ANTWERP (JTA) — The mayor of Antwerp, a city in Belgium where about 15,000 haredi Orthodox Jews live, warned that their failure to comply with COVID-19 measures has triggered anti-Semitism — and it could turn into a wave.
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“In the Jewish community, not everyone realizes this, they have their own logic, but the backlash of public opinion that I see in my inbox, that’s terrible,” Bart De Wever, a right-wing politician who has enjoyed good relations with his city’s Jewish community, told the ATV station on Sunday. “If we really want to move toward a wave of anti-Semitism, this is the way to go.”
His statement followed the two-week shutdown of a Belz synagogue by the Hasidic sect’s leaders in Antwerp. Police had determined that the shul on Van Spangen Street was twice in violation of emergency measures that forbid group prayer but allow individual worship.
Antwerp police have tolerated minyans, the minimum 0f 10 men needed for Orthodox worship, but have intervened when the requirement was exceeded.
De Wever also said that one Jewish school and another non-Jewish one were temporarily closed because students there were diagnosed with the COVID-19 U.K. strain.
COVID-19 infections in two heavily Jewish neighborhoods of Antwerp were four times higher than the citywide rate, De Wever had said earlier this week. The city invited the residents of those neighborhoods for testing for the U.K. variant, citing haredi Jews’ strong ties with British relatives.
Of course, before covid-19 there was no anti-Semitism in Antwerp…
But with masks they juuuuuust adore us! Like they won’t parade with caricatures with large noses protruding from masks….
They’re all just lovable people who have nothing but our best interests in mind….
Why am I not surprised
We are, once again, we are our own worst enemy.
Now is when you bubble dwellers start vilifying those of us that won’t join you in your arrogant/ignorant echo chamber
There was always anti-semitism in Antwerp. It’s not a new phenomena triggered by certain behaviour. I can’t recall that the Mayor was trying to do anything against it.
Maybe those who already had the virus should have special ribbons or something that will show they had it, and they should be allowed to congregate.