An international symposium against antisemitism was held this week in Antwerp amid an alarming rise in antisemitism in the country.

The conference, organized by the Jewish Information and Documentation Center (JID), a Belgian organization dedicated to fighting antisemitism, was attended by over 300 people, including HaRav Pinchas Padwa, the Rav of the Shomrei Hadas community in Antwerp; Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever; and Israeli Ambassador to Belgium Idit Rosenzweig Abu.

Another noted participant was Imam Hassen Chalghoumi, the imam of Drancy’s municipal mosque near Paris and the chairman of the Conference of Imams of France, who said during his speech that “there can be no negotiation with radical Islam.”

“Jews have been declared animals in Belgium,” JID President Michel Kotek declared.

JID Vice President Ralph Pais noted that Belgian Jews—who now number about 30,000—have lived peacefully for decades, with few antisemitic incidents, but antisemitism has become a daily concern. “Many are considering leaving, to places like Israel or the United States,” he said.

Two professors at Ghent University spoke about the pervasive antisemitism in Belgian academia. Professor of international law Marc Cools said, “Belgium is the laboratory of European antisemitism.”

Maarten Boudry, a philosopher from Ghent University, said, “The academic world has been poisoned.”

Nigel Goodrich, founder of the European Coalition for Israel (ECI), said, “History and the world map are being rewritten in Belgian educational institutions.”

Earlier this month, Joel Rubinfeld, the president of the Belgian League Against Antisemitism (LBCA), spoke with The Jerusalem Post about antisemitism in Belgium, saying that antisemitism, which was already a growing problem before the October 7 massacre, has risen so dramatically since then that he believes it spells the end of a significant Jewish kehilla in the country.

“We are going to be the last generation with a significant Jewish population in Belgium,” he asserted.

Flanders Minister-President Matthias Diependaele stated several weeks ago, “I don’t know who the ‘biggest bastard’ in the conflict is: Hamas or Israel.”

(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)