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
Partition of Belgium Flanders from the Belgian federation. On October 10, Elio Di Rupo stated on television what his plan was: first, asking the Flemish population whether it was willing to secede; second, asking the population in Brussels and Wallonia whether they intended to remain united within Belgium. He also stressed that in either case citizens living in municipalities with linguistic facilities should also be asked. He however underlined that he did not desire such an extreme response but that this scenario should not be ignored. Di Rupo's declarations on television have been broadly discussed in the French-written press: according to Le Soir,