Is Belgium Using Public Health to Target Jewish Rituals?

A recent uproar emerged in Belgium following police raids on the homes of several Jewish mohels.

To understand what happened, we need to begin with a broader picture.

Though now largely post-monotheistic, Belgium remains historically and culturally Catholic-rooted in traditions that, like many Catholic societies, have long carried deeper-seated myths and prejudices about Jews than their Protestant counterparts.

The country also has a long-standing record of hostility toward Israel, often posturing as morally “principled” far beyond its geopolitical relevance.

Add to this the growing Muslim population and the shifting identity of the Belgian state, and a pattern emerges: instead of confronting its internal demographic and cultural transformations, or reflecting seriously on its moral postures toward Israel (perhaps still haunted by its collaborationist past during WWII), Belgium finds it easier to fall back on a classic European reflex - blame the Jews.

Belgium’s Jewish population numbers only in the tens of thousands, mostly ultra-Orthodox, concentrated in a few cities. Yet somehow, it is they, not the millions reshaping the country’s identity, who find themselves under scrutiny.

Using the current migration crisis to double down on thinly veiled antisemitism is a convenient way of avoiding the reckoning with the past. It’s a brilliant tactic: deflect from the present by dragging the ancient and familiar into the spotlight; especially when it can be dressed in the noble language of hygiene, public health, and civil society. All under the guise of asking questions about mysterious and misunderstood Jewish rituals.

There are, of course, long-standing antisemitic myths about circumcision and its rituals. I remember vividly sitting by a lake in the Netherlands during a trip with friends - three Israeli guys - when two Polish tourists asked us, quite seriously, why the mohel “sucks the baby’s blood” during the circumcision ceremony.

Europe, like many tribal or postcolonial societies, uses ancient myths to regulate a society it no longer fully understands. We saw the same tactics employed in debates over kosher slaughter (shechita) across several European countries. We see it again in the persistent challenges facing Jewish education in the UK.

Europe has always been a space of constant surveillance and control - and the Jewish population has often served as a convenient testing ground for policies.

By imposing controls on them, governments can slowly apply the same standards to the broader society.

Who knows - perhaps even to its growing Muslim population.