History of the Jews in Belgium History of the Jews in Belgium Judaism has a long history in Belgium, from 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. The first Jews to arrive in the present-day territory of Belgium arrived with the Romans between the years 50 and 60 AD Jews were mentioned as early as 1200 in Brabant (and in 1261, Duke Henry III ordered
Second city of the United Kingdom districts by population). However, most sources do not use formal city boundaries as the sole criterion for population comparison. The surrounding conurbations and the areas that can be considered informally part of each city are hard to define. However, after the 1974 reorganisation of local government and the creation of metropolitan counties, the City of Birmingham was included with the City of Coventry and five other metropolitan boroughs (one, Wolverhampton gained city status in 2000) in a new West Midlands county. The City of Manchester joined with the neighbouring City of Salford and eight other Metropolitan boroughs within the County