page_title: History of the Jews in Belgium
section_title: Today
hierarchical_section_title: History of the Jews in Belgium / Today
caption_attribution_description: עברית: פרס על שם לורד עמנואל יעקובוביץ מוענק לקנצלרית גרמניה אנגלה מרקל 2103 Deutsch: Verleihung des Lord-Jakobovits-Preises an Angela Merkel in der Großen Synagoge von Brüssel English: German Chancellor being honored with the Lord Jakobovits award in the Great Synagogue of Brussels
context_page_description: The history of the Jews in Belgium goes back to the 1st century CE until today. The Jewish community numbered 66,000 on the eve of the Second World War but, after the war and the Holocaust, is now less than half that number.
  Today, Belgium is home to more than 30,000 Jews, of whom two-thirds live in Antwerp.
context_section_description: Today, there are around 42,000 Jews in Belgium. The Jewish Community of Antwerp (about 20,000 people) is one of the largest single communities in Europe, and one of the last places in the world where Yiddish is its primary language (mirroring certain Orthodox and Hassidic communities in New York and Israel). In addition a very high percentage (95%) of Jewish children in Antwerp receive a Jewish education. In contemporary Belgium, five Jewish newspapers and more than 45 active synagogues exist, 30 of which are in Antwerp.
caption: Angela Merkel and Moscow Chief Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt in the Great Synagogue of Brussels, 2016
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