An event occurred in Brussels that is difficult to simply call a church ceremony. In the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula, one of the main churches of the Belgian capital, ancient stained glass windows associated with the anti-Semitic libel of 1370 were dismantled.
For the Jewish history of Europe, this is not an interior detail, but a painful symbol.
Hundreds of people attended the ceremony, including representatives of the Christian clergy, the Chief Rabbi of Brussels and Belgium, Rabbi Avraham Gigi, as well as leaders of the Jewish community. Instead of the stained glass windows, a memorial plaque was installed in local languages and Hebrew with an official acknowledgment of historical injustice and apologies for the suffering caused to the Jewish people. The ceremony in the Brussels cathedral took place on April 26, 2026, according to media reports.
What happened in Brussels and why it matters
The Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula is not an ordinary church. It is one of the central Catholic churches in Brussels, associated with the state and religious history of Belgium. Therefore, the decision to publicly remove images that for decades reminded of a medieval anti-Semitic accusation has not only museum but also political and moral significance.
The essence of the matter goes back to 1370.
At that time, Jews were accused of stealing consecrated hosts and their ‘desecration.’ According to church legend, the hosts were allegedly damaged, after which they began to ‘bleed.’ Such stories in medieval Europe often became a pretext for mass hatred, torture, executions, pogroms, and expulsions.
In Brussels, this legend became known as the ‘Miracle of the Holy Sacrament’ or the ‘Brussels Sacramental Miracle.’ But behind the beautiful religious formula lay a tragedy: Jews were accused without real evidence, part of the community was destroyed, the rest were expelled, and their property confiscated.
Why this is not just an old dispute about stained glass
The ancient stained glass windows were not neutral art. They visually reinforced a false narrative in which Jews were portrayed as enemies of the Christian shrine.
This is exactly how medieval propaganda worked: not only through sermons but also through images, legends, processions, relics, and church holidays. For the illiterate population, stained glass was often stronger than text. It did not explain—it instilled.
Therefore, the dismantling of such images is not an attempt to ‘erase history.’ On the contrary, it is an attempt to finally call history by its name.
The history of the issue: how the libel became part of the city’s memory
After the events of 1370, the story of the ‘bleeding hosts’ became part of Brussels’ religious memory. The hosts were revered as a shrine, and the plot itself was maintained for centuries by church tradition and artistic images.
Later, especially in modern times, such legends were used not only against Jews but also in Catholic-Protestant disputes. The image of the ‘miracle’ was supposed to confirm the special significance of the Eucharist and strengthen the Catholic version of faith.
But for the Jewish community, this cult meant something else: a memory of lies, blood, and exile.
After World War II and the Holocaust, the Catholic Church’s attitude towards such plots began to change. The Second Vatican Council and the declaration Nostra aetate played an important role, changing the official tone of the Catholic Church towards Jews. In 1968, the Archdiocese of Mechelen-Brussels renounced the previous recognition of the cult associated with this ‘miracle,’ and in 1977, an explanatory plaque appeared in the cathedral, distancing itself from the accusations of 1370.
But, as it turned out, one explanation was not enough.
The stained glass windows continued to exist as a visual trace of the old libel. And only now, about 650 years later, a stronger symbolic step was taken: the image was removed, and in its place appeared a memorial plaque with a direct acknowledgment of the harm done to the Jewish people.
What is the libel of ‘desecrating the host’
It is important not to confuse terms here. The classic ‘blood libel’ is the accusation of Jews in the murder of Christians, most often children, allegedly for ritual purposes. And the accusation of ‘desecrating the host’ is another form of anti-Semitic myth: Jews were accused of stealing or damaging consecrated bread.
But the essence of these plots is the same.
They turned Jews into a demonized enemy, created a religious justification for violence, and allowed authorities or mobs to rob, expel, and kill. Therefore, in a broad sense, the Brussels story of 1370 belongs to the same European tradition of anti-Semitic libels that for centuries poisoned relations between the Christian majority and Jewish communities.
Why this is important for Israel and the Jewish world today
For Israel, such news does not sound like distant European archaeology. It is part of a long history in which lies about Jews first became a picture, then a legend, then a ‘well-known fact,’ and after that—a pretext for violence.
That is why the acknowledgment of the mistake after 650 years is significant.
It does not bring back the dead. It does not cancel the expulsion. It does not erase the fear that has been passed down in the Jewish memory of Europe for centuries.
But it shows that historical lies can be called lies even after centuries. For the Jewish audience in Israel, this is especially sensitive because modern anti-Semitism often works in the same way: first a caricature, then an accusation, then a justification for aggression.
In this sense, the story of Brussels is not only about the Middle Ages. It is a warning about how dangerous it is when a religious, political, or media system preserves a false image of the Jew as the culprit of others’ troubles for decades.
NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency considers such stories not as museum news but as part of a larger theme: how Europe, Israel, and the Jewish people today work with memory, historical responsibility, and a new wave of anti-Semitism.
Why ‘better late than never’ sounds bitter here
The phrase ‘better late than never’ fits this event but sounds almost painfully in it.
Because it has not been ten years or one generation. About six and a half centuries have passed. During this time, Europe has experienced the expulsion of Jews, ghettos, church bans, pogroms, racial theories, the Holocaust, and a new surge of anti-Semitism already in the digital age.
Therefore, the dismantling of the stained glass windows in Brussels is not just an act of goodwill. It is an acknowledgment that symbols have power. Even old ones. Even beautiful ones. Even if they are accustomed to being called ‘historical heritage.’
Historical heritage does not cease to be a heritage of hatred if it is built on lies.
What this ceremony changes
From a practical point of view, one ceremony will not solve the problem of anti-Semitism in Europe. It will not stop radical movements, will not instantly change school programs, and will not remove new versions of old libels from the internet.
But it sets an important standard.
If a false accusation has been displayed in the cathedral for centuries as part of religious memory, today it must be publicly dismantled, explained, and acknowledged. Not hidden in an archive. Not left with a vague signature. Not justified by the words ‘it was the time.’
For Israel and Jewish communities, this is fundamental: the memory of the past must be not decorative but honest. Especially where once religious authority helped turn lies into violence.
The Brussels cathedral took a step that should have been taken long ago.
That is why this story is important not only for Belgium. It is important for all of Europe, for Israel, and for every society that wants to understand: anti-Semitism does not start with bonfires. It starts with a lie that no one stops for too long.
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