JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

study of modern Hebrew, and hosting Israel experts on communal
and educational matters. The favorable attitude toward
Israel is widely shared by non-Jews as well. During the Six-Day
War (1967), non-Jews walked side by side with Jews in public
demonstrations to proclaim solidarity with Israel, and the Belgian
press as a whole supported Israel’s point of view.
[Max Gottschalk / Willy Bok]
Later Developments
The Jewish population of Belgium in 2002 was estimated at
31,400, equally divided between French and Flemish speakers,
with around 15,000 Jews each in Brussels and Antwerp and
the rest in such shrinking communities as Liege, Charleroi,
Arlon, Mons, Ghent, and Ostend.
COMMUNITY LIFE. An important merger of community
organizations began in 1971 to unify divergent organizations
under a central umbrella organization, which would serve
as spokesman for Belgian Jewry. As a result, in 1977, 21 Belgian
Jewish organizations banded together, as well as the communities
of Liege, Charleroi and Ghent. In September 1977 the
Coordinating Committee and the Belgian Section of the
World Jewish Congress merged into the Coordinating Committee
of Belgian Jewish Organizations, affiliated with the
WJC with the president of the Belgian Section as its head.
By 2002 it had 41 members and, together with the Consistoire,
was recognized as an official representative of the Jewish
community for political matters. A parallel organization,
Forum oder Joodse Organisaties, founded in 1994 and based
in Antwerp, represented Flemish-speaking Jews before the
authorities.
The Consistoire remained the central authority for Belgian
Jews in religious matters, with 16 member congregations
in 2002. In all, around 50 synagogues and places of worship
were in operation (around 30 in Antwerp). A Jewish chapel
opened (1986) at the Brussels international airport, following
the request of Orthodox travelers. Religious life continued to
be much more intense in Antwerp with its largely Orthodox
population than in Brussels. However, starting in the late 1980s
Brussels witnessed a strengthening of its more traditionalist
religious life – the creation of two new Orthodox communities,
the suppression of the organ and the mixed choir at the
principal synagogue, the opening of a kosher restaurant and a
yeshivah. The Israelite Community of Waterloo and of Southern
Brabant, which belonged also to this current, was recognized
(1992) by the Cult Administration only four years after
its creation. The new congregation is the result of changes in
the urbanization of the Brussels area; its membership consists
largely of English-speaking expatriates. The Liberal congregation
has grown steadily and in 1984 founded its own burial
society with its own cemetery.
A reorganization of the Belgian Zionist Federation took
place in 1976. Following an intensive nationwide membership
campaign in 1975–76, some 5,000 Jews enrolled as members
of the Zionist Federation, which has branches in five com-
belgium
munities, all of which were directly represented on the directorate.
The World Conference of Jewish Communities on Soviet
Jewry convened in Brussels in 1971 and 1976. The congress
was hosted by the Coordinating Committee of Belgian Jewish
organizations, the Jewish Secular Community Center of
Brussels, and the National Belgian Committee for Jews in the
Soviet Union. The congress, sponsored by the World Zionist
Federation, World Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith, the Public
Councils for Soviet Jewry, the Conference of Presidents of
Major Jewish Organizations in the United States, and various
national committees for Soviet Jewry, was attended by 1,200
representatives from 35 countries throughout the world, and
hundreds of leading Jewish and non-Jewish personalities.
Jewish education in Belgium continued to benefit from
the national educational system, providing for diverse religious
studies in all State schools where a significant number
of parents request them. Such classes are attended by 60 percent
of Jewish public school children in Brussels and 30 percent
in Antwerp. Though paid for by the State, teachers are
hired by the Consistoire and supervised by its religious inspectors.
In addition, the State subsidizes the general curriculum
of Jewish day schools, attended by around 7,000 children in
the early 2000s. There were three such schools in Brussels
(Maimonides Athenaeum, Ganenou Athenaeum, Beth Aviv)
with around 2,000 children, and three in Antwerp (Tachkemoni,
Yesode Hatora, Yavne) which together with a number
of ḥasidic ḥadarim and some other institutions accommodated
around 5,000 children. Extracurricular studies were
conducted through the community talmud torah in Brussels
and youth groups at the community centers, and through the
Zionist youth movements. Adult Jewish education continued
to improve, with Hebrew courses taught in conjunction with
the Jewish Agency. The Ministry of Education also largely supported
a free faculty of Jewish studies called “Institut Universitaire
d’Etudes du Judaïsme” founded in 1972 and operating
under the auspices of the Brussels Free University, which since
the academic year 1986–1987 has recognized Institut degrees in
Jewish history, thought, and civilization. The Flemish section
(created in 1983 at the Vrije Universiteit te Brussel) was later
moved to the Instituut voor Joodse Studies in Antwerp.
POLITICAL DEVELOPMENTS. In December 1974, the Volksunie
Party submitted a bill to Parliament granting amnesty
to former Nazi collaborators. The bill was strongly opposed
by the Belgian Jewish community, led by the national Jewish
organizations of ex-servicemen, former resistance fighters,
and deportees, as well as by their Christian counterparts,
and on March 25, 1976 the bill was defeated by a vote of 98 to
81 with 3 abstentions.
Belgium has been the site of a number of Arab terrorist
attacks on Jewish or Israel-connected objectives. In 1979
there was an attempted attack on El Al passengers at Brussels
airport. In July 1980 a hand grenade was thrown into a group
of children about to leave Antwerp for summer camp; one
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