Jewish Prisoners in Belgium to Be Allowed Head Covering Outside Cell

Thanks to the persistence of a Jewish member of Parliament, religious Jews who are detained in Belgian prisons will now be allowed to wear a head covering or kappel anywhere within the prison grounds.

Until now, prisoners in Belgium were allowed to wear a religious head covering only in their personal cells, but had to remove it when leaving their cell, for example, when meeting with their families, lawyers or the prison chaplain. A prisoner was also not allowed to wear a kappel when going outside for exercise, although at such a time, head coverings are allowed as protection from cold or heat.

Mr. Michael Freilich, a member of Parliament for the NV-A party since 2019, is a religious Jew from Antwerp. As a parliamentarian, he is allowed visits to prisons where he ensures that Jewish prisoners do not experience any anti-Semitism. In June 2021 he visited a Chassidic Jew in prison and noticed, when the man entered the visitors’ room, that he was holding his arm over his head. When Mr. Freilich told him that he knew that he wasn’t allowed to wear a kappel and that he could remove his arm, the man replied that he never took off his kappel and wasn’t going to start now. He explained how uncomfortable he felt, having to meet with his children and with Rabbi Osher Sternbuch, the prison chaplain, with his head exposed. He was awaiting trial for having rented a flat to someone who had used it to grow cannabis. The man sat there with his arm over his head for one and a half hours!

Mr. Freilich used the question and answers in the Belgian Parliament to start a dialogue with Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne on the question of wearing a religious head covering in prison. After six months of arguing and counter-arguing, finally, last week, Mr. Freilich received an email from the Justice Minister to confirm that he was revising the rules and that from now on prisoners would be allowed to wear head coverings anywhere in prison.

Mr. Freilich, formerly the editor of Joods Actueel, sent a triumphant email to the office of the Machzikei Hadass that read: “Please provide the following information to Rabbi Sternbuch, chaplain to Jewish prisoners, as well as to the rest of the board: I am attaching a copy of my various parliamentary questions to Justice Minister Vincent Van Quickenborne as well as his replies. Since last summer, I have advocated allowing Jewish inmates to wear skullcaps in prisons. Last week I got the job done! Minister Van Quickenborne wrote to me: ‘Wearing of headgear associated with a recognized religion or belief will be generally permitted. Instructions on this will be sent to prisons shortly.’”

“It took six months of debate,” explained Mr. Freilich to Hamodia. “I argued that according to EU law, I didn’t see any reason why a prisoner couldn’t wear a kappel.

“First he answered that it was for the safety of the prisoner since he might get attacked for his religion. I answered that if the state was not able to protect its prisoners from religious abuse, then that was their problem for which they should find solutions. Maybe in such a case they should place the person on house arrest instead of keeping him in prison, but that this wasn’t a reason not to provide for his religious needs. The minister then argued that the law did not provide for freedom of religion in prison, citing a case, but I replied that although there was no full provision for freedom of religion, e.g., you cannot allow a prisoner to attend synagogue or mosque, etc., but that whatever was possible to allow in prison, for example, kosher or halal food, was provided.

“The minister then tried to say that it was for safety reasons, i.e., to prevent smuggling of weapons or phones, but I explained that a kappel’s size was too small for that. After various other arguments, all of which I answered satisfactorily, the minister finally decided to back down and to change the rule,” concluded Freilich with satisfaction.

“Although the above man is long out of prison – he was only there for two months – and there are barely any Jews in prison in this country, this law will have an impact,” claims Freilich. “Every week Israelis are arrested in the airport with drugs that are legal there but illegal in this country. Also, in Belgium a person can be imprisoned pre-trial. Recently I had a Chassidishe yungerman in prison for four months. My argument was that prison was punishment enough. For a religious Jew, not wearing a kappel was an exposure akin to being not properly dressed and was embarrassing, especially in front of his children or Rabbi.”