page_title: Antwerp
section_title: Jewish community
hierarchical_section_title: Antwerp / Demographics / Minorities / Jewish community
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Anvers, Belgique. Synagogue, dite hollandaise, de style mauresque, sise Bouwmeestersstraat (ci-devant rue des Architectes). Oeuvre de Joseph Hertogs et Ernest Stordiau (1893). Nederlands: Antwerpen. Zog. Hollandse synagoge, in neomoorse stijl, gelegen aan de Bouwmeestersstraat, in de wijk Zuid. Ontwerp van architecten Joseph Hertogs en Ernest Stordiau (1893).
context_page_description: Antwerp is a city in Belgium and the capital of Antwerp province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504, it is the most populous city proper in Belgium, and with a metropolitan population of around 1,200,000 people, it is the second largest metropolitan region after Brussels.
  Antwerp is on the River Scheldt, linked to the North Sea by the river's Westerschelde estuary. It is about 40 kilometres north of Brussels, and about 15 kilometres south of the Dutch border. The Port of Antwerp is one of the biggest in the world, ranking second in Europe and within the top 20 globally. The city is also known for its diamond industry and trade.
  Both economically and culturally, Antwerp is and has long been an important city in the Low Countries, especially before and during the Spanish Fury and throughout and after the subsequent Dutch Revolt. The Bourse of Antwerp, originally built in 1531 and re-built in 1872, was the world's first purpose-built commodity exchange. It was founded before stocks and shares existed, so was not strictly a stock exchange.
context_section_description: After The Holocaust and the murder of its many Jews, Antwerp became a major centre for Orthodox Jews. At present, about 15,000 Haredi Jews, many of them Hasidic, live in Antwerp. The city has three official Jewish Congregations: Shomrei Hadass, headed by Rabbi Dovid Moishe Lieberman, Machsike Hadass, headed by Rabbi Aron Schiff (formerly by Chief Rabbi Chaim Kreiswirth) and the Portuguese Community Ben Moshe. Antwerp has an extensive network of synagogues, shops, schools and organizations. Significant Hasidic movements in Antwerp include Pshevorsk, based in Antwerp, as well as branches of Satmar, Belz, Bobov, Ger, Skver, Klausenburg, Vizhnitz and several others. Rabbi Chaim Kreiswirth, chief rabbi of the Machsike Hadas community, who died in 2001, was arguably one of the better known personalities to have been based in Antwerp. An attempt to have a street named after him has received the support of the Town Hall and is in the process of being implemented.
caption: Hollandse Synagogue
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