The conversation came amid rumors that Belgium may be looking to ban circumcision, rumors that reignited after a public argument broke out between US Ambassador to Belgium Bill White and Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prévot, on Monday. White took to X/Twitter to demand that Belgium end an investigation into mohalim (professionals who perform circumcision) who may have been using unsafe practices while circumcising Jewish babies.

“You must make a legal provision to allow Jewish religious mohels to perform their duties here in Belgium. It’s done in all civilized countries as legal procedure,” White tweeted. “Belgium is a civilized country. Stop this unacceptable harassment of the Jewish community here in Antwerp and in Belgium. It’s 2026, you need to get into the 21st century and allow our brethren Jewish families in Belgium to legally execute their religious freedoms!”

Prévot retorted that any suggestion that Belgium is antisemitic was “false, offensive, and unacceptable” and claimed that “Belgian law permits ritual circumcision when performed by a qualified physician under strict health and safety standards.”

White’s post comes nearly a year after Belgian authorities raided multiple sites, including two in Antwerp’s Jewish Quarter, at the outset of an investigation into illegal circumcisions. The Antwerp raids stemmed from a complaint made by a member of the Jewish community named Moshe Friedman, a local rabbi, who filed a police complaint against six mohalim who practice metzitzah b’peh, a custom in which the circumciser cleans the circumcision wound by suctioning through a straw. (ER: Really?)

“After the raid in Antwerp, everyone was in shock. It was at 6 a.m., they came to three very well-known mohalim, who have done this for tens of years already. They took their material, and they questioned them, and they said, ‘We’re going to open an investigation,’” Pais said.

He stressed that the Belgian Jewish community was not against a framework such as there is in many other countries, where they combine religious practice and official medical safety.

“I think it’s our right to live freely as Jews here, to have our traditions. But there should be an opening in order to discuss those things,” he noted.

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Pais acknowledged that the original complaint had come from within the Jewish community, but he stressed that Friedman was not a representative figure.

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David Rosenberg experienced last year’s raid firsthand. At around 5 a.m. on May 14, 2025, six police officers with weapons and body cameras came into his house in Antwerp and woke him up, his wife, and their four children.

Rosenberg, a 46-year-old Jewish businessman and elected representative of the Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang to the Antwerp District Council, told the Post that it felt “like the 1930s.”

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But Rosenberg wasn’t a suspect; he was a “witness.”  The police were looking for a video of one of his sons’ brit milah.

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He praised Ambassador White for taking a stand, adding that “at a time when many of us feel vulnerable again, the clear support coming from the United States feels like a powerful reminder that we are not alone.”

He said the situation in Belgium “really doesn’t look good” and that he believes the government is “doing everything to get us out of this country.”

“It has become one of the worst governments for Jews in Europe.”

Belgian law’s requirements for circumcisions

Belgian law has stringent requirements for circumcisions: It requires all circumcisions to be performed by licensed medical professionals [even if they are rabbis]. The country has a track record of limiting religious exemptions in laws: In 2024, Europe’s top court upheld a ban in most of the country against kosher slaughter, which its critics contend is inhumane to animals.

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Featured image source, Bill White: https://be.usembassy.gov/ambassador-bill-white/

Featured image source, rabbi with circumcised baby: https://www.renegadetribune.com/rabbi-explains-why-baby-penises-need-to-be-sucked-after-they-are-mutilated/

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