Orthodox Jewish Family Expelled from Belgian Coastal Town Vacation Rental After Hosting Shabbat Prayers

By: Fern Sidman

An ultra-Orthodox Jewish family from Antwerp vacationing in the Belgian coastal town of Koksijde was ordered to leave their holiday rental after hosting Shabbat prayers and a Friday night meal, in an incident that has sparked growing concerns about religious discrimination in Belgian vacation destinations.

According to the father of the family, who spoke to the ultra-Orthodox news outlet B’Hadrei Haredim, the confrontation began when neighbors reported a so-called “suspicious gathering” to the property owner. The family had invited several friends to join them for traditional prayers and a meal on Friday evening, but neighbors described the modest gathering as a “party,” raising alarms that ultimately resulted in their eviction.

As UnitedWithIsrael.org reported on Thursday, the episode shines a spotlight on the growing unease felt by religious Jewish families who seek to vacation along Belgium’s North Sea coast, only to face heightened scrutiny and hostility when engaging in routine religious observances such as communal prayer and Shabbat meals.

The father recounted that he had attempted to clarify the situation to the landlord, explaining that the group consisted of no more than eight people. “When the owner came, I explained that it was just a half-hour gathering,” he said. Yet, despite his reassurance, tensions escalated after a second gathering.

On Saturday night, the family hosted a small minyan, a prayer quorum that had been arranged prior to Shabbat. By Sunday morning, the landlord had sent an email demanding that the family vacate the apartment immediately.

The father further revealed that neighbors had taken the troubling step of photographing his family—including his children—and sharing the images with the landlord via WhatsApp. “I told the landlord that if anyone photographs us again, I’ll call the police—and since then, it’s been quiet,” he recounted.

As was noted in the UnitedWithIsrael.org report, this account highlights the disturbing reality of Jewish families being treated with suspicion for engaging in traditional, non-disruptive religious rituals.

The incident is not isolated. Just a week earlier, two other ultra-Orthodox families from Belgium reported being denied rentals in the same coastal region. In one case, a landlady reportedly canceled a reservation after seeing photographs of the Jewish family, returning their deposit without explanation.

As the report UnitedWithIsrael.org emphasized, the pattern reveals a worrisome trend: Jewish families are increasingly unwelcome in holiday destinations where neighbors and landlords appear uncomfortable with religious observance. What should be a simple family holiday becomes, for many, a confrontation with prejudice thinly veiled as neighborhood concern.

Jewish travelers interviewed by community news outlets and cited by UnitedWithIsrael.org described an atmosphere of unease, where they feel watched, judged, and sometimes excluded for adhering to practices that have been integral to Jewish life for centuries.

The timing and location of the incidents have heightened anxiety among Jewish communities in Belgium. Antwerp, home to one of the largest ultra-Orthodox populations in Europe, is just two and a half hours away from Koksijde. Many families accustomed to Antwerp’s vibrant Jewish life now find themselves unwelcome in the country’s seaside holiday towns.

As UnitedWithIsrael.org reported, this is not simply a question of hospitality. Rather, it touches on deeper issues of freedom of religion, tolerance, and the right of Jewish citizens to live openly and safely wherever they travel.

Belgium has long been a center of both Jewish life and antisemitic hostility. From bans on kosher slaughter to recurrent incidents of harassment and vandalism, Jewish leaders have warned for years that public displays of observance increasingly draw negative attention. Against that backdrop, vacationers in Koksijde are now encountering resistance that echoes broader currents of intolerance.

What makes the Koksijde case particularly alarming, according to commentators cited by UnitedWithIsrael.org, is the degree to which normal religious activities were portrayed as suspicious. A Shabbat meal, prayers, and a small quorum of worshippers—quiet, non-disruptive, and held within the confines of a private rental—were reinterpreted by neighbors as a “party” or “suspicious gathering.”

Such labeling not only betrays ignorance about Jewish life but also legitimizes disproportionate responses by landlords and community members. The decision to expel the family, observers argue, reflects a readiness to penalize Jewish practices rather than accommodate or even seek to understand them.

The father’s testimony adds a deeply personal layer to the incident. To be photographed with his children, he said, was humiliating and invasive. “I told the landlord that if anyone photographs us again, I’ll call the police.” For Jewish families, the knowledge that neighbors are surveilling them during what should be a peaceful holiday undermines any sense of security or belonging.

As the UnitedWithIsrael.org report highlighted, such invasions of privacy carry troubling echoes of darker times in European Jewish history, when Jewish families were singled out, identified, and excluded from public life. While the modern context is different, the resonance is unsettling for many in the community.

Belgium’s tourism industry may also suffer reputational damage if incidents like these persist. Ultra-Orthodox and observant Jewish families represent a substantial segment of travelers in Europe, often seeking destinations that accommodate kosher food and allow for communal prayer. Exclusionary practices, or the perception that Jewish families are unwelcome, risk deterring tourism and fueling broader perceptions of hostility.

According to the information provided in the UnitedWithIsrael.org report, Jewish organizations are already considering whether to raise the issue with Belgian authorities, pressing for greater awareness among landlords and tourism operators about religious diversity. The aim would not be special treatment, but equal treatment: the right to rent a vacation property and observe religious traditions without harassment or expulsion.

Community leaders argue that the Belgian government has a responsibility to address the situation. While private landlords can set certain rules for their properties, denying rentals based on religion—or penalizing tenants for religious practice—skirts dangerously close to discrimination.

The report at UnitedWithIsrael.org underscored that Jewish organizations are urging policymakers to ensure that landlords cannot arbitrarily target observant Jewish families under the guise of “neighbor complaints.” If unchecked, the pattern risks establishing an informal but insidious form of segregation in Belgian vacation towns.

Ultimately, the case of the Koksijde family is about more than a single vacation gone awry. It is emblematic of the challenges faced by Jewish communities across Europe, where ordinary expressions of faith and tradition are sometimes met with suspicion, hostility, or outright exclusion.

The incident demonstrates the urgent need to reaffirm the principles of tolerance and inclusivity that are supposed to underpin European democracies. For Jewish families, the promise of being able to live—and vacation—openly as Jews is not merely a matter of comfort, but of basic dignity and equal citizenship.

The expulsion of a Belgian ultra-Orthodox family from their rental property in Koksijde after hosting Shabbat prayers has exposed a disturbing pattern of religious discrimination in Belgian vacation towns. From neighbors labeling quiet gatherings as “parties” to landlords canceling reservations after identifying Jewish tenants, the signals are clear: Jewish families are increasingly viewed as unwelcome.

For many, the involvement of children in this surveillance—being photographed and reported—was particularly chilling. And for the broader Jewish community, the incident resonates as yet another reminder that antisemitism often takes root not only in overt hostility but in the quiet normalization of exclusion.

As UnitedWithIsrael.org has documented, such incidents are not isolated, but part of a broader landscape of challenges facing Jewish life in Europe. The Koksijde family’s ordeal serves as a call to action: to confront intolerance, to defend the right to religious observance, and to ensure that Jewish families can participate in the simple joys of travel and leisure without fear of being cast out.