Belgium’s Jewish community on edge after police raids on illegal circumcisions

Belgium police conducted a series of raids on Wednesday in Jewish homes in Antwerp looking for people illegally conducting ritual Jewish circumcisions, local officials said.

Police conducted raids on three locations in Antwerp’s Jewish Quarter and nearby Green Quarter seeking knives and other equipment used in circumcisions, according to local reports. No one was arrested.

Police are concerned that the brit milah ritual is being performed on Jewish baby boys by unlicensed mohels (people who perform circumcision) instead of professional doctors. The ritual is commonly done in a synagogue, not a medical institution, by people who may not have undergone receive comprehensive medical training.

“The problem is that there is no clear law regarding circumcision at the moment,” Belgian MP Michael Freilich, the country’s only Orthodox Jewish lawmaker, told The Times of Israel.

While there are no laws specifically regulating Jewish ritual circumcision, Belgium has laws mandating that all medical procedures must be performed by a licensed doctor.

Freilich, who works with the European Union on Jewish matters in his position as the European Jewish Association’s diplomatic envoy for issues of antisemitism and Holocaust remembrance, is working on developing EU certification for mohels, but that is likely years away, he noted.

Until then, the situation is precarious for Jews looking to perform the biblically prescribed religious ritual with a traditional mohel.

“This is a very sad day. On one hand, Jews must obviously respect the laws of their countries,” Freilich said. “On the other hand, there has been a policy until now of the government turning a blind eye to this issue. The problem is not that brit milah is not allowed; it’s that there needs to be a clearer law about who can perform the procedure. We need to work together to find a solution.”

European Jewish Association chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin condemned the raids, calling them part of a larger campaign of intimidation against Jewish religious figures in Belgium.

“Following the ban on ritual slaughter [in a 2019 law that requires that animals be stunned before they can be slaughtered for food], the harassment of mohels represents a further red line and a clear warning sign to Belgian Jews and the Belgian government,” Margolin said. “Any restriction on circumcision in Belgium would send a clear message to Belgian Jews that they are not welcome in the country.”

Belgian MP Michael Freilich speaking to an audience in a synagogue in Belgium. (Courtesy)

Cutting under sharp scrutiny

Prosecutors in Antwerp, where most of Belgium’s approximately 30,000 Jews live, have been investigating illegal circumcisions since a renegade member of the Jewish community filed a series of complaints.

In November 2023, Rabbi Moshe Aryeh Friedman, an anti-Zionist activist from New York living in Antwerp, complained to police that six mohels were endangering children by using a controversial custom known as metzitzah b’peh in the circumcision process.

The practice involves mohels using their lips to suck blood from the penises of babies on whom they’d performed the Jewish ritual.

The controversial custom is thought to have caused the death of at least one child in New York in 2012 from herpes. Another outbreak among infants of Haredi families in New York occurred in 2017 and was attributed to metzitzah b’peh.

Then, in September 2024, Friedman informed police that circumcisions were being performed without legal approvals, and a local television station reported on the issue, stoking local concern.

“The only reason this is happening now is because of Friedman,” Freilich said. “That doesn’t mean it would never have happened, but he made it go much faster.”

Unlicensed circumcisions are under increased scrutiny in Europe. Last summer, authorities in Ireland arrested a rabbi from London for allegedly performing circumcision without required medical credentials in what may be the first case in modern Europe of a rabbi arrested in connection with a brit milah.

Circumcision is relatively uncommon among the general population of Europe, with only 10-20% of males having gone under the knife, compared to over 70% in the United States.

Muslims generally undergo circumcision at a hospital, not in a religious ceremony, so the legislation is primarily a Jewish issue.

Most countries do not have any specific legislation regarding circumcision, allowing the Jewish ritual to continue as a religious freedom without intervening, Freilich explained. Only Germany has a law specifically allowing non-medical practitioners to conduct the brit milah under appropriate medical and hygienic conditions.

Freilich hopes to work with other European governments to adopt similar legislation allowing circumcision. He is also trying to encourage the EU to recognize certified mohels, he said.