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(such as Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Israel, etc).

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Category: België

  • Mini-expo at FelixArchief in Antwerp: “Foreigners in a foreign city”

    The FelixArchief (the City Archives of Antwerp: https://felixarchief.antwerpen.be) announced in their recent newsletter from February, sent out via email, that the subject of the mini-expo which will run from February 12, 2019, until Friday, April 5, 2019, will be about “Vreemdelingen in een vreemde stad” (Foreigners in a foreign city). I think that it is worth sharing, hence this post with a translation of the original announcement

    (please note, the translation is my responsibility and was not specifically endorsed by the FelixArchief. I’ve included the full URL with the original announcement below the translated text.)

    In 1839, the then Sûreté Publique (State Security Service), was commissioned to check all foreign nationals on Belgian territory. In order to gather the necessary information about each foreign national, the State turned to the cities and towns. They were instructed to keep a close eye on every stranger and to forward documents with information to Brussels, where they were kept in a central file.

    Antwerp started in 1840 with the

    (more…)

  • An introduction to the Belgian Statearchives and its immigration files

    The Public Safety Organization:
    In 1840 the Belgian state, which was founded in 1830, entrusted the Public Safety (in Dutch: Openbare Veiligheid, in French: Sûreté Publique, in German:Öffentlichen Sicherheit) which was an autonomous board under the Minister of Justice, to monitor the aliens on its territory.

    Note: Both Dutch, French and German are spoken in specific parts of Belgium as can be seen on the following map:

    In order to preserve public order, the Public Safety Organization had to remove undesired aliens from Belgium’s territory. In order to be able to implement this order, they had to rely on the support from the municipal authorities who had in their turn to report each registration of any alien in the register of the municipality as soon as possible to the Public Safety.

    This Public Safety organization would then decide whether the person could remain in the country. If this was the case, the Public Safety organization would keep a close eye on the alien citizen during his or her stay in Belgium. All authorities, including the army and the judiciary, were supposed to forward any document about the foreigner to the Public Safety Organization.

    How was the information collected:
    Most information was obviously gathered from aliens who voluntarily went to the municipalities to register. In addition, information was directly obtained by the police who found foreigners on Belgian territory and of foreigners that had to resort to the use of public services such as hospitals, etc.

    Some files were opened on aliens even though they never reached Belgian territory. The organization opened these files preventively for “subversive” and possible criminal foreigners in order to be prepared in case they would enter Belgian territory.

    When the foreigner in question passed away or (more…)

  • Photos and documents about Rav Schiff’s coronation as the new ruv of Machsike Hadass-Antwerp

    The (paying) members of the one of the two Jewish communities, the Machsike Hadass, did vote on November 29th and 30th for the then candidate Rov Rav Ahron Schif.
    From the 593 votes, 93.4% were in favour of Rav Ahron Schif as the new Rov.

    Last Sunday, April 3rd, the ceremony took finally place in the packed main synagogue of the Kehille in the Oostenstraat.

    All members of the kehille received two books. One book with the history on the kehille, its founding and an overview with the history on almost all shuls of Antwerp. And the second book has got a collection of essays by Rav Schiff.
    Both books did cost together €10 (only) for non-members.

    You can enjoy the photos I made or read some articles which I did collect from different sources.
    (some articles and/or photos may have שמות, please handle with due respect)

    The cover of the book עיר האם בישראל

    The contents of the book