Brussels-based center trains mohelim as Belgium circumcision debate intensifies

The European Jewish Association (EJA) and the Rabbinical Center of Europe (RCE) have launched the likely the first-ever comprehensive medical and professional certification program for Jewish circumcision practitioners outside Israel.

The newly established Center of Excellence for Religious Male Circumcision (CERM) comes against the backdrop of growing legal and political challenges to Jewish religious circumcision in Belgium and other European countries.

Based in Brussels, CERM will provide already-qualified mohelim - trained Jewish religious practitioners who perform Brit Milah - with structured medical and safety training, practical assessment, and certification.

An international network of urologists, pediatricians, physicians, and medical scientists will supervise the program, with a Medical and Scientific Council responsible for reviewing and approving its clinical protocols, certification assessments, and professional standards.

Its Medical Officers and Advisory Board come from Belgium, the United Kingdom, Israel, Italy, and Germany, including specialists with direct experience of Israel’s formal system for the certification and supervision of mohelim .

The curriculum covers the medical and safety framework surrounding the procedure, including newborn assessment, hygiene and infection prevention, infant welfare, bleeding and wound care, recognition of complications, emergency response and infant basic life support, medical referral and aftercare.

European Jewish program aims to strengthen trust in qualified mohelim across Europe

The aim of the program is to work with health authorities across Europe to build confidence in qualified mohelim as the practitioners best placed to perform religious circumcision, "ensuring their competence is recognized through rigorous medical standards and independent supervision - rather than becoming a matter of political debate."

European Commissioner for Health and Animal Welfare, Oliver Várhelyi, commended EJA for the program.

"Our responsibility is to ensure that longstanding traditions can continue in a framework that meets the highest standards of child welfare, medical safety and professional responsibility, in line with European standards. The Center of Excellence for Religious Male Circumcision offers a constructive and credible model for doing exactly that,” he said.

“Brit Milah has been at the heart of Jewish life for thousands of years," said Rabbi Menachem Margolin, Chairman of the European Jewish Association and the Rabbinical Center of Europe.

"Faced with growing challenges to the practice and, in particular, to the ability of trained mohelim to perform it in parts of Europe, we decided that our response must go beyond defending our religious freedom."

"When it comes to the welfare and safety of a child, our ambition should never simply be to meet a minimum standard. We want excellence - and we want that excellence to be transparent, documented, and capable of being independently demonstrated.”

Why has Belgium become a center of debate for religious circumcision?

Belgium has become a focal point of the debate around the practice of religious circumcision.

In Spring 2025, Belgian authorities raided multiple sites, including two in Antwerp’s Jewish Quarter, at the outset of an investigation into illegal circumcisions.

Then in May 2026, Antwerp Public Prosecutor’s Office indicted two mohels (professionals who perform circumcision) for bodily harm with premeditation against minors.

The prosecutor's office said that it has completed the judicial investigation into alleged illegal circumcisions and can confirm that there is "sufficient evidence to request that the case be referred to the criminal court for two men."

"The facts have been classified as intentional assault or bodily harm with premeditation against minors, as well as the illegal practice of medicine," it told The Jerusalem Post at the time.

The raids and subsequent investigations led to outcry from the European Jewish community and Israeli officials.