Courtesy of JNS. Photo credit: John Thys/ AFP via Getty Images
U.S. Ambassador in Belgium Bill White (R) speaks to the press next to the mayor of Liege Willy Demeyer (L) outside the synagogue in Liege, eastern Belgium, after a pre-dawn blast damaged the building in what prosecutors said was being investigated as a suspected “terrorist” crime on March 9, 2026
(JNS) — U.S. Ambassador to Belgium Bill White on Mar. 9 visited a synagogue in Liege, Belgium that had been targeted in an apparent antisemitic bombing overnight Mar. 8, meeting there with the city’s mayor, the synagogue’s rabbi and leaders of the local Jewish community.
An explosion occurred shortly before 4:00 a.m. in front of the synagogue. It did not cause any injuries but damaged the building, which had been built in 1899. Belgian Interior Minister Bernard Quintin described the attack as a “despicable anti-Semitic act.” In a post on social media, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever said that “antisemitism is an attack on our values and our society, and we must fight it unequivocally.”
Describing the explosion as an antisemitic attack against Belgium’s Jewish community, White said that the United States “unconditionally supports the Jewish community’s right to practice its faith without intimidation.”
The European Commission also strongly condemned the “anti-Semitic attack,” wrote European Commissioner for Internal Affairs Magnus Brunner.
“We stand in solidarity with the Jewish community and support the police in their efforts to protect places of worship,” he added on social media.
At Unia, the Belgian Interfederal Center for Equal Opportunities and the Fight against Racism and Discrimination, the attack on a synagogue leaves no room for doubt. It is an act “that falls under anti-Semitism,” said Unia Director Patrick Charlier. Unia points out that this is the second such act in Liège in a relatively short period, following the desecration last September of the grave of Jean Gol, a former leader of the French-speaking Liberal party, who was Jewish.
“It’s not good to be Jewish in Belgium today,” Unia said in September when the organization was asked to comment on the rise of antisemitism in Belgium following the Hamas attack on Oct. 7, 2023.
Unia regularly publishes statistics on antisemitism in Belgium. The new figures for 2025 have just been released. “We are seeing a relatively high number of reports and cases opened for anti-Semitism compared to previous years,” said Charlier.
In 2025, Unia received a total of 192 reports of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. There were 270 in 2024. The two years are “record years,” said Charlier. In 2022, for example, only 31 cases were opened.
COOJB, the representative body of Jewish organizations, said “this new attack must serve as an urgent wake-up call for the authorities to move from words to action.”
The organization deplored that Belgium still does not have a national strategy to combat antisemitism and promote Jewish life, as it had committed to the European Commission to create, nor does it have a coordinator to carry out this work.
