A group of rabbis representing Jewish communities spanning from Morocco to Iran gathered in Brussels on Monday, meeting with European Union officials inside the European Parliament and calling on the EU to help sustain and strengthen Jewish life throughout the Muslim world.
Among those present was Iran’s chief rabbi — and the meeting came on the very day Britain officially banned Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and identified a Tehran-backed organization as the group responsible for a series of attacks on Jewish locations across Europe. The communities these religious leaders serve vary widely in size, from just a few families to tens of thousands of people. Since October 2023, maintaining a visible Jewish presence has become increasingly difficult in many of these regions, stretching from the Gulf to the Caucasus.
The Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, known as ARIS and established in 2019 by Rabbi Mendy Chitrik — the Ashkenazi rabbi of Istanbul — presented a detailed survey to EU officials. The document, titled “Jewish Communities and Heritage in the Muslim World,” covers communities from the Balkans to Southeast Asia. It functions as both a record and a request, addressing issues such as synagogue registration, visas for rabbis, protection of Jewish cemeteries, and the ability to transport religious items across borders without interference.
ARIS frames its mission as practical and deliberately nonpolitical. Chitrik drew on the biblical book of Jeremiah, which instructed Jewish exiles in Babylon to seek the well-being of the city they lived in and pray on its behalf. “We pray for the welfare of our countries and our governments,” Chitrik said. “We are loyal citizens, deeply rooted in the societies we call home. We are not political actors.” He added that the simple act of these rabbis gathering carries its own message — that Jews and Muslims are not destined to be in conflict, and that the coexistence they maintain across the Muslim world could serve as a model for Europe.
Much of what ARIS does involves the everyday infrastructure of Jewish religious life in places where Jewish populations are extremely small: kosher food supervision, ritual baths, weddings, funerals, and education. In 2021, the alliance helped Zebulon Simentov — widely described as Afghanistan’s last openly practicing Jew — safely leave the country.
“Before ARIS, every rabbi was often working alone,” Chitrik told The Media Line. “Today, when a community needs help, whether rebuilding a mikvah in Tunisia, strengthening Jewish education in Nigeria, or resolving practical challenges in Central Asia, that rabbi is no longer on his own. We share experience, mobilize partners, and, when needed, engage governments together. The alliance gives even the smallest Jewish community the confidence that it is part of something larger.”
Three EU commissioners participated in the meeting: Dubravka Šuica, commissioner for the Mediterranean; Magnus Brunner, commissioner for internal affairs; and Olivér Várhelyi, commissioner for health and animal welfare. Katharina von Schnurbein, the European Commission’s coordinator on combating antisemitism, was also present, along with members of the European Parliament and various diplomats.
Two additional guests attended a dinner connected to the event: Nikolay Mladenov, the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, and Aryeh Lightstone, a senior adviser to the board. Neither man addressed the group directly. Chitrik noted that both have longstanding connections to the alliance.
The Most Difficult Case
The rabbi drawing the most attention was Yehuda Gerami, who has served as Iran’s chief rabbi since 2011.
ARIS shared Gerami’s remarks to Commissioner Brunner with The Media Line. “When tensions rise in the region, we also feel the consequences, both as Iranians and as Jews,” Gerami said. “Our community is not political. Our concern is to preserve our religious life, our institutions, and this ancient heritage for future generations.” He noted that the Jewish community has maintained a continuous presence in Iran for more than 2,500 years and asked the EU for understanding, cooperation, and practical support.
According to Chitrik, Gerami also told Brunner that nearly 20,000 Jews currently live in Iran, that the community operates approximately 60 synagogues and six kosher restaurants, and that Iranian synagogues do not require security guards at their entrances.
That same Monday morning, Britain announced that an Iran-backed organization had orchestrated a campaign of arson and vandalism targeting Jewish sites throughout the country. London banned the group — the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right — and designated Iran’s IRGC as a threat to national security. Security Minister Angela Eagle stated that the group had claimed responsibility for seven attacks in Britain and that the IRGC’s Quds Force had almost certainly directed attacks across Europe more broadly. Britain’s foreign secretary summoned Iran’s ambassador. The same group has also claimed credit for attacks on synagogues in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Gerami’s statements were not entirely new. In 2021, he told an American audience that Iran is the only country where synagogues require no guards, while also acknowledging that Jews there must be cautious as they are considered guests, and that insisting they are apolitical can sometimes be very difficult.
The ARIS survey takes a more measured tone on Iran. It describes the Jewish community there as religiously active but operating within a politically sensitive environment shaped by emigration, restrictions on travel to the United States and Europe, forced separation from family members in Israel, and the burden of military service and movement limitations on young men.
Jewish life in the United Arab Emirates expanded rapidly following the 2020 Abraham Accords. The alliance describes the UAE as a tolerant and welcoming environment, and the survey estimates a few thousand Jewish residents along with as many as half a million Jewish visitors each year. However, public Jewish life there has become more subdued since October 2023, particularly following the killing of Chabad Rabbi Zvi Kogan in late 2024. In Dagestan, a Muslim-majority republic within Russia, the survey documents a mob storming an airport in Makhachkala in October 2023 after a false rumor spread that Israelis were on an incoming flight, followed the next summer by attacks on synagogues and churches in both Derbent and Makhachkala.
Throughout the survey, the recurring theme is of Jewish communities caught up in the consequences of conflicts and events they had no role in creating.
