and The Holocaust, now is less than half that number.
Different opinions exist among historians regarding the extent of antisemitism in American history and how American antisemitism contrasted with its European counterpart. In contrast to the horrors of European history, John Higham states that in the United States "no decisive event, no deep crisis, no powerful social movement, no great individual is associated primarily with, or significant chiefly because of anti-Semitism." Accordingly, David A. Gerber concludes that antisemitism "has been a distinctly minor feature of the nation's historical development." Historian Britt Tevis argue that, "Handlin and Higham’s ideas remain influential, and many American Jewish historians continue to present antisemitism as largely insignificant, momentary, primarily social."
Antisemitism in contemporary Norway deals with antisemitic incidents and attitudes encountered by Jews, either individually or collectively, in Norway since World War II. The mainstream Norwegian political environment has strongly adopted a platform that rejects antisemitism. However, individuals may privately hold antisemitic views. Currently, there are about 1,400 Jews in Norway, in a population of 5.3 million.
Antisemitism—prejudice, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews—has experienced a long history of expression since the days of ancient civilizations, with most of it having originated in the Christian and pre-Christian civilizations of Europe.
Antisemitism has long existed in the United States. Most Jewish community relations agencies in the United States draw distinctions between antisemitism, which is measured in terms of attitudes and behaviors, and the security and status of American Jews, which are both measured by the occurrence of specific incidents.
Antisemitic incidents escalated worldwide in frequency and intensity during the Gaza War, and were widely considered to be a wave of reprisal attacks in response to the conflict.
Antisemitism in Canada is the manifestation of hostility, prejudice or discrimination against the Canadian Jewish people or Judaism as a religious, ethnic or racial group. This form of racism has affected Jews since Canada's Jewish community was established in the 18th century.
The Jewish community in Sweden has been prevalent since the 18th century. Today Sweden has a Jewish community of around 20,000, which makes it the 7th largest in the European Union. Antisemitism in historical Sweden primarily manifested as the confiscation of property, restrictions on movement and employment, and forced conversion to Christianity. Antisemitism in present-day Sweden is mainly perpetrated by far-right politicians, neo-Nazis, and Islamists.
Antisemitism in France has become heightened since the late 20th century and into the 21st century. In the early 21st century, most Jews in France, like most Muslims in France, are of North African origin. France has the largest population of Jews in the diaspora after the United States—an estimated 500,000–600,000 persons. Paris has the highest population, followed by Marseilles, which has 70,000 Jews. Expressions of antisemitism were seen to rise during the Six-Day War of 1967 and the French anti-Zionist campaign of the 1970s and 1980s. Following the electoral successes achieved by the extreme right-wing National Front and an increasing denial of the Holocaust among some persons in the 1990s, surveys showed an increase in stereotypical antisemitic beliefs among the general French population.
Since World War II, antisemitic prejudice in Italy has seldom taken on aggressive forms.
British Jews have experienced antisemitism - discrimination and persecution as Jews - since a Jewish community was first established in England in 1070. They experienced a series of massacres in the Medieval period, which culminated in their expulsion from England in 1290.
Antisemitism in Greece manifests itself in religious, political and media discourse. The 2009–2018 Greek government-debt crisis has facilitated the rise of far right groups in Greece, most notably the formerly obscure Golden Dawn.
Evidence for the presence of Jewish communities in the geographical area today covered by Austria can be traced back to the 12th century. In 1848 Jews were granted civil rights and the right to establish an autonomous religious community, but full citizenship rights were given only in 1867. In an atmosphere of economic, religious and social freedom, the Jewish population grew from 6,000 in 1860 to almost 185,000 in 1938. In March 1938, Austria was annexed by Nazi Germany and thousands of Austrians and Austrian Jews who opposed Nazi rule were sent to concentration camps. Of the 65,000 Viennese Jews deported to concentration camps, only about 2,000 survived, while around 800 survived World War II in hiding.
"Khaybar, Khaybar, ya yahud! Jaish Muhammad soufa yaʿoud!" is an Arabic-language rallying slogan referencing the Battle of Khaybar of 628 CE, which began after Muhammad marched with a large Muslim army and besieged Khaybar, an oasis in present-day Saudi Arabia that was home to a notable Jewish community.
Antisemitism in Australia is the manifestation of hostility, prejudice or discrimination against the Australian Jewish people or Judaism as a religious, ethnic or racial group. This form of racism has affected Jews since Australia's Jewish community was established in the 18th century. There are a number of organisations that track antisemitic activities, including the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, that publish an annual list of all reported antisemitic activities. According to the Anti-Defamation League's 2014 Global100 survey, an estimated 14% of Australians harbour antisemitic views. Antisemitism in Australia is perpetrated by a variety of groups, and it has manifested in the publication of antisemitic publications, in efforts to prevent Jewish immigration, and in attacks on Australian Jews and their religious and communal institutions.
Antisemitism is a growing problem in 21st-century Germany.
Following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October 2023 and the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war, there has been a surge of antisemitism around the world. Israeli Immigration Minister Ofir Sofer has stated that Israel is bracing to expect a large wave of Jews migrating to Israel due to the rising antisemitism around the world.
Antisemitism in New Zealand is the manifestation of hostility, prejudice or discrimination against the New Zealand Jewish people or Judaism as a religious, ethnic or racial group. This form of racism has affected Jews since New Zealand's Jewish community was established in the 19th century.