“Is there a future for Jews in Belgium?” was the central question at the International Symposium on Antisemitism in Belgium this week.
The symposium, organized by the Jewish Information and Documentation Center (JID), brought 300 participants to address concrete responses to rising hatred and discrimination.
Among the attendees were Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, French Imam Hassen Chalgoumi, British historian Zoe Strimpel, Belgian philosopher Maarten Boudry, Belgian jurist and former professor Marc Cogen, and other experts and community leaders.
The speakers emphasized that antisemitism is not only a Jewish issue but a threat to democracy as a whole. They called for political courage, stronger law enforcement, and greater cooperation between religious and civic actors.
Discussing the future of Jews in Belgium is important, “because what is going to happen and what is already happening is that Jews are being bullied,” JID vice president Ralph Pais told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.
“It’s something we need to speak about,” he said. “We don’t need to dramatize it. We do need to be realistic. We want our children to grow up safely.”
While many in the community are making comparisons to 1930s Germany, Pais said it was not yet at that stage, and the community is “not going to leave like this. If we are going to leave, we’ll leave while fighting.”
Belgium's Jewish community must learn to 'speak with one voice'
First, however, the Jewish community has to learn to “speak with one voice,” he said.
There is support from non-Jewish figures for the fight against antisemitism, which was evident in De Wever’s attendance, Pais said.
“He wanted to come and show there must be no place for antisemitism,” he said. “Our symposium shows broad support – from politics, academia, religion, and society – to confront this injustice together.”
After the event, Chalgoumi said the major danger remained Islamism, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood, which he called the “No. 1 poison for our societies.”
“Their instrumentalization of conflicts and religious texts transforms a territorial issue into global hatred against Jews,” he wrote in a social-media post.