Belgian Jewish Heritage

A Bit of History

In Europe, much of Jewish settlement began with the Roman conquests.   Jews followed the path of the Roman legions in Belgium in the years 53-57 A.D.

In the 13th and 14th centuries, Jews settled in Belgium after having been expelled from England and France. Another wave of immigration to Belgium came in the 15th century when the Jews were expelled from Spain and Portugal.

Educated and sometimes quite wealthy, Jews scattered throughout Europe, settling in the seventeen provinces of the Lowlands, today's Belgium and the Netherlands. Marranos who settled in Antwerp at the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century played an important economic and financial role there. Between 1650 and 1694 a secret synagogue conducted services in Antwerp.

The Jewish population in Belgium grew slowly in the 18th and 19th centuries, emigrating mainly from France, Germany and Holland. After 1880, Jews also emigrated from Eastern Europe. In fact Belgium, and especially Antwerp, was seen as a stop to the "Goldene Mediene."  Sephardic Jews came also from the Ottoman Empire before the turn of the 19th century. 

With the arrival of German refugees in the 1930s, the Jewish population in Belgium reached its peak. By 1939, it has been estimated that 65,000 Jews lived in Belgium-25,000 in Antwerp, 30,000 in Brussels, 5,000 in Liege, 3,000 in Charleroi, with smaller settlements in Gent, Oostende, Namur and Arlon.

By August 1942, the Nazis began transporting Belgian Jews to Auschwitz.  By the end of the war approximately 40,000 Belgian Jews had died.  After World War II, rebuilding the Jewish communities was the first and main goal of those who survived the Holocaust. These communities consisted of those who hid successfully during the war and the 1,207 who returned from the camps. Other concentration camp survivors and displaced people, who never had lived in Belgium before, joined them.

Today the majority of Belgian Jews belongs to the middle class and is   active in the fur, textile, leather and diamond industries.   The total Jewish population in Belgium is approximately 42,000. About 20,000 Jews live in Brussels, and 15,000 in Antwerp. Small Jewish  communities exist in Charleroi, Oostende, Gent, Liege, Mons, Arlon and Knokke.

In comparison with other occupied countries, a high percentage of Jews were saved by Belgians who went to great lengths hiding children and adults whenever and wherever possible.

Brussels (Today Brussels has over 20,000 Jewish inhabitants)

Museums & Synagogues | Jewish organizations

Antwerp

Museums & Synagogues | Jewish organization

If you want to find life as it was in the Shtetls before WW2, Antwerp is a great place to start. Head for the streets called Pelikaanstraat or Hovenierstraat.   You will find Synagogues, bookstores, restaurants, Kosher bakeries and of course diamond stores. The area just looks Jewish.   No doubt the Jews of Antwerp are very tightly knit. They live together and work together.  Antwerp has about 15,000 Jewish inhabitants and about 90% work in the diamond industry.

Antwerp is one of the greatest historical and cultural Cities in Europe and has a long and magnificent tradition as a diamond city since the fifteenth Century.   Antwerp's diamond district is right in the heart of the city.  Antwerp is the most important diamond trade center in the world with an annual turnover of 23 billion US dollars. More than 70% of the world's rough diamonds are traded here.

Museums and Synagogues
Plantin Moretus Museum Vrijdagmarkt 22 Located in the Vrijdagmarkt has examples of Jewish printing, including the "Polyglot Bible". closed on Mondays.	Great Synagogue Romi Goldmuntz Van Den Nestlei 1 B - Antwerp It is the main Synagogue. A modern Orthodox Synagogue with a chorus on Saturday mornings. It was built in 1928.
Hollandse Synagogue Bouwmeesterstraat 7 B - Antwerp Built in 1893 in Ottoman Empire style. Open only during Rosh Hashana and Yom Kipour. For guided tours contact Mr. Malinsky.	Sephardic Synagogue Hovenierstraat 31 B - Antwerp Built in 1913. This Synagogue is located right in the middle of the Diamond district.
Oosten Synagogue Oostenstraat 43 B - Antwerp

 

Jewish Organization

The Romi Goldmuntz Jewish Center Nervierstraat 12 B - 2018 Antwerp Tel: (323) 239-3911 Has activities for children, a library, meeting rooms, a catering hall, sports facilities and a kosher snack bar.

 

---

Other Jewish Sights and Jewish Communities in Belgium

Other Jewish Sights

Jewish Museum of Deportation and Resistance The museum is housed in a wing of the former "Dossin de Saint Georges Barracks" at Mechelen. This historic site is also a place of remembrance. It was here, halfway between Brussels and Antwerp, that the Nazis set up the 'SS-Sammellager Mechelen', which served as the assembly point for Jews about to be deported from Belgium. Roughly 25,000 persons including 5,430 children were deported from these barracks to Auschwitz.

Breendonk Fort National Memorial The visitor to the "Breendonk Fort National Memorial" is confronted with the most striking and best- preserved historical record of the Nazi terror in West Europe.   The tour takes the visitor on a walk around the fort to give an idea of the immense excavation works carried out by the prisoners and ultimately leads the visitor to the execution ground.

---

Miscellaneous

Suggested Reading	US Specialists in Jewish Tours
A Travel Guide to Jewish Europe by Ben G. Frank Pelican Publishing, Gretna, LA	KESHER KOSHER TOURS ; ISRAM TOURS
On the Web	Media
Belgium Virtual Jewish History Tour by Alden Oreck - The Jewish Virtual Library	Radio Judaica (Jewish radio) FM 90.2 - Jewish interest programs 24 hours a day.