Antwerp

VISIT BELGIUM

Though there is evidence of Jews arriving in Belgium with the Romans in the 1st century, sizable Jewish communities did not appear until the Middle Ages. Those communities were persecuted during the Crusades and nearly wiped out by the Black Death and the Brussels Massacre. Belgium received an influx of Jews when Spanish and Portuguese Jews fled the Spanish Inquisition and sought refuge in Belgium. Under Austrian, French, and later Dutch rule, Jews were given improved rights and status. Following Belgian independence in 1830, Judaism was recognized. Jews played a major role in the diamond industry that developed in Antwerp. Though Belgium was the site of several active resistance organizations, the Belgian community shrunk considerably during the Holocaust as a result of deportations to concentrations camps.

Belgium currently has a Jewish population of approximately 30,000. The Jewish community of Brussels is largely secular, though Antwerp is home to the largest Hasidic community in Europe, in addition to one of the continent’s largest ultra-Orthodox populations. Belgium’s Jewish community supports a number of synagogues, Jewish schools, and kosher restaurants.

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