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The European Jewish Association (EJA) convened an emergency conference in Brussels amid ongoing legal proceedings against Jewish religious circumcision practitioners in Belgium, warning that the case could become a defining test of religious freedom, minority rights and the future of Jewish life across Europe.

At the conference convened with the input and expertise of Belgian MP Michael Freilich, the EJA’s Special Diplomatic Envoy for Intercultural Dialogue and Holocaust Remembrance, the Association unveiled a new position paper setting out the fundamental democratic choice being faced by Belgium: whether a religious practice observed safely by Jewish and Muslim communities for centuries should face criminal prosecution. The physicians and scientists who participated in the conference are clear: there is no evidence of increased harm and the rate of complications associated with ritual circumcision is substantially lower than the rate of complications reported among infants circumcised by physicians in hospital settings.

The paper therefore calls for legal certainty, recognition of trained practitioners, appropriate safeguards and standards, and dialogue rather than criminalisation.

Opening the conference, EJA Chairman Rabbi Menachem Margolin said:

“This is not really a debate about circumcision. It is a debate about the limits of freedom in Europe. The real question is whether democracies protect minority rights only when they are convenient, or whether they protect them when they are challenged. What happens in Belgium will be watched far beyond Belgium.” He added: “For Jews, circumcision is not simply a medical procedure. It is one of the foundations of Jewish life and identity.

“Decisions on circumcision are being taken, without the facts, without proper discussion and without the proper weighing of the evidence of what is, fundamentally, a minor medical procedure. This conference today seeks to fill this knowledge gap. Above all, governments must be properly informed to protect the right of Jews to live as Jews.”