| ‘We are not serving Jews,’ an American Jewish tourist was told at Belgian café |
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ANTWERP (EJP)---The Mayor of the Belgian city of Bruges has asked for an inquiry after an American Jewish tourist was ousted from a café-restaurant because he was wearing a kippa or skullcap.
On a visit to Bruges two
weeks ago, Marcel Kalmann, a 64-year-old US professor, entered Le Panier
d’Or, a renowned café-restaurant located on the main city square, to have a
coffee.
When the waiter saw his
kippa under his hat, he told him to get out. “We are not serving Jews, out
of here,” he allegedly shouted.
In shock, the man went
to another café nearby where the owners helped him to call police. An operator
told him that police patrols do not go out for such cases and advised him to
call on a police station.
According to the account
given by Kalmann to “Joods Actueel”, a Jewish magazine in Antwerp, at the police
station a policeman first made clear that he didn't believe his story.
Later,
an officer indicated that a complaint can only be
stated in Flemish and not in English, adding erroneously
that anti-Semitic offense doesn't exist in Belgian law.
An angry Kalmann told
the magazine that he is planning to lodge a complaint against the owner of the
café-restaurant and against the police.
Contacted by ‘Joods
Actueel’, the owner of Le Panier d’Or acknowledged that Kalmann was kicked
out. He said he was ready to apology but added that the client had a
“strange behaviour.” The restaurants in the area spoke rather of a quarrel about
"outrageous prices."
Patrick Monaert, Mayor
of Bruges, has asked police for an inquiry and apologized to Kalmann for the
"inadequate behaviours" which, he said, “are contrary to the welcoming image the
city intends to give.”
The Jewish community in
Antwerp was all the more outraged and moved by this anti-Semitic incident that
Kalmann was born in Auschwitz three days before the liberation of the Nazi camp
by the Russian army.
Around 40,000 Jews live
in Belgium, mainly in the capital Brussels and
Antwerp.