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Michael Freilich

Belgian police man the perimeter around a synagogue on Leon Fredericq street after it was struck overnight by a blast in Liege on March 9, 2026. (JOHN THYS / AFP)
March 18, 2026, 4:25 pm
After synagogue attacks, Belgium sending soldiers to guard Jewish neighborhoods
Troops will be deployed at two dozen sites in the wake of explosions last week at Jewish institutions in Liège and the Dutch cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam
By Zev Stub
Illustrative photo of a ritual circumcision (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
February 16, 2026, 5:01 pm
US ambassador to Belgium urges nation to drop charges over illegal circumcisions
Accusations against three mohels for acting without medical license are ‘antisemitic,’ Bill White says; European Commission also seeking a solution to impasse over Jewish ritual
By Zev Stub
Illustrative photo of a ritual circumcision (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
May 14, 2025, 6:52 pm
Belgium’s Jewish community on edge after police raids on illegal circumcisions
Police in Antwerp looking for rabbis conducting the religious rite without medical license; Jewish group says raids part of larger campaign of intimidation against Jews in Belgium
By Zev Stub
Belgium's Foreign Minister Hadja Lahbib speaks to the press during a NATO foreign affairs ministers' meeting, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, on April 4, 2023. (Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP)
June 21, 2023, 4:55 am
Belgian official resigns, foreign minister on hot seat over junket for Tehran mayor
Pascel Smet steps down as top diplomat for Brussels Region state, saying taxpayers should not have funded trips; Hadja Lahbib urged to follow suit for granting visas to visitors
By Canaan Lidor
Belgian Minister of Cooperation Development and Finance, Alexander De Croo, right, and Belgian francophone Socialist Party chairman, Paul Magnette attend a media conference at the Egmont Palace in Brussels, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020. Almost 500 days after Belgian parliamentary elections, seven parties from both sides of the linguistic border have agreed on forming a fully functioning majority government that will center on dealing with the pandemic and its devastating economic impact. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
September 30, 2020, 11:24 pm
Incoming Belgian government on collision course with Israel, local Jews say
New 7-party coalition ‘will try to shut down all little dialogue left between both countries,’ one Brussels resident warns
By Raphael Ahren
People dressed as ultra-Orthodox Jews/ants are seen before the start of the Aalst Carnival's on February 23, 2020, in Aalst, Belgium. (James Arthur Gekiere/AFP)
February 25, 2020, 5:12 pm
Carnival that showed Jews as vermin ‘not anti-Semitic,’ Jewish Belgian MP says
Michael Freilich, Belgium’s only Orthodox lawmaker, says fewer than 50 of 6,000 participants presented anti-Jewish displays, compares Aalst procession to Israeli Purim parades
By Raphael Ahren
Illustrative: Club Bruges fans cheer prior to a Champions League soccer game at the Jan Breydel Stadium in Bruges, Belgium, September 18, 2018. (Francisco Seco/AP)
November 26, 2019, 9:53 am
Charges dropped against Belgian soccer fans who sang about burning Jews
Prosecutors say national soccer association’s three-year ban against 4 accused supporters entering any major stadium is enough; Jewish federal lawmaker warns decision ‘a bad sign’
By Cnaan Liphshiz
Michael Freilich, center, at a press conference in Antwerp Belgium announcing his entry into politics on January 21 2019. (Courtesy photo via JTA)
May 28, 2019, 7:01 pm
Belgian federal parliament welcomes first Orthodox Jewish lawmaker
Michael Freilich has vowed to work in parliament to reverse a de facto ban on producing halal and kosher meat in much of the country
By JTA
Joods Actueel editor-in-chief Michael Freilich. (Screen capture YouTube)
January 23, 2019, 12:15 am
Jewish paper editor enters Belgian politics to fight Kosher slaughter ban
Michael Freilich will be first Orthodox Jew in lower house with his expected entry to parliament
By Cnaan Liphshiz
In this photo from March 11, 2010, Palestinians hold a banner displaying a picture of Palestinian Dalal Mughrabi, a Palestinian terrorist who killed dozens of Israeli civilians in a 1978 bus hijacking in Israel, seen in portrait, as they protest in the West Bank city of Ramallah. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
September 15, 2018, 7:40 am
Belgium ends funding for Palestinian schools over honoring of terrorist
Editor of Jewish monthly calls on other countries in Europe to follow suit ‘so that fewer Palestinian children will be educated to hate — at least not with European money’
By JTA
Brigitte Herremans (Broederlijk Delen via JTA)
September 16, 2016, 9:35 pm
Belgian charity official: Israel allies vastly inflate anti-Semitism problem
Brigitte Herremans, Mideast expert for 2 Catholic groups, says Jewish state ‘tolerates no criticism, wants to do as it pleases’
By JTA
President of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas delivers a speech at the European Union Parliament in Brussels on June 23, 2016. (AFP PHOTO / JOHN THYS)
July 8, 2016, 9:58 pm
Belgian Jewish paper demands EU action on Abbas ‘blood libel’
Referring to PA chief’s false talk of rabbis wanting to poison Palestinian wells, editor Michael Freilich urges ‘unambiguous rejection of this anti-Jewish incitement’
By JTA
Visitors to the former Nazi death camp Sobibor, in eastern Poland, wander through the recently excavated remains of the gas chambers on Nov. 11, 2014. (photo credit: Lena Klaudel)
January 19, 2016, 8:37 pm
Belgian Jewish newspaper complains over interview with Holocaust denier
De Morgen daily comes under fire for piece on far-right sympathizer Siegfried Verbeke, who claims that no one died in Nazi gas chambers
By JTA
An ultra-Orthodox father walks his children to Antwerp's Jesode Hatorah school. (illustrative photo: Cnaan Liphshiz/JTA)
August 20, 2013, 2:21 am
Belgium’s defiant Haredi schools may be shuttered
Refusal to teach legally required secular topics could lead to fatal loss of government funding
By Cnaan Liphshiz
May 22, 2013, 1:19 pm
Belgian party leader stepping down ‘temporarily’ over slur
Wrote ‘a few Jewish families that monopolize the banking world’ caused Europe’s financial crisis
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