I've been to Brussels on two separate occasions, for brief periods, and enjoyed the city very much. I was there in March of 2010 and again in October of 2011. My first visit was more extensive than my second, which was during an airport layover, and consisted mainly of me seeing the Manneken Pis (a little statue of a child peeing), eating french fries and a waffle, and indulging too heavily on Belgian beer. During my first visit, I was able to visit the main attractions and museums in the city, including the Royal Palace, the Royal Museum of Fine Arts, and Grand Place. One inconsequential stop along the way also happened to be Rue des Minimes 21, which sits cozily on a picturesque, cobblestone street in central Brussels. However, there is one noticeable difference. Unlike the rest of the street, the area in front of the building, usually reserved for parking, is an extended sidewalk. At the edges of the sidewalk are thick metal stubs, entrenched in the ground, used to prevent vehicles from getting too close to the facility. It's an extra security mechanism; added protection not afforded to anyone else on the street, only to the tenant at number 21. When you're looking for a Jewish site in Europe, like I was that day, you don't need to approach the building to know you've come to the right place; just look for the security barrier, a steady reminder that the past is never the past for Jews in Europe. The tenant at number 21 is the Jewish Museum of Belgium, where 4 people were killed on Saturday by a gunman wielding what appears to be a Kalashnikov rifle, his face partially concealed by his hat. Those killed were an Israeli couple, Emanuel and Miriam Riva, a 23 year old museum employee, Alexandre Strens, and a 60 year old museum volunteer, Dominique Chabrier.
For those Jews living in Belgium and in many places around Europe, the attack is shocking, but not surprising. In the last several years, dating back to 2008 during the Great Recession, Europe has seen an alarming rise in anti-Semitism, which has come from a couple different sources. The first, most visible source has been right-wing (and some left-wing) political groups, which are superficially different, but who all exhibit the same basic tenets of xenophobia, racism, and anti-Semitism. The second source has been recent immigrants from the Middle East and North Africa, like the perpetrator in the Toulouse shooting, Mohamed Merah, a French citizen of Algerian origin. I wrote about these troubling developments just one year ago, while I was living in Italy. My writing touched on specific elements of three major aspects of right-wing nationalism: racism (specifically through the vehicle of soccer), anti-Semitism (specifically in France), and xenophobia (Italian opposition to immigration). Often times all three get mixed together. Here is part of what I wrote a year ago in regards to anti-Semitism:
"Now, three years after my first trip, anti-Semitism is rapidly increasing across all over Europe prevalent among a growing contingent of resurgent right wing groups and immigrants, mostly Muslim, from Africa and the Middle East. Huge upsurges in anti-Semitism have been seen in the Swedish city of Malmo, which has a burgeoning immigrant population, in Hungary, where the right-wing Jobbik party is the country’s third largest, in Greece, where the Golden Dawn party has gained popularity, and in Ukraine, with the nationalist Svoboda party. Last month, one of Britain’s first Muslim ministers blamed his sentencing follow a driving accident on a “Jewish conspiracy." And to see how it’s all come full-circle, in Germany, just a couple weeks ago, a rabbi was attacked near Frankfurt and called a “shitty Jew."
"Some have said there is ample room for comparing Europe in the late 1920s and early 1930s, when the Great Depression hit, to Europe in the present day. Certainly, the economic situation is dire now, just as it was then. Unemployment continues to rise throughout Europe, reaching over 25% in Spain and Greece and youth unemployment is even worse. In Italy, youth unemployment has reached 40%; in Spain the number is over 50%; and in Greece it is nearly 60%. This is especially problematic because young minds, when times are bad, tend to turn to ideas they do not fully understand.
In Europe, these young minds are far more likely to turn to the far right of the political spectrum looking for someone or something to blame. In many instances they blame the government, but fringe groups seize on fear and uncertainty, enabling them to grow, ultimately blaming outsiders or immigration with the Jews being thrown into the mix...I don’t mean to sound morbid, or to suggest that the situation here, as a whole, is dire. But in some areas, for many Jews, particularly religious Jews who wear Kippot or Tzitzit, it has, as Lyon’s Chief Rabbi remarked, become “unbearable.”
The unfortunate reality is that things may soon get worse. I mentioned three major right-wing political parties active in Hungary, Ukraine, and Greece, but my references were mostly confined to their domestic actions. In Europe, however, there are also European Union elections, in which EU countries send representatives who make up the European Parliament. The elections for the body take place every five years, and its most recent edition was just last week. The results were announced just one day after the Brussels shooting and they were astonishing. Far-right groups made huge gains. The National Front Party in France won their first nationwide election, and right-wing groups in Austria, Denmark, and the UK made huge gains as well. All of this is bad news for European Jews. Here is what I wrote about the future just last year.
It is impossible to say if the economic situation in Europe will improve but as debt continues to grow and economies continue to shrink, the outlook is bleak. If Europe continues to deteriorate, the people will elect new leaders, but worsening times leaves the inevitability of a power vacuum, ready to be filled. The issues with anti-Semitism, xenophobia, and racism are real, and show no signs of dissipating. Europe will have to face the issues head-on, acknowledging their existence and devising a strategy to eradicate them. This is no easy task, and the climb will treacherous, and will be met with vociferous opposition but the alternative may be much more dangerous.
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=425037422114547568#editor/target=post;postID=845487357080051588;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=11;src=postnameIn Europe, these young minds are far more likely to turn to the far right of the political spectrum looking for someone or something to blame. In many instances they blame the government, but fringe groups seize on fear and uncertainty, enabling them to grow, ultimately blaming outsiders or immigration with the Jews being thrown into the mix...I don’t mean to sound morbid, or to suggest that the situation here, as a whole, is dire. But in some areas, for many Jews, particularly religious Jews who wear Kippot or Tzitzit, it has, as Lyon’s Chief Rabbi remarked, become “unbearable.”
The unfortunate reality is that things may soon get worse. I mentioned three major right-wing political parties active in Hungary, Ukraine, and Greece, but my references were mostly confined to their domestic actions. In Europe, however, there are also European Union elections, in which EU countries send representatives who make up the European Parliament. The elections for the body take place every five years, and its most recent edition was just last week. The results were announced just one day after the Brussels shooting and they were astonishing. Far-right groups made huge gains. The National Front Party in France won their first nationwide election, and right-wing groups in Austria, Denmark, and the UK made huge gains as well. All of this is bad news for European Jews. Here is what I wrote about the future just last year.
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