Fighting a One-Man War         

“All the wells are poisoned,” says Belgian MP Michael Freilich, an Orthodox Jew who has been waging a solitary battle for Israel since the October 7 terror attacks. As Brussels has crossed every possible diplomatic red line, going so far as to ban the airing of videos of the massacre, he stands alone in an uphill struggle, making the case for a country fighting for its life

ONSimchas Torah morning, as Jews in Antwerp prepared for Yom Tov davening, a non-Jewish aide knocked on the door of Belgian parliament member Michael Freilich and told him the devastating news: Thousands of terrorists had invaded the State of Israel and were massacring whole towns.

“I was in utter shock,” Freilich tells Mishpacha.

At that moment, Freilich had no idea how much his life would change. His public life as a member of parliament was at a tipping point.

“After the news sank in,” Freilich relates, “I headed for the home of Rav Pinchas Leibish Padwa, the rav of Antwerp’s Shomrei Hadas community. I got his permission to do something I never dreamed I’d have to do — send an urgent message, on Yom Tov, to Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, asking him to immediately increase security for the local Jewish community.”