Belgium’s investigation into several mohalim in Antwerp has raised concerns that brit milah could be threatened in the country, with a senior communal leader describing the government’s recent statements on the issue as “misleading”.
Yohan Benizri, a lawyer and former head of Belgium’s Jewish community, was responding to remarks by Belgium’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maxime Prévot, who said on Monday that “Belgian law permits ritual circumcision when performed by a qualified physician under strict health and safety standards.”
But Benizri said that while the statement was “formally correct,” it was “misleading as well because it is creating the impression that it is possible only if it is performed by a medical professional” – something which had “never been the case”.
He explained, “In Belgium, it has always been tolerated that trained mohalim perform circumcisions, which is in line with the practice virtually everywhere. In fact, legal frameworks have been developed specifically to allow trained mohalim to perform circumcisions, including on our territory.”
Benizri said brit milah had been recognised in Belgium “for decades, if not centuries” and practised before the country “was born”.
But he warned: “Any negative [court] finding could easily be weaponised by those who may wish to ban the practice entirely. If a court's finding could be interpreted as preventing a trained mohel to perform any circumcision, and in the absence of a legal or regulatory clarification in the meantime, it would threaten brit milah in Belgium and send a worrisome signal across Europe."
Benizri pointed to the precedent of 2012, when a regional court in Cologne ruled that non-therapeutic circumcision was harmful, prompting then German Chancellor Angela Merkel to move swiftly to pass national legislation protecting the practice.
The investigation, triggered last spring by a complaint from what Benizri described as a “disgruntled person in Antwerp who has been trying to undermine the Jewish community”, has so far resulted in no charges.
The case has since escalated into a diplomatic row between the US and Belgium. Washington’s ambassador to Brussels accused the Belgian authorities of pursuing a “ridiculous and antisemitic” prosecution and demanded an end to “this unacceptable harassment of the Jewish community in Antwerp”. Prévot rejected any suggestion of antisemitism as “false, offensive and unacceptable” and summoned the ambassador for talks.
One source suggested the investigation may have been prompted by reports of the rare practice of metzitzah b’peh, in which a mohel directly sucks blood from the wound – historically intended to aid healing. Most contemporary mohalim who engage in this particular method, however, use a sterile glass tube to apply suction.
The president of the Conference of European Rabbis, Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, said: “Circumcision and kosher slaughter are not optional customs; they are core obligations, absolutely central to Jewish life. Efforts to restrict them in Belgium are not fair regulatory processes, but are direct attacks on Jewish religious rights.”
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