BRUSSELS (EJP)— The Jewish community of Brussels had prepared two major events for this week on the occasion of the Purim holiday celebrations but both events have been cancelled following two horrible terror attacks in Brussels.
‘’There are grave concerns among Belgium’s Jews following the terrorist attacks that targeted Brussels’ airport and a metro station in the Belgian capital on Tuesday killing more than 30 people and injuring 230, said Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Director of the European Jewish Association (EJA) and head of the Rabbinical Center of Europe (RCE).
“The Jewish community here in Brussels and in Europe in general is not surprised,” he said. “We’ve been receiving alerts for a long time now. Despite the shock the city experienced, we were not surprised. Of course, we feel the concern and the pressure, but we were really not surprised by everything that’s going on in the city. It was only a matter of time before such an attack happened.’’
“We always knew about warnings, we knew where we were living. We hope that this wave will end as soon as possible so that it won’t harm the Purim holiday,” he said.
However he said that the impact will nevertheless be felt on the holiday. ‘’The government has raised preparedness to the highest level, that means an automatic cancellation of all public events – there are a lot of Jews here.”
Looking forward to the future amid expectations of increased aliyah or immigration to Israel among Belgian Jews, Rabbi Margolin said, “this is not an easy situation, you can’t run from terror and it can strike any place.”
“The metro station where the bombing occurred is several hundred meters from my office. I call on all Jews who need to fly or travel, to pay attention to the instructions of the police and to wait,” he added.
The authorities have requested everyone in the city to stay home over the next few days.
“We evacuated family by family from the Jewish school,” Rabbi Margolin explained as he described the day. “We feared additional attacks and contacted the families. To avoid panic, we asked that they take the children one at a time. Since then, all the families are at home. We obey the instructions from the security services.”
He has no doubt there are additional terror cells still lurking around Brussels. “The fact that the terrorist from Brussels was able to hide in the city for several months means there was someone helping him, which is why I believe these were not the last attacks we’ll be seeing here. The routine right now is difficult. There’s a feeling of insecurity.’’
He said he did not believe the motive for the new attacks had been anti-Semitic. “The attacks were not directed at Jews but against all the citizens of Europe who are getting used to a new reality,” he said, adding, “God is guarding us and we’re doing everything in our power to make sure that all the Jews in our community are safe.”
Jewish schools and institutions in both Brussels and Antwerp have been shut down. .