SPF Justice. Service des Cultes et de la Laïcité. Dossiers du Culte israélite

SPF Justice. Service des Cultes et de la Laïcité. Dossiers du Culte israélite 

Federal Public Service Justice. Directorate General Legislation, Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. Fundamental Rights Department. Department of Worship and Secularism. In the first ten years following Belgian independence, administrative supervision of religious worship was carried out by the Ministry of the Interior. The Royal Decree of 10 June 1840 withdrew this responsibility from the Ministry of the Interior and entrusted it to the Ministry of Justice. For more than 150 years, the latter alone was the sole organisation responsible for this mission. However, state reforms removed much of the Ministry of Justice's jurisdiction in this area. Following the Lambermont Agreements, the administrative supervision of *le temporel des cultes* was transferred to the regions as of 1 January 2002. Only official recognition of religions and the treatment and pensions of religious ministers remained within the federal domain (Special Law of 13 July 2001 on the transfer of various powers to the regions and communities, Official Belgian Gazette of 3 August 2001). By establishing freedom of religion, the Belgian Constitution took a decisive step towards the emancipation of the Jews of Belgium. Established in 1832, the Central Jewish Consistory of Belgium emerged as the main representative of the Jewish religion in the kingdom. De facto recognised on the basis of French decrees dating back to 1808, its existence nevertheless remained implied until the law of 4 March 1870 on *le temporel des cultes*. In fact, the Jewish religion was not fully recognised until 1871. The Royal Decree of 23 February 1871 established the Boards of Directors in charge of managing the *temporel* interests of the synagogues and, shortly afterwards, the Royal Decree of 7 February 1876 determined their composition and method of election. On the eve of the First World War, the total Jewish population of Belgium amounted to approximately 40,000 people. However, this number increased sixfold between the two World Wars. During the 1920s and 1930s, several tens of thousands of Jews from Eastern Europe, Germany and Austria settled, for the most part, in large cities such as Brussels, Antwerp, Liège and Charleroi. During the Second World War, more than one third of the Jews in Belgium were deported and murdered by the Nazis. The post-war period saw the establishment of several Jewish organisations located on the fringes of religious Judaism. As early as 1971, they joined Coordinating Committee of Jewish Organizations in Belgium (CCOJB) and then the Forum der joodse organisaties. These bodies testify to the extraordinary diversity of the current structures of the Jewish world in Belgium. For more than 150 years, the Ministry of Justice and its"Worship Department” was responsible for a number of tasks concerning the management of religions. This essentially involved the official recognition of religions, their territorial and financial organisation as well as fixing and monitoring the payment of salaries and pensions to those working within these recognised religion organisations. The recognition of a religion included recognition for its representative body. In the case of Judaism, this role was entrusted to the Consistory. This supervision also extended to the management of the temporel aspects of worship, particularly religious buildings. The largest subsidies, which were related to the maintenance, restoration, extension or construction of buildings dedicated to recognised religions, were only made available subject to the prior authorisation of the Minister of Justice. Similarly, the Minister's authorisation was required prior to the purchase or sale of real estate owned by religious institutions. Finally, official recognition of religious communities (parishes, synagogues,...) was one of the department’s main missions. In the case of Jewish communities, these processes of recognition reflected their geographical and sociological evolution. From 1840 to 1993, with the department in charge of donations, bequests and endowments, the"Worship Departmen" constituted a separate section of the Ministry of Justice. From 1993, it joined the Administration of Civil Affairs and Worship (1993–1995), which became the Administration and then the Directorate General of Civil Legislation and Worship (1995–2002). Since the creation of the Federal Public Service Justice, it has been a department of the Directorate General for Fundamental Rights within the Directorate General for Legislation, Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. Even if the reforms of the State have removed a large portion of its powers, it remains a privileged interlocutor for representatives of recognised religions. To date, Belgium has 17 recognised Jewish communities: in Antwerp (3), Arlon (1), Brussels (7), Charleroi (1), Ghent (1), Knokke (1), Liège (1), Ostend (1) and Waterloo (1). All these communities are organised around a synagogue and one or more of their members are Consistory delegates. These delegates make up the Constituent Assembly. The largest communities are located in Brussels and Antwerp. Inaugurated in 1878, the great synagogue of Brussels remains an important centre of Jewish life in Brussels and Belgium. In addition to the synagogue on Rue de la Régence, the capital has several other official places of worship. Recognised in 1910, the Orthodox community established a synagogue in Anderlecht in 1933. In 1970, the Sephardic community in the capital inaugurated a synagogue in Schaerbeek. Furthermore, during the immediate post-war period, the capital's communities expanded into Saint-Gilles, Forest, Uccle and Waterloo, in Walloon Brabant. Along with Brussels, Antwerp has the largest religious communities. Of the three main communities in the city, two of them–Shomre Hadas and Machsike Hadas– observe the Ashkenazi rites. The third – the Sephardic community – has its own synagogue, known as the"Portuguese rite” synagogue. In Wallonia, small communities remain in Arlon, Liège and Charleroi. In Flanders, the communities of Ghent and Ostend are very small, but the community of Knokke has been very dynamic since it was recognised in 1998. 

SPF Justice. Service des Cultes et de la Laïcité. Dossiers du Culte israélite