Last week, police carried out a raid on mohalim in Antwerp, where they confiscated milah equipment

Photo: Shutterstock//Mark Heider

Raid on Religion

IN a crowded field of European countries becoming increasingly hostile toward their Jewish populations, Belgium stands out. Two of its three regions have outlawed shechitah, and its prime minister until February, Alexander de Croo, was one of Israel’s harshest critics on the continent.

Last week, police carried out a raid on mohalim in Antwerp, where they confiscated milah equipment. The strict letter of the law in Belgium stipulates that milah must only be conducted by a licensed medical professional, but the authorities have mostly turned a blind eye until now. The raid came out of the blue, and left the Jewish community deeply shaken.

Conference of European Rabbis leader Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt decried the heavy-handed assault on a tenet as fundamental as bris milah. In an interview with Mishpacha, he acknowledged it was a legal gray zone, but he was unequivocal — the way to deal with this is through constructive engagement with community leaders, not police raids.

Rabbi Goldschmidt believes this is part of a secularist backlash against the growing radical Islamism that’s deeply unnerved Europeans, and it’s the law-abiding, peaceful Jewish community that is bearing the brunt. (As Muslims generally have circumcisions performed by a doctor, this issue doesn’t affect them the same way).

Belgium isn’t the first European country to clamp down disproportionately on mohalim. In August, Golders Green mohel Rabbi Yoni Abrahams was arrested in Ireland as he was preparing to perform a bris on a non-Jewish child. While milah is legal in Ireland, nonreligious circumcisions require a medical license — though as the Times of Israel reported at the time, this rule is rarely enforced. After weeks of detention, he was released on a hefty bail bond of €60,000.

Ireland, like Belgium’s political leadership, is deeply anti-Israel, and was one of three countries to formally recognize Palestine as an independent state last year. Hardly surprising, then, that in the 17 years since the relevant law was enacted, the first arrest was a Jewish mohel.

Stat 0.2%

That’s how much Japan’s economy contracted by in Q1 2025. Analysts put it down to the impact of Trump’s anticipated tariffs, which ended up slapping 24 percent on Japan, and weak demand from China, one of its key export markets.

Downbeat Moody

With the dollar serving as the global reserve currency, the US doesn’t have the same borrowing constraints as other countries. But every so often, the world’s largest economy receives a reminder that unlimited borrowing isn’t cost-free. Last week, it came in the form of a credit rating downgrade from rating agency Moody’s, from AAA to Aa1 — the first such Moody’s downgrade for the US since 1917.

Moody’s warned that successive administrations have failed to tackle ballooning deficits and rising interest costs, and predicted national debt would rocket from 98 percent to 134 percent of all national economic output by 2035. The decision, aside from its symbolism, will saddle the US with higher borrowing costs, just as Trump is seeking to pass tax cuts, which estimates say would add up to $5 trillion to the national debt.

Attempts to cut spending via DOGE have fallen far short of its goals, leaving Republican lawmakers divided over spending cuts, which would be deeply unpopular with the very voters who d elivered Trump victory in November.

The Chips Are Down

Chipmaker Intel has been lagging in the semiconductor and AI arms races that have sent competitors’ stocks soaring. So it’s no surprise that new CEO Lip-Bu Tan is more preoccupied with saving the tech behemoth from irrelevance than with geopolitics.

Still, some shareholders tried their luck, proposing at Tan’s first shareholder meeting that Intel divest from Israel, where it has a considerable operation. Tan made it clear, however, that the issue is closed, and his focus is on repositioning Intel as the global leader in the chip market.

Parliament Prevaricates

In the UK, the controversial Assisted Dying bill, having passed its first stage in Parliament with a majority of 55, is looking a lot shakier in its final phases than initially thought. With the entire state apparatus overstretched, the proposed safeguards in the bill have had to be watered down, unnerving some original supporters.

The debate has turned uglier, with proponents insinuating that the bill’s opponents are acting out of primitive religious beliefs, and the other side charging that the bill’s advocates are using dirty procedural and legislative tricks to avoid as much scrutiny as possible. While public switchers from yes to no remain in the single digits, a defeat for the bill would be a blow for progressivism, and provide some much-needed relief for religious Jews.

MAGA vs. Math

Romania’s presidential runoff on Sunday was always going to be unusual. After an initial ballot showed victory for pro-Moscow candidate Calin Georgescu in December, Romania’s Supreme Court canceled the election over allegations of Russian interference, and Georgescu was barred from standing again.

The first round of new elections was held on May 4, and neither of the two poll-toppers were from mainstream parties, signaling Romanians’ deep discontent with the establishment, much like most of their continental compatriots. Right-wing Eurosceptic George Simion is an unabashed MAGA man, who opposes military aid to Ukraine, while his opponent Nicusor Dan, a mathematician and centrist former Bucharest mayor, ran as an independent.

Ultimately, Dan beat Simion by 54 percent to 46 percent. Though Simion initially declared victory, he conceded early Monday morning. This result means Brussels can breathe a sigh of relief that a key country on the EU’s eastern flank has remained within the bloc’s orbit.

(Originally featured in Mishpacha, Issue 1062)