In Belgium, Jewish leaders worry that antisemitism has gone mainstream

"At a parade here in March, revelers danced to a song about Jewish greed while standing on a float shaped like an Orthodox Jewish man with a rat on his shoulder holding money.

In August, an op-ed in a major Belgian newspaper called Jews in Israel land thieves with a religious superiority complex and 'ugly noses.'

And earlier this month, a local politician presented a painting he made featuring a swastika and the words "And God created A. Hitler" at a prestigious Brussels art gallery.

Such incidents are not unusual in Western Europe, where public displays of anti-Semitism are making a comeback. But their defense by authorities and the responsible parties has prompted concern that anti-Semitism is gaining a level of mainstream acceptance in Belgium that is matched by few, if any, other Western European nations.

'Nothing is unique about the prevalence and nature of anti-Semitism in Belgium,' said Joel Rubinfeld, a former co-chair of the European Jewish Parliament and current president of the Belgian League Against Anti-Semitism. 'What is unusual is that recently, we've had a string of incidents where officials, opinion shapers and artists are defending anti-Semitism. That is a quite worrisome development, which I think is only happening in Belgium on this level.'..."