The Belgian Jewish Community was officially represented at the abdication ceremony of King Albert II and the swearing-in of his son Philippe as new king of the Belgians on Sunday by Baron Julien Klener, president of the Belgian Israelite Consistory.
Klener said as crown prince Philippe had always shown a keen interest in Jewish community life in Belgium. In 1993, he unveiled a bronze plaque expressing the gratitude of Belgian Jews to their fellow citizens for the rescue of many of many Jews during the Nazi occupation from 1940 to 1944. In September 2012, the crown prince attended the 56th pilgrimage to the former Dossin barracks as part of the National Day of Jewish Martyr of Belgium and the 70th anniversary of the start of the deportation of Jews from Belgium to the death camps.
In January 2013 Philippe participated in the ceremony marking the 68th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz and lit the first of six candles, each representing more than one million dead Jews. Klener also praised the new king’s “intellectual curiosity that has led him to take an interest in the diversity of human thought and in the various beliefs and philosophies.”
Judaism is an officially recognized religious denomination since Belgium's foundation in 1831.
