One of more than 12 synagogues in Antwerp’s Jewish district known as the Pellikan.

Located in the heart of Antwerp’s well-known “Diamond District”, the Bet Midrash Morei is a Sephardic synagogue (and often referred to as the “Sephardic Synagogue”) that was built and dedicated in 1913. Designed by architect, Joseph DeLange, the synagogue itself is a model of simplicity. Eschewing some of the more elaborate architectural fashions evidenced in many other synagogues in Europe, Bet Midrash was constructed in a Romanesque-Byzantine style that reflected in large degree the austerity and modesty of the mostly Ottoman Jews who comprised its early congregations.

Though Jews in Belgium can be traced back as far as the days of the Roman Empire, they began arriving in greater numbers in the 15th and 16th centuries after England, France, Spain and Portugal expelled them. In Belgium, they were tolerated for the most part, though at times persecuted. By the time Napoleon arrived on the European scene at the turn of the 19th Century, the Jewish population in Antwerp began to swell to even greater numbers with more Jews arriving from Eastern Europe and the Ottoman Empire.

The Bet Midrash Morei synagogue is one of many functioning synagogues today in Antwerp which boasts 15,000 Jewish residents, 90 percent of whom are employed in the diamond industry. The Second World War saw Antwerp’s Jewish population decimated by deportations while thousands more went into hiding. The few survivors of the camps returned to Antwerp and, combined with an influx of Jewish refugees from other parts of Europe, they rebuilt a thriving community that is at the very center of the world diamond trade. In fact, more than 70 percent of the world’s rough diamonds, valued at more than $23 billion annually, are traded and processed by Antwerp’s Jews.

While the Jewish community enjoys a stable and prosperous existence today, they are not immune from hostility. In October 1981, terrorists planted a car bomb outside the synagogue that detonated and killed three people and wounded more than 100 others.

The diamond business, too, has attracted the unwanted attention and in early 2003, theives plundered 123 of 160 diamond vaults from businesses located around the synagogue, stealing millions of dollars worth of stones.