Trump Administration Goes to Bat for Metzitzah B'peh

The U.S. ambassador to Belgium is demanding that Belgium end an investigation into mohels who may have been using unsafe practices while circumcising Jewish babies.

Bill White made the demand, an unusual intervention into another country’s domestic affairs, in a post on X on Monday directed toward Belgium’s minister of health.

“To the (very rude) Belgian Minister of Health FRANK VANENBROUCKE; You must make a legal provision to allow Jewish religious MOHELS to perform their duties here in Belgium. It’s done in all civilized counties as legal procedure,” White tweeted. “BELGIUM is a civilized country. Stop this unacceptable harassment of the Jewish community here in Antwerp and in Belgium. It’s 2026, you need to get into the 21st century and allow our brethren Jewish families in Belgium to legally execute their religious freedoms!”

[...] Belgian media reported that the Antwerp raids stemmed from a complaint made by a member of the Jewish community. In 2024, Moshe Friedman, a local rabbi, filed a police complaint against six mohels who practice metzitzah b’peh, a custom in which the circumciser cleans the circumcision wound with oral suction.

The custom, which can risk infecting infants with dangerous diseases, is practiced only in haredi Orthodox communities such as the substantial one in Antwerp. Several years ago, a number of babies in New York City were infected with herpes via metzitzah b’peh.

White’s X post, which he said was on behalf of Trump and a slew of administration officials, said three mohels were facing “RIDICULOUS AND ANTI SEMITIC ‘PROSECUTION,'” which he said must be dropped immediately to preserve the U.S.-Belgian relationship. [Emphasis added]

US Anti-Semitism Czar Rabbi Yehuda Kaploun says he "enjoys" getting governments to bend to his will by using "gentle" or "not-so-gentle persuasion" and wielding "the power of the American government" to advance Jewish interests.

He boasts he got Ireland to pull BDS legislation,… pic.twitter.com/dXAcrbpG9o

— Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 (@infolibnews) February 5, 2026

Hatred of Jews has been allowed to “run amok” in the UK, Donald Trump’s anti-Semitism tsar has said.

In an exclusive interview with The Telegraph, Ambassador Yehuda Kaploun urged Sir Keir Starmer to crack down on protesters who were making large parts of the UK no-go zones for Jewish people.

Rabbi Kaploun, 57, an influential figure in the Trump administration, urged Sir Keir to ban Islamist groups he accused of stoking anti-Semitism.

After a two-day fact-finding tour, he said he had “a sense” of a “tremendous breakdown in law and order” in the UK.

Rabbi Kaploun, a close friend of the US president and Marco Rubio, his secretary of state, also urged the Labour administration to follow Mr Trump’s example by deporting pro-Palestine foreign students to make university campuses a “safe haven” for Jews.

An Orthodox rabbi, Rabbi Kaploun told The Telegraph he had chosen Britain for his first official visit overseas because of a rising tide of anti-Semitic incidents and after hearing pleas from Jews in the UK to intervene.

Speaking at the end of his two-day visit, which included meetings in Downing Street and with senior Jewish leaders, Rabbi Kaploun, Mr Trump’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism, said: “Coming to England was a priority for my office, because we have been inundated by calls from people within the UK to ask our assistance in working with the government to help stem the tide of anti-Semitism, which has been running amok in the UK throughout many of its regions.”

Yehuda Kaploun, Trump's Israeli-born Chabadnik nominee for US Anti-Semitism Czar, says "we have to protect every Jew worldwide."

"My mission is to ensure that the US is not just a safe haven for Jewish life, but a force that defends the Jewish community around the world."

What… pic.twitter.com/IDcoKbJHZd

— Chris Menahan 🇺🇸 (@infolibnews) December 18, 2025