As they took their seats on the assigned lanes of the bowling, five young men wearing yarmulkes saw written on the screen, instead of their names, the title “5 JODEN” which means 5 Jews in Dutch.

Bowling chain owner says he is ”genuinely shocked” by the incident.

Five young Jewish men have been targeted by an antisemitic message on Sunday in Antwerp as they were playing bowling in downtown Antwerp. 

Accordiung to Ralph Pais, Vice-President of Yid, an Antwerp-based Center for Jewish Information and Documentation, five 18-year-old Jewish men wearing yarmulkes went to the Gamestate bowling located on the Keyserlei avenue, close to the city’s Jewish quarter.

As they took their seats on the assigned lanes, they saw written on the screen, instead of their names, the title “5 JODEN” which means 5 Jews in Dutch.

Moreover, the young people were ignored throughout by the staff of the establishment, which is normally providing services to all customers, apparently because the were Jewish.

The five also noted that the bowling’s bartender was wearing a t-shirt bearing the words “PALESTINE”, in English and Arabic.

‘’This is not the first time that anti-Semitic incidents have occurred in this establishment,’’ Pais told European Jewish Press. ”In recent months, several reports have been made concerning Gamestate Antwerpen, one of which was the subject of a formal complaint,’’ he said.

Gamestate is a Dutch bowling chain which owns 16 establishments in five European countries: the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Poland and Slovakia.

Contacted by Ralph Pais, the CEO of the group owning the chain, Roel Veltmeijer, wrote in an email: ‘’I am genuinely shocked by your message. This is contrary to how we as a company want to treat our guests. You will hear from me soon and can count on us to work on this.’’

Informed of this antisemitic incident, Antwerp Mayor, Els van Desburg has not yet reacted.