The history of the Jews in the Netherlands began largely in the
16th century
The 16th century begins with the Julian year 1501 ( MDI) and ends with either the Julian or the Gregorian year 1600 ( MDC) (depending on the reckoning used; the Gregorian calendar introduced a lapse of 10 days in October 1582).
The 16th cent ...
when they began to settle in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
and other cities. It has continued to the present. During the
occupation of the Netherlands by
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
in May 1940, the
Jewish
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...
community was severely persecuted.
The area now known as the
Netherlands
)
, anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau")
, image_map =
, map_caption =
, subdivision_type = Sovereign state
, subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands
, established_title = Before independence
, established_date = Spanish Netherl ...
was once part of the
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire ( es, link=no, Imperio español), also known as the Hispanic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Hispánica) or the Catholic Monarchy ( es, link=no, Monarquía Católica) was a colonial empire governed by Spain and its prede ...
but in 1581, the
Northern Dutch provinces declared independence. A principal motive was the wish to practice
Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
Christianity, then
forbidden under Spanish rule. Religious tolerance was effectively an important constitutional element of the newly independent state. This inevitably attracted the attention of Jews who were religiously oppressed in different parts of the world. In pursuit of religious freedoms, many Jews migrated to the Netherlands where they flourished.
During the
Nazi
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...
occupation of the Netherlands in World War II, approximately 75 percent of the Jewish population of the Netherlands was murdered in
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
through deportation to
concentration
In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', ''molar concentration'', ''number concentration'', an ...
and
extermination camp
Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
s.
History of Jews in the Netherlands
Early history
It was likely that the earliest Jews arrived in the "Low Countries", present-day Belgium and the Netherlands, during the Roman conquest early in the common era. Little is known about these early settlers, other than they were not very numerous. For some time, the Jewish presence consisted of, at most, small isolated communities and scattered families. Reliable documentary evidence dates only from the 1100s; for several centuries, the record reflects that the Jews were persecuted within the region and expelled on a regular basis. Early sources from the 11th and 12th centuries mention official debates or disputations between Christians and Jews, in which attempts were made to convince the Jews of the truth of Christianity and to try to convert them. They were documented in the other provinces at an earlier date, especially after their expulsion from
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
in 1321 and the persecutions in
Hainaut and the Rhine provinces. The first Jews in the province of
Gelderland
Gelderland (), also known as Guelders () in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by ...
were reported in 1325. Jews have been settled in
Nijmegen
Nijmegen (;; Spanish and it, Nimega. Nijmeegs: ''Nimwèège'' ) is the largest city in the Dutch province of Gelderland and tenth largest of the Netherlands as a whole, located on the Waal river close to the German border. It is about 6 ...
, the oldest settlement, in
Doesburg
Doesburg () is a municipality and a city in the eastern Netherlands in the province of Gelderland. Doesburg received city rights in 1237 and had a population of in . The city is situated on the right bank of river IJssel, at the confluence of ...
,
Zutphen
Zutphen () is a city and municipality located in the province of Gelderland, Netherlands. It lies some 30 km northeast of Arnhem, on the eastern bank of the river Ijssel at the point where it is joined by the Berkel. First mentioned in the 1 ...
and in
Arnhem
Arnhem ( or ; german: Arnheim; South Guelderish: ''Èrnem'') is a city and municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands about 55 km south east of Utrecht. It is the capital of the province of Gelderland, located on both banks of ...
since 1404. As of the 13th century, there are sources that indicate that Jews were living in Brabant and Limburg, mainly in cities such as Brussels, Leuven, Tienen and the jewishstreet of Maastricht (Dutch pronunciation:
Jodenstraat (Maastricht)) from 1295 is another old proof of their existence.
Sources from the 14th century also mention Jewish residents in the cities of Antwerp and Mechelen and in the northern region of Geldern.
Between 1347 and 1351, Europe was hit by the plague or
Black Death
The Black Death (also known as the Pestilence, the Great Mortality or the Plague) was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Western Eurasia and North Africa from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causi ...
. This resulted in a new theme in medieval anti-Semitic rhetoric. The Jews were held responsible for the epidemic and for the way it was rapidly spreading, because presumably they were the ones who had poisoned the water of springs used by the Christians. Various medieval chronicles mention this, e.g., those of Radalphus de Rivo (c. 1403) of Tongeren, who wrote that Jews were murdered in the Brabant region and in the city of Zwolle because they were accused of spreading the Black Death. This accusation was added to other traditional
blood libels
Blood libel or ritual murder libel (also blood accusation) is an antisemitic canardTurvey, Brent E. ''Criminal Profiling: An Introduction to Behavioral Evidence Analysis'', Academic Press, 2008, p. 3. "Blood libel: An accusation of ritual mur ...
against the Jews. They were accused of piercing the Host used for communion and killing Christian children to use as a blood offering during
Passover
Passover, also called Pesach (; ), is a major Jewish holidays, Jewish holiday that celebrates the The Exodus, Biblical story of the Israelites escape from slavery in Ancient Egypt, Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew calendar, He ...
. Local Jewish communities were often murdered in part or entirely or exiled in hysterical pogroms. In May 1370, six Jews were burned at the stake in Brussels because they were accused of theft and of desecrating the Holy Sacrament. In addition, documentation can be found of instances in which Jews were abused and insulted, e.g., in the cities of Zutphen, Deventer and Utrecht, for allegedly desecrating the Host. Rioters massacred the majority of the Jews in the region and expelled those who survived.
In 1349, the Duke of
Guelders
The Duchy of Guelders ( nl, Gelre, french: Gueldre, german: Geldern) is a historical duchy, previously county, of the Holy Roman Empire, located in the Low Countries.
Geography
The duchy was named after the town of Geldern (''Gelder'') in pr ...
was authorized by the
Emperor Louis IV
Louis IV (german: Ludwig; 1 April 1282 – 11 October 1347), called the Bavarian, of the house of Wittelsbach, was King of the Romans from 1314, King of Italy from 1327, and Holy Roman Emperor from 1328.
Louis' election as king of Germany in ...
of the
Holy Roman Empire
The Holy Roman Empire was a Polity, political entity in Western Europe, Western, Central Europe, Central, and Southern Europe that developed during the Early Middle Ages and continued until its Dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, dissolution i ...
of Germany to receive Jews in his duchy, where they provided services, paid a tax and were protected by the law. In Arnhem, where a Jewish physician is mentioned, the magistrate defended him against the hostilities of the populace. When Jews settled in the diocese of Utrecht is unknown, but rabbinical records regarding
Jewish dietary laws
(also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), from ...
speculated that the Jewish community there dated to Roman times. In 1444, Jews were expelled from the city of
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...
. Until 1789, Jews were prohibited from staying in the city overnight. They were tolerated in the village of
Maarssen
Maarssen () is a town in the middle of the Netherlands, in the province of Utrecht, along the river Vecht and the Amsterdam–Rhine Canal. The west of Maarssen is called Maarssen-BroekStatistics are taken from thSDU Staatscourant whereas the east ...
, two hours distant, though their condition was not fortuitous. But, the community of Maarssen was one of the most important Jewish settlements in the Netherlands. Jews were admitted to Zeeland by Albert, Duke of Bavaria.
In 1477, by the marriage of
Mary of Burgundy
Mary (french: Marie; nl, Maria; 13 February 1457 – 27 March 1482), nicknamed the Rich, was a member of the House of Valois-Burgundy who ruled a collection of states that included the duchies of Limburg, Brabant, Luxembourg, the counties of ...
to the Archduke
Maximilian
Maximilian, Maximillian or Maximiliaan (Maximilien in French) is a male given name.
The name " Max" is considered a shortening of "Maximilian" as well as of several other names.
List of people
Monarchs
*Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor (1459 ...
, son of Emperor
Frederick III, the Netherlands were united to Austria and its possessions passed to the crown of Spain. In the sixteenth century, owing to the persecutions of
Charles V Charles V may refer to:
* Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558)
* Charles V of Naples (1661–1700), better known as Charles II of Spain
* Charles V of France (1338–1380), called the Wise
* Charles V, Duke of Lorraine (1643–1690)
* Infan ...
and
Philip II of Spain
Philip II) in Spain, while in Portugal and his Italian kingdoms he ruled as Philip I ( pt, Filipe I). (21 May 152713 September 1598), also known as Philip the Prudent ( es, Felipe el Prudente), was King of Spain from 1556, King of Portugal from ...
, the Netherlands became involved in a series of desperate and heroic struggles against this growing political and Catholic religious hegemony. In 1522, Charles V issued a proclamation in Gelderland and Utrecht against Christians who were suspected of being lax
in the faith, as well as against Jews who had not been baptized. He repeated such edicts in 1545 and 1549, trying to suppress the
Protestant Reformation
The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...
, which was expanding. In 1571, the Duke of Alba notified the authorities of Arnhem that all Jews living there should be seized and held until their fates were determined.
At Dutch request,
Archduke Mattias established religious peace in most of the provinces, which was later guaranteed by article 13 of the 1579 ''
Unie van Utrecht
The Union of Utrecht ( nl, Unie van Utrecht) was a treaty signed on 23 January 1579 in Utrecht, Netherlands, unifying the northern provinces of the Netherlands, until then under the control of Habsburg Spain.
History
The Union of Utrecht is r ...
''. Moreover, in 1581, the deputies of the United Provinces declared independence by issuing the
Act of Abjuration
The Act of Abjuration ( nl, Plakkaat van Verlatinghe; es, Acta de Abjuración, lit=placard of abjuration) is the declaration of independence by many of the provinces of the Netherlands from the allegiance to Philip II of Spain, during the Dut ...
, which deposed Philip as their sovereign. As a consequence of these two events, Jews persecuted in Spain and Portugal turned toward the Dutch Republic as a place of refuge.
Sephardim
''Sephardim'' or
Sephardic Jews
Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefar ...
(sometimes referred to as ''
Spanish and Portuguese Jews
Spanish and Portuguese Jews, also called Western Sephardim, Iberian Jews, or Peninsular Jews, are a distinctive sub-group of Sephardic Jews who are largely descended from Jews who lived as New Christians in the Iberian Peninsula during the i ...
''), were native to ''Sepharad'', the Hebrew name for Spain and
Portugal
Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of ...
. They had been expelled or were forced to convert to Catholicism in the late 15th century through the Spanish
Alhambra Decree
The Alhambra Decree (also known as the Edict of Expulsion; Spanish: ''Decreto de la Alhambra'', ''Edicto de Granada'') was an edict issued on 31 March 1492, by the joint Catholic Monarchs of Spain ( Isabella I of Castile and Ferdinand II of Arag ...
of 1492, and later the
Portuguese Edicts of 1496 and 1497. Many still remained in the
Iberian peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
, practicing either their
new religion in public and Judaism in secret or both (see
anusim
Anusim ( he, אֲנוּסִים, ; singular male, anús, he, אָנוּס ; singular female, anusáh, , meaning "coerced") is a legal category of Jews in ''halakha'' (Jewish law) who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will, typically ...
,
crypto-Jews
Crypto-Judaism is the secret adherence to Judaism while publicly professing to be of another faith; practitioners are referred to as "crypto-Jews" (origin from Greek ''kryptos'' – , 'hidden').
The term is especially applied historically to Sp ...
or
Marranos
Marranos were Spanish and Portuguese Jews living in the Iberian Peninsula who converted or were forced to convert to Christianity during the Middle Ages, but continued to practice Judaism in secrecy.
The term specifically refers to the charg ...
). The newly independent and tolerant Dutch provinces provided more favourable conditions for observant Jews to establish a community, and to practice their religion openly. The Rabbi of the Portuguese-Spanish Synagogue in Amsterdam, still in use today, was Abraham Cohen Pimentel (died 21 March 1697). The services are still held in the Portuguese language. The Portuguese Jews migrated most notably to the city of
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
. As they became established, they collectively brought new trading expertise and connections to the city. They also brought navigation knowledge and techniques from Portugal, which enabled the Netherlands to start competing in overseas trade with the Spanish and Portuguese colonies.
After having been refused admission to
Middelburg Middelburg may refer to:
Places and jurisdictions Europe
* Middelburg, Zeeland, the capital city of the province of Zeeland, southwestern Netherlands
** Roman Catholic Diocese of Middelburg, a former Catholic diocese with its see in the Zeeland ...
and
Haarlem
Haarlem (; predecessor of ''Harlem'' in English) is a city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is the capital of the province of North Holland. Haarlem is situated at the northern edge of the Randstad, one of the most populated metropoli ...
, these
Anusim
Anusim ( he, אֲנוּסִים, ; singular male, anús, he, אָנוּס ; singular female, anusáh, , meaning "coerced") is a legal category of Jews in ''halakha'' (Jewish law) who were forced to abandon Judaism against their will, typically ...
arrived in Amsterdam in 1593. Among them were skilled artisans, physicians and prominent merchants such as
Jacob Tirado
Jacob Tirado (born ca. 1540; died in Jerusalem 1620) was one of the founders of the Spanish-Portuguese community of Amsterdam.
With several Marranos he sailed from Portugal in a vessel which was driven out of its course to Emden in East Friesla ...
, who obtained permission from the authorities to practice Judaism within his household. Those "Jews of the Portuguese Nation" worked in common cause with the people of Amsterdam and contributed materially to the prosperity of the country; they were strong supporters of the
House of Orange
The House of Orange-Nassau (Dutch language, Dutch: ''Huis van Oranje-Nassau'', ) is the current dynasty, reigning house of the Netherlands. A branch of the European House of Nassau, the house has played a central role in the Politics and governm ...
and were protected by the Stadholder. During the
Twelve Years' Truce
The Twelve Years' Truce was a ceasefire during the Eighty Years' War between Spain and the Dutch Republic, agreed in Antwerp on 9 April 1609 and ended on 9 April 1621. While European powers like France began treating the Republic as a sovereign n ...
, the commerce of the Dutch Republic increased considerably, and a period of strong development ensued. This was particularly true for Amsterdam, where the Marranos had established their main port and base of operations. They maintained foreign trade relationships in the Mediterranean, including Venice, the Levant and Morocco. The Sultan of Morocco had an ambassador at
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
named
Samuel Pallache
Samuel Pallache (Arabic: صامويل آل بالاتش, ''Shmuel Baylash'', Hebrew: 'שמואל פאלאץ, ''Shmuel Palach'', c. 1550 – February 4, 1616) was a Jewish Moroccan-born merchant, diplomat, and pirate of the Pallache family, who, ...
, through whose mediation, in 1620, a commercial understanding was reached with the
Barbary States.
The Sephardic Jews of Amsterdam also established trade relationships with other countries in Europe. In the early 1620s numerous Jews migrated from Holland to the Lower Elbe region. In a letter dated 25 November 1622, King
Christian IV of Denmark
Christian IV (12 April 1577 – 28 February 1648) was King of Denmark and Norway and Duke of Holstein and Schleswig from 1588 until his death in 1648. His reign of 59 years, 330 days is the longest of Danish monarchs and Scandinavian monar ...
invited Jews of Amsterdam to settle in
Glückstadt
Glückstadt (; da, Lykstad) is a town in the Steinburg district of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. It is located on the right bank of the Lower Elbe at the confluence of the small Rhin river, about northwest of Altona. Glückstadt is part of the ...
, where, among other privileges, they were assured the free exercise of their religion.
The trade developed between the Dutch and
Spanish South America was established by such Iberian Jews. They also contributed to establishing the
Dutch West Indies Company
The Dutch West India Company ( nl, Geoctrooieerde Westindische Compagnie, ''WIC'' or ''GWC''; ; en, Chartered West India Company) was a chartered company of Dutch merchants as well as foreign investors. Among its founders was Willem Usselincx ( ...
in 1621, and some of them sat on its directorate. The ambitious schemes of the Dutch for the conquest of Brazil were carried into effect by Francisco Ribeiro, a Portuguese captain, who is said to have had Jewish relations in Holland. The Sephardic Jews of Amsterdam strongly supported the Dutch Republic in its struggle with Portugal for the possession of Brazil, which started in Recife with the arrival of Count Johan Maurits of Nassau-Siegen in 1637. Some years later, the
Dutch in Brazil appealed for more craftsmen of all kinds, and many Jews heeded the call. In 1642 about 600 Jews left Amsterdam for Brazil, accompanied by two distinguished scholars,
Isaac Aboab da Fonseca
Isaac Aboab da Fonseca (or Isaak Aboab Foonseca) (February 1, 1605 – April 4, 1693) was a rabbi, scholar, kabbalist and writer. In 1656, he was one of several elders within the Portuguese-Israelite community in the Netherlands who excommunica ...
and
Moses Raphael de Aguilar. After the loss of the Dutch colony of Recife to the Portuguese in 1654, they sought refuge in other Dutch colonies, including the island of
Curaçao
Curaçao ( ; ; pap, Kòrsou, ), officially the Country of Curaçao ( nl, Land Curaçao; pap, Pais Kòrsou), is a Lesser Antilles island country in the southern Caribbean Sea and the Dutch Caribbean region, about north of the Venezuela coast ...
in the Caribbean and
New Amsterdam
New Amsterdam ( nl, Nieuw Amsterdam, or ) was a 17th-century Dutch settlement established at the southern tip of Manhattan Island that served as the seat of the colonial government in New Netherland. The initial trading ''factory'' gave rise ...
(Manhattan) in North America.
![SPAmster](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/SPAmster.JPG)
Besides merchants, many physicians were among the Spanish Jews in Amsterdam. These included Samuel Abravanel, David Nieto, Elijah Montalto, and the Bueno family. Joseph Bueno was consulted in the illness of Prince Maurice in April, 1623. Jews were admitted as students to the university, where they studied medicine as the only branch of science that was of practical use to them. They were not allowed to practice law, because lawyers were required to take a Christian oath, thereby excluding them. Jews were also excluded from the trade guilds, as in a 1632 resolution passed by the city of Amsterdam (the Dutch cities were largely autonomous). However, they were allowed to practice certain trades: printing, bookselling, and selling meat, poultry, groceries, and medicines. In 1655 a Sephardic Jew was exceptionally permitted to establish a sugar refinery using chemical methods.
Several Sephardic Jews stood out during that time, including
Menasseh Ben Israel
Manoel Dias Soeiro (1604 – 20 November 1657), better known by his Hebrew name Menasseh ben Israel (), also known as Menasheh ben Yossef ben Yisrael, also known with the Hebrew acronym, MB"Y or MBI, was a Portuguese rabbi, kabbalist, writ ...
. He was known for corresponding widely with Christian leaders and helped to promote
Jewish resettlement in England. Perhaps the most famous among Dutch Jews of Sephardic origin is
Benedictus de Spinoza (Baruch Spinoza), a philosopher, scholar and optician who was excommunicated from the Jewish community in 1656 after speaking out his ideas concerning (the nature of) God, later published in his famous work ''
Ethics Demonstrated in Geometrical Order'' (1677).
Ashkenazim
Many
German Jews
The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...
were also attracted later to the tolerant and independent Dutch provinces, generally after the mid-17th century, whichof one example could be the
Haham Tzvi. Unlike the more acculturated Iberian Jews, most of these were displaced residents of
Jewish ghettos
In the Jewish diaspora, a Jewish quarter (also known as jewry, ''juiverie'', ''Judengasse'', Jewynstreet, Jewtown, or proto-ghetto) is the area of a city traditionally inhabited by Jews. Jewish quarters, like the Jewish ghettos in Europe, were ...
escaping persecution. In addition they were displaced by the violence of the
Thirty Year War
The Thirty Years' War was one of the longest and most destructive conflicts in European history, lasting from 1618 to 1648. Fought primarily in Central Europe, an estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died as a result of battle ...
(1618–1648) in other parts of northern Europe, and local expulsions, as well as the 1648
Khmelnytsky uprising
The Khmelnytsky Uprising,; in Ukraine known as Khmelʹnychchyna or uk, повстання Богдана Хмельницького; lt, Chmelnickio sukilimas; Belarusian language, Belarusian: Паўстанне Багдана Хмяльніц ...
in what was then eastern Poland. These poor immigrants were less welcomed. Their arrival in considerable number threatened the economic status of Amsterdam in particular, and with few exceptions they were turned away. They generally settled in rural areas, where they subsisted typically as
peddler
A peddler, in British English pedlar, also known as a chapman, packman, cheapjack, hawker, higler, huckster, (coster)monger, colporteur or solicitor, is a door-to-door and/or travelling vendor of goods.
In England, the term was mostly used fo ...
s and
hawker
Hawker or Hawkers may refer to:
Places
* Hawker, Australian Capital Territory, a suburb of Canberra
* Hawker, South Australia, a town
* Division of Hawker, an Electoral Division in South Australia
* Hawker Island, Princess Elizabeth Land, Antarct ...
s. Many
smaller Jewish communities were started throughout the Dutch provinces.
Over time, many German Jews gained prosperity through retail trading and they became specialists in diamond-cutting and sales. They had a monopoly in the latter trade until about 1870. When
William IV
William IV (William Henry; 21 August 1765 – 20 June 1837) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death in 1837. The third son of George III, William succeeded h ...
was proclaimed stadholder (1747), the Jews found another protector. He had close relations with the head of the DePinto family, at whose villa, Tulpenburg, near
Ouderkerk
Ouderkerk () is a former municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland. Since 2015 it has been a part of the municipality of Krimpenerwaard.
The former municipality covered an area of of which was water. It was for ...
, he and his wife paid more than one visit. In 1748, when a French army was at the frontier and the treasury was empty, De Pinto collected a large sum and presented it to the state. Van Hogendorp, the secretary of state, wrote to him: "You have saved the state." In 1750 De Pinto arranged for the conversion of the national debt from a 4 to a 3% basis.
Under the government of
William V William V may refer to:
*William V, Duke of Aquitaine (969–1030)
*William V of Montpellier (1075–1121)
*William V, Marquess of Montferrat (1191)
*William V, Count of Nevers (before 11751181)
*William V, Duke of Jülich (1299–1361)
*William V, ...
, the country was troubled by internal dissensions. But the Jews remained loyal to him. As he entered the legislature on the day of his majority, 8 March 1766, in the synagogues services of thanks-giving were held. William V visited both the German and the Portuguese synagogues on 3 June 1768. He also attended the marriages of offspring of various prominent Jewish families.
French Revolution and Napoleon
The year 1795 brought the results of the French Revolution to the Netherlands, including emancipation for the Jews. The National Convention, on 2 September 1796, proclaimed this resolution: "No Jew shall be excluded from rights or advantages which are associated with citizenship in the Batavian Republic, and which he may desire to enjoy." Moses Moresco was appointed member of the municipality at Amsterdam; Moses Asser member of the court of justice there. The old conservatives, at whose head stood the chief rabbi Jacob Moses Löwenstamm, were not desirous of emancipation rights. Indeed, these rights were for the greater part of doubtful advantage; their culture was not so far advanced that they could frequent ordinary society; besides, this emancipation was offered to them by a party which had expelled their beloved
Prince of Orange
Prince of Orange (or Princess of Orange if the holder is female) is a title originally associated with the sovereign Principality of Orange, in what is now southern France and subsequently held by sovereigns in the Netherlands.
The title ...
, to whose house they remained so faithful that the chief rabbi at The Hague, Saruco, was called the "Orange dominie"; the men of the old régime were even called "Orange cattle". Nevertheless, the Revolution appreciably ameliorated the condition of the Jews; in 1799 their congregations received, like the Christian congregations, grants from the treasury. In 1798
Jonas Daniel Meijer interceded with the French minister of foreign affairs in behalf of the
Jews of Germany
The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (''circa'' 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish ...
; and on 22 August 1802, the Dutch ambassador,
Schimmelpenninck, delivered a note on the same subject to the French minister.
From 1806 to 1810 the
Kingdom of Holland
The Kingdom of Holland ( nl, Holland (contemporary), (modern); french: Royaume de Hollande) was created by Napoleon Bonaparte, overthrowing the Batavian Republic in March 1806 in order to better control the Netherlands. Since becoming Emperor ...
was ruled by
Louis Bonaparte
Louis Napoléon Bonaparte (born Luigi Buonaparte; 2 September 1778 – 25 July 1846) was a younger brother of Napoleon I, Emperor of the French. He was a monarch in his own right from 1806 to 1810, ruling over the Kingdom of Holland (a French cl ...
, whose intention it was to so amend the condition of the Jews that their newly acquired rights would become of real value to them; the shortness of his reign, however, prevented him from carrying out his plans. For example, after having changed the market-day in some cities (Utrecht and
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
) from Saturday to Monday, he abolished the use of the "
Oath More Judaico
The Oath ''More Judaico'' or Jewish Oath was a special form of oath, rooted in antisemitism and accompanied by certain ceremonies and often intentionally humiliating, painful or dangerous, that Jews were required to take in European courts of law u ...
" in the courts of justice, and administered the same formula to both Christians and Jews. To accustom the latter to military services he formed two battalions of 803 men and 60 officers, all Jews, who had been until then excluded from military service, even from the town guard.
The union of Ashkenazim and Sephardim intended by Louis Napoleon did not come about. He had desired to establish schools for Jewish children, who were excluded from the public schools; even the
Maatschappij tot Nut van 't Algemeen
The Maatschappij tot Nut van 't Algemeen (Nut for short; Society for Public Welfare) is a non-profit organization in the Netherlands founded in 1784 with the purpose of developing individuals and society, primarily through education. It had great i ...
, founded in 1784, did not willingly receive them or admit Jews as members. Among the distinguished Jews of this period were Meier Littwald Lehemon,
Mozes Salomon Asser,
Capadose, and the physicians
David Heilbron, Davids (who introduced
vaccination
Vaccination is the administration of a vaccine to help the immune system develop immunity from a disease. Vaccines contain a microorganism or virus in a weakened, live or killed state, or proteins or toxins from the organism. In stimulating ...
), Stein van Laun (
tellurium
Tellurium is a chemical element with the symbol Te and atomic number 52. It is a brittle, mildly toxic, rare, silver-white metalloid. Tellurium is chemically related to selenium and sulfur, all three of which are chalcogens. It is occasionally fou ...
), and many others.
19th century and early 20th century
![Veghel Synagogue](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Veghel_Synagogue.JPG)
On 30 November 1813,
William VI arrived at
Scheveningen
Scheveningen is one of the eight districts of The Hague, Netherlands, as well as a subdistrict (''wijk'') of that city. Scheveningen is a modern seaside resort with a long, sandy beach, an esplanade, a pier, and a lighthouse. The beach is po ...
, and on 11 December he was solemnly crowned as King William I.
Chief Rabbi Lehmans of The Hague organized a special thanksgiving service, asking for protection for the allied armies on 5 January 1814. Many Jews fought at
Waterloo, where thirty-five Jewish officers died. William VI promulgated a law abolishing the French régime. The Jews prospered in the independent Netherlands throughout the 19th century. By 1900, Amsterdam had 51,000 Jews, with 12,500 paupers; The Hague 5,754 Jews, with 846; Rotterdam 10,000, with 1,750; Groningen 2,400, with 613; Arnhem 1,224 with 349. The total population of the Netherlands in 1900 was 5,104,137, about 2% of whom were Jews. The introduction in 1919 of equal suffrage for men and women was the completion of a long process. The fact that women had to fight for the right to vote has indirectly to do with
Aletta Jacobs
Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs (; 9 February 1854 – 10 August 1929) was a Dutch physician and women's suffrage activist. As the first woman officially to attend a Dutch university, she became one of the first female physicians in the Netherlands. I ...
. Originally, the law only set a wage limit for voting. Because she was the first female doctor, she met this wage limit and wanted to exercise her right to vote. It was only after her attempt that it was explicitly legislated for women to vote in 1919. Other prominent Dutch Jews were:
Jozef Israëls
Jozef Israëls (27 January 1824 – 12 August 1911) was a Dutch painter. He was a leading member of the group of landscape painters referred to as the Hague School and, during his lifetime, "the most respected Dutch artist of the second half of ...
(painter),
Tobias Asser
Tobias Michael Carel Asser (; 28 April 1838 – 29 July 1913) was a Dutch lawyer and legal scholar.
In 1911, he won the Nobel Peace Prize (together with Alfred Fried) for his work in the field of private international law, and in particular fo ...
(winner
Nobel Peace Prize
The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the will of Swedish industrialist, inventor and armaments (military weapons and equipment) manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobel Prize in Chemistry, Chemi ...
in 1911),
Gerard Philips
Gerard Leonard Frederik Philips (9 October 1858 – 26 January 1942) was a Dutch industrialist and co-founder, with his father Frederik Philips, of Philips as a family business in 1891. In 1912, Gerard and his younger brother Anton Philips conv ...
(founder NV Philips' Gloeilampenfabrieken
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...
), Lodewijk Ernst Visser (lawyer and president of the High Council of the Netherlands, Commander in the Order of Orange-Nassau and Knight in the Order of the Dutch Lion), The Brabant Jewish family businesses from Oss, including margarine producer
Samuel van den Bergh
Samuel van den Bergh (6 April 1864, in Oss – 4 February 1941, in Nice) was one of the main European Jewish margarine and soap manufacturers in the early 20th century.
In 1888, the year his father, Simon van den Bergh, opened his first German ...
was one of the founders of
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
. Saal van Zwanenberg was the producer of the Zwan meat products, but perhaps even better known as the founder of the pharmaceutical company Organon, and thus as the founder of
AkzoNobel
Akzo Nobel N.V., stylized as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational company which creates paints and performance coatings for both industry and consumers worldwide. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countries, ...
. The company of Hartog Hartog was acquired by
Unilever
Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...
, the
Unox
Unox () is a food brand of Unilever that is available in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The brand is used for various meat products, such as '' rookworst'' (smoked sausage), but also for soups and noodles.
Unox marketing manager Florens ...
meat products are a continuation of the meat activities of this family business, Simon Philip Goudsmit (founder
De Bijenkorf
De Bijenkorf (; literally, "the beehive") is a chain of high-end department stores in the Netherlands, with its flagship store on Dam Square in Amsterdam. The chain is owned by Selfridges Group, which also owns Britain's Selfridges and Ireland's B ...
), Leo Meyer and Arthur Isaac (founders
HEMA (store)
HEMA (; originally an acronym for ''Hollandsche Eenheidsprijzen Maatschappij Amsterdam'', "Hollandic Standard Prices Company Amsterdam"), is a Dutch variety store-chain. It began operations as a variety store. The chain is characterized by relati ...
),
Leo Fuld
Lazarus 'Leo' Fuld (Yiddish: לעאָ פֿולד; Rotterdam, October 29, 1912 – Amsterdam, June 10, 1997) was a Dutch singer who specialised in Yiddish songs.
Possessing an instantaneously recognizable voice, Fuld recorded throughout Europe and ...
(Jewish singer of
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
), Herman Woudstra (founder Hollandia Matzes formerly: "Paaschbroodfabriek" in Enschede),
Eduard Meijers
Eduard Maurits Meijers (10 January 1880, Den Helder – 25 June 1954 in Leiden) was a Dutch jurist of Jewish background, who was the founding father of the current Dutch civil code, the Nieuw Burgerlijk Wetboek.
Biography
Family
He was t ...
(lawyer and founder of the current
Burgerlijk Wetboek
The ''Burgerlijk Wetboek'' (or BW) is the Civil Code of the Netherlands. Early versions were largely based on the Napoleonic Code. The Dutch Civil Code was substantively reformed in 1992. The Code deals with the rights of natural persons (Book 1) ...
(Civil Code of the Netherlands)).
The Netherlands, and Amsterdam in particular, remained a major Jewish population centre until World War II. Amsterdam was known as
Jerusalem of the West "Jerusalem of the West" was a term historically used by Jews to describe a non-Jewish city west of Jerusalem where the Jewish diaspora nonetheless enjoyed significant influence, freedom (of religion), and numbers, usually in Western Europe or Maghre ...
by its Jewish residents. In the late 19th and early 20th century, the community grew as Jews from the ''
mediene
The Mediene is the name given to all the Jewish kehillot in the Netherlands outside of the capital Amsterdam, the historical center of Dutch Judaism. From the 18th century onwards up until the Holocaust, dozens of Jewish communities were created ...
'' (the "country" Jews), migrated to larger cities to seek better jobs and living conditions.
Boundaries between Gentiles and Jews started 1) to blur due to increase in Gentile-Jewish marriages and residential spreading, 2) to cross due to a decrease in observance of religious practices like Sabbath and eating kosher food, and 3) to shift as civic involvement and political participation increased.
Dutch Jews were a relatively small part of the population and showed a strong tendency towards internal migration. They never coalesced into a real pillar. One of the reasons was the attraction of the socialist and liberal "
pillar
A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression (physical), compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column i ...
s" before the Holocaust, rather than becoming part of a Jewish pillar. Especially the rise of socialism was a new segment in the pillarized Dutch society that attracted and was created by intermarrying Jews, and Jews and Christians who had abandoned their religious affiliation. Religious-ethnic background was of less importance within the socialist and liberal segments, though individuals could maintain some rituals or practices.
The number of Jews in the Netherlands grew at a slower rate than the general population from the early 19th century up to World War II. Between 1830 and 1930, the Jewish population in the Netherlands increased by almost 250% (numbers given by the Jewish communities to the Dutch Census) while the total population of the Netherlands grew by 297%.
(*) Derived from those persons who stated "Judaism" as their religion in the Dutch Census
(**) Persons with at least one Jewish grandparent. In another Nazi census the total number of people with at least one Jewish grandparent in the Netherlands was put at 160,886: 135,984 people with 4 or 3 Jewish grandparents (counted as "full Jews"); 18,912 Jews with 2 Jewish grandparents ("half Jews"), of whom 3,538 were part of a Jewish congregation; 5,990 with 1 Jewish grandparent ("quarter Jews")
[DEMOS March 2001](_blank)
''Accessed 18 July 2007''
(***) Membership numbers of Dutch Jewish congregations (only those who are Jewish according to the
Halakha
''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...
)
The Holocaust
In 1939, there were some 140,000 Dutch Jews living in the Netherlands, among them some 24,000 to 25,000 German-Jewish refugees who had fled from Germany in the 1930s. (Other sources claim that some 34,000 Jewish refugees entered the Netherlands between 1933 and 1940, mostly from Germany and Austria).
Some 75% of the Dutch-Jewish population was murdered in the Holocaust. The 1947 census reported 14,346 Jews, or 10% of the pre-war population. This further decrease is attributed to massive ''
aliyah
Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the Israel, State of Israel ...
'' to
Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...
.
1945–1960
The Jewish-Dutch population after the Second World War is marked by certain significant changes: disappointment, emigration, a low birth rate, and a high intermarriage rate. After the Second World War and the Holocaust, returning Jews and Jews who had survived the often difficult hidden living ('diving') met with total lack of understanding of their fate and had to endure lasting loss of property. Especially mental health care was lacking and only started to develop from 1960 onwards in the Sinai centrum in Amersfoort. From 1973 professor Bastiaans tried to treat Holocaust victims with
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), also known colloquially as acid, is a potent psychedelic drug. Effects typically include intensified thoughts, emotions, and sensory perception. At sufficiently high dosages LSD manifests primarily mental, vi ...
in the Centrum '45 in Oegstgeest, attached to the Leyden University. This brought little success, if any. Understanding started to grow by a series of four TV documentaries on the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands made by the Jewish historian
Lou de Jong Lou may refer to:
__NOTOC__ Personal name
* Lou (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
*Lou (German singer)
*Lou (French singer)
* Lou (surname 娄), the 229th most common surname in China
* Lou (surname 楼), the 269th most common ...
, broadcast on Dutch national public TV (NTS, then the sole TV channel). The first four installments aired in 1960, were considered a turning point and left many Dutch, who until then had hardly had any notion of the gruesome depth of the Holocaust, aghast. The series continued through 1964. Dr De Jong subsequently published a 14-part, 29-volume history of the Netherlands during World War II.
In 1965, the Jewish professor of history
Jaques Presser Jaques is a given name and surname, a variant of Jacques.
People with the given name Jaques
* Jaques Bagratuni (1879-1943), Armenian prince
* Jaques Bisan (b. 1993) Beninese footballer
* Jaques Étienne Gay (1786-1864) Swiss-French botanist
* J ...
published his magister opus ''Ondergang'' (''Demise – the Persecution and Eradication of Dutch Jewry''). The work was reprinted six times during its first year, reaching the extraordinary print run of 150,000 – still today a record in the history of publishing in the Netherlands.
Nevertheless, as a result of the lack of understanding, mental and physical health problems, too many missing relatives and general administrational difficulties, thousands of surviving Jews emigrated, or made
aliyah
Aliyah (, ; he, עֲלִיָּה ''ʿălīyyā'', ) is the immigration of Jews from Jewish diaspora, the diaspora to, historically, the geographical Land of Israel, which is in the modern era chiefly represented by the Israel, State of Israel ...
to
Mandatory Palestine
Mandatory Palestine ( ar, فلسطين الانتدابية '; he, פָּלֶשְׂתִּינָה (א״י) ', where "E.Y." indicates ''’Eretz Yiśrā’ēl'', the Land of Israel) was a geopolitical entity established between 1920 and 1948 ...
, later Israel. Aliyah from the Netherlands initially surpassed that of any other Western nation. Israel is still home to some 6,000 Dutch Jews. Others emigrated to the United States. There was a high assimilation and intermarriage rate among those who stayed. As a result, the Jewish birth rate and organized community membership dropped. In the aftermath of the Holocaust, and the sharp increase of understanding for the shoah, relations with non-Jews were gradually friendly. The Jewish community received reparations payments from the Dutch government. Also reparations from Germany (aka '
Wiedergutmachung
The German word ''Wiedergutmachung'' after World War II refers to the reparations that the German government agreed to pay in 1953 to the direct survivors of the Holocaust, and to those who were made to work at forced labour camps or who othe ...
') started to trickle down into Dutch Jewish households.
In 1947, two years after the end of the Second World War in the Netherlands, the total number of Jews as counted in the population census was just 14,346 (less than 10 percent of the count of 154,887 by the Nazi occupation force in 1941). Later, this number was adjusted by Jewish organisations to some 24,000 Jews living in the Netherlands in 1954. This was a huge loss compared to the number of Jews counted in 1941. This latter number was disputed, as the Nazi occupation force counted Jews on their classification of race. They included hundreds of Christians of Jewish heritage in the Nazi census. (According to Raul Hilberg, in his book, ''Perpetrators Victims Bystanders: the Jewish Catastrophe, 1933–1945'', "the Netherlands ...
ad1,572 Protestants
f Jewish heritage in 1943... There were also some 700 Catholic Jews living in the Netherlands
uring the Nazi occupation...")
In 1954, the Dutch Jews were recorded in the Netherlands as follows (province; number of Jews):
*
Groningen
Groningen (; gos, Grunn or ) is the capital city and main municipality of Groningen province in the Netherlands. The ''capital of the north'', Groningen is the largest place as well as the economic and cultural centre of the northern part of t ...
– 242
*
Friesland
Friesland (, ; official fry, Fryslân ), historically and traditionally known as Frisia, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of ...
– 155
*
Drenthe
Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Nov ...
– 180
*
Overijssel
Overijssel (, ; nds, Oaveriessel ; german: Oberyssel) is a Provinces of the Netherlands, province of the Netherlands located in the eastern part of the country. The province's name translates to "across the IJssel", from the perspective of the ...
– 945
*
Gelderland
Gelderland (), also known as Guelders () in English, is a province of the Netherlands, occupying the centre-east of the country. With a total area of of which is water, it is the largest province of the Netherlands by land area, and second by ...
– 997
*
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...
– 848
*
North Holland
North Holland ( nl, Noord-Holland, ) is a province of the Netherlands in the northwestern part of the country. It is located on the North Sea, north of South Holland and Utrecht, and west of Friesland and Flevoland. In November 2019, it had a ...
– 15,446 (including 14,068 in
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
)
*
South Holland
South Holland ( nl, Zuid-Holland ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.7 million as of October 2021 and a population density of about , making it the country's most populous province and one of the world's most densely ...
– 3,934
*
Zeeland
, nl, Ik worstel en kom boven("I struggle and emerge")
, anthem = "Zeeuws volkslied"("Zeelandic Anthem")
, image_map = Zeeland in the Netherlands.svg
, map_alt =
, m ...
– 59
*
North Brabant
North Brabant ( nl, Noord-Brabant ; Brabantian: ; ), also unofficially called Brabant, is a province in the south of the Netherlands. It borders the provinces of South Holland and Gelderland to the north, Limburg to the east, Zeeland to the we ...
– 620
*
Limburg
Limburg or Limbourg may refer to:
Regions
* Limburg (Belgium), a province since 1839 in the Flanders region of Belgium
* Limburg (Netherlands), a province since 1839 in the south of the Netherlands
* Diocese of Limburg, Roman Catholic Diocese in ...
– 297
* Total – 23,723
1960s and 1970s
Because of the loss of 79% of the population, including many children and young people, the birth rate among Jews declined in the 1960s and 1970s. Intermarriage increased; the intermarriage rate of Jewish males was 41% and of Jewish women 28% in the period of 1945–1949. By the 1990s, the percentage of intermarriage increased to some 52% of all Jewish marriages. Among males, or so-called "father Jews", the intermarriage rate is as high as 80%. Some within the Jewish community have tried to counter this trend, creating possibilities for single Jews to meet other single Jews. The dating sites ''Jingles'' and ''Jentl en Jewell'' are for that purpose. According to research by the (), numerous Dutch Jews earned an academic education. There are proportionally more Jewish Dutch women in the labor force than non-Jewish Dutch women.
1980s and onwards
Since the late 20th century, a number of mostly Israeli and
Russian Jews
The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...
have immigrated to the Netherlands, the latter after the Soviet Union eased emigration and after its dissolution. Approximately one in three Dutch Jews was born elsewhere. The number of
Israeli Jews
Israeli Jews or Jewish Israelis ( he, יהודים ישראלים, translit=Yehudim Yisraelim) are Israeli citizens and nationals who are Jewish through either their Jewish ethnicity and/or their adherence to Judaism. The term also includes ...
living in the Netherlands (concentrated in Amsterdam) runs in the thousands (estimates run from 5,000 to 7,000 Israeli expatriates in the Netherlands, although some claims go as high as 12,000). A relatively small number of these Israeli Jews is connected to one of the religious Jewish institutions in the Netherlands. In the 21st century, some 10,000 Dutch Jews have emigrated to Israel.
As of 2006, approximately 41,000 to 45,000 people in the Netherlands either identify as Jewish, or are defined as Jewish by ''
halakha
''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...
'' (Rabbinic law), by which persons with Jewish mothers are defined as Jewish. About 70% of these (approximately 30,000) have a Jewish mother. Another 30% have a Jewish father (some 10,000–15,000 persons; their number was estimated at 12,470 in April 2006). Orthodox Jews do not accept them as Jews unless they undergo a religious conversion through an Orthodox Bet Din. Most Dutch Jews live in the major cities in the west of the Netherlands (
Amsterdam
Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
,
Rotterdam
Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...
,
The Hague
The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...
,
Utrecht
Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...
); some 44% of all Dutch Jews live in Amsterdam, which is considered the centre of Jewish life in the country. In 2000, 20% of the Jewish-Dutch population was 65 years or older; birth rates among Jews were low. An exception is the growing
Orthodox Jew
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...
ish population, especially in Amsterdam.
There are some 150 synagogues present in the Netherlands; 50 are still used for religious services. Large Jewish communities in the Netherlands are found in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague.
Various
antisemitic incidents continue to occur,. In 2014 a monument was defaced that was dedicated to the Jews of
Gorinchem
Gorinchem ( or ), also spelled Gorkum, is a city and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland
South Holland ( nl, Zuid-Holland ) is a province of the Netherlands with a population of over 3.7 million as of Oc ...
, seventy of whom were murdered in World War II. Commentators associate such incidents with the ongoing tensions in the Middle East.
Esther Voet, director of the , advised the
Knesset
The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...
in 2014 that Dutch Jews were concerned about what they perceived as increasing antisemitism in the Netherlands. Antisemitic incidents occurred during 2015: graffiti appeared in
Oosterhout
Oosterhout (; from ''ooster'', "eastern", and ''hout'', "woods") is a municipality and a city in the southern Netherlands. The municipality had a population of in .
Population centers
The municipality of Oosterhout includes the following pla ...
, a Jewish man was harassed in Amersfoort, and a Jewish cemetery was vandalized in Oud-Beijerland.
In June 2015, ''
De Telegraaf
''De Telegraaf'' (; en, The Telegraph) is the largest Dutch daily morning newspaper. Haro Kraak,Gaat Paul Jansen de crisis bij De Telegraaf oplossen?, '' de Volkskrant'', 2015. Retrieved 1 August 2015. Paul Jansen has been the editor-in-chief s ...
'' published results of a report on antisemitism among youths, conducted by the Verwey Jonker Institute. The survey revealed that antisemitism is more prevalent among Muslims: 12 percent of Muslim respondents expressed a "not positive" view of Dutch Jews, compared to two percent among Christian respondents. Some 40% of Muslim respondents expressed a "not positive" view for Jews in Israel, compared to 6% of the Christian respondents.
The
ADL (Anti-Defamation League) published the "ADL Global 100" (2015), an international survey conducted in 2013–2014 to measure antisemitic opinions in 100 countries around the world. According to the survey, 11% of the population in the Netherlands harbors antisemitic opinions. The survey was composed of eleven phrases that represent antisemitic stereotypes. For example, 46% of the population agreed with the phrase "Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country", while 17% agreed with "Jews have too much power in the business world".
Religion
![Synagoge Gerard Doustraat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Synagoge_Gerard_Doustraat.JPG)
Some 9,000 Dutch Jews, out of a total of 30,000 (some 30%), are connected to one of the seven major Jewish religious organizations. Smaller, independent synagogues exist as
well.
Orthodox Judaism
Most affiliated Jews in the Netherlands (Jews part of a Jewish community) are affiliated to the ''
Nederlands Israëlitisch Kerkgenootschap
The Nederlands-Israëlitisch Kerkgenootschap ( en, Dutch Israelite Religious Community) (NIK) is the umbrella organisation for most Ashkenazi Jewish communities in the Netherlands, and is Orthodox in nature, while to be described as traditional i ...
'' (Dutch Israelite Church) (NIK), which can be classified as part of (Ashkenazi)
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...
. The NIK has approximately 5,000 members, spread over 36 congregations (of whom 13 are in Amsterdam and surroundings) in four jurisdictions (Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam and the Interprovincial Rabbinate). It is larger than the Union of Liberal Synagogues (LJG) and thirteen times as large as the Portuguese Israelite Religious Community (PIK). The NIK was founded in 1814. At its height in 1877, it represented 176 Jewish communities. By World War II, it had 139 communities; it is made up of 36 congregations today. Besides governing some 36 congregations, the NIK has responsibility for the operation of more than 200 Jewish cemeteries in the Netherlands (the total is 250).
In 1965 Rabbi
Meir Just
Meir Just (7 July 1908 – 9 April 2010) was the Chief Rabbi of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Just served as a spiritual leader for the Dutch Jewish community for more than 45 years, until his death in 2010.
Just was born on 7 July 1908 in Vizhnit ...
was appointed Chief Rabbi of the Netherlands, a position he held until his death in April 2010.
The small ''
Portugees-Israëlitisch Kerkgenootschap'' (Portuguese Israelite Religious Community) (PIK), which is Sephardic in practice, has a membership of some 270 families. It is concentrated in Amsterdam. It was founded in 1870, although Sephardic Jews had long been in the city. Throughout history, Sephardic Jews in the Netherlands, in contrast to their Ashkenazi co-religionists, have settled mostly in a few communities: Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam,
Naarden
Naarden () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and former List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Gooi region in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. It has been part ...
and Middelburg. Only the congregation in Amsterdam survived the Holocaust with enough members to maintain its activities.
Three Jewish schools are located in Amsterdam, all situated in the Buitenveldert neighbourhood (Rosh Pina, Maimonides and Cheider). Cheider is affiliated with
Haredi
Haredi Judaism ( he, ', ; also spelled ''Charedi'' in English; plural ''Haredim'' or ''Charedim'') consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions, in oppos ...
Orthodox Judaism. Chabad has eleven rabbis, in Almere, Amersfoort, Amstelveen, Amsterdam, Haarlem, Maastricht, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht. The head ''
shluchim'' in the Netherlands are rabbis I. Vorst and Binyomin Jacobs. The latter is
chief rabbi
Chief Rabbi ( he, רב ראשי ''Rav Rashi'') is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities. Since 1911, through a ...
of the Interprovinciaal Opperrabbinaat (the Dutch Rabbinical Organisation) and vice-president of Cheider. Chabad serves approximately 2,500 Jews in the Holland region, and an unknown number in the rest of the Netherlands.
Reform Judaism
Though the number of Dutch Jews is decreasing, the last decades have seen a growth of Liberal Jewish communities throughout the country. Introduced by German-Jewish refugees in the early 1930s, nowadays some 3,500 Jews in the Netherlands are linked to one of several Liberal Jewish synagogues throughout the country. Liberal synagogues are present in Amsterdam (founded in 1931; 725 families – some 1,700 members), Rotterdam (1968), The Hague (1959; 324 families), Tilburg (1981), Utrecht (1993), Arnhem (1965; 70 families), Haaksbergen (1972), Almere (2003), Heerenveen (2000; some 30 members) and Zuid-Laren. The ''
Verbond voor Liberaal-Religieuze Joden in Nederland
The Nederlands Verbond voor Progressief Jodendom (Dutch Union for Progressive Judaism; until 2006: Verbond voor Liberaal-Religieuze Joden in Nederland, Union for Liberal-Religious Jews in the Netherlands) is the umbrella organisation for Progres ...
'' (LJG) (Union for Liberal-Religious Jews in the Netherlands) (to which all the communities mentioned above are part of) is affiliated to the
World Union for Progressive Judaism
The World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ) is the international umbrella organization for the various branches of Reform, Liberal and Progressive Judaism, as well as the separate Reconstructionist Judaism. The WUPJ is based in 40 countries ...
. On 29 October 2006, the LJG changed its name to ''Nederlands Verbond voor Progressief Jodendom'' (NVPJ) (Dutch Union for Progressive Judaism). The NVPJ has ten rabbis; some of them are: Menno ten Brink, David Lilienthal, Awraham Soetendorp, Edward van Voolen, Marianne van Praag, Navah-Tehillah Livingstone, Albert Ringer, Tamara Benima.
A new Liberal synagogue has been built (2010) in Amsterdam, 300 meters away from the current synagogue. This was needed since the former building became too small for the growing community. The Liberal synagogue in Amsterdam receives approximately 30 calls a month by people who wish to convert to Judaism. The number of people who complete conversion is much lower. The number of converts to Liberal Judaism may be as high as 200 to 400, in an existing community of approximately 3,500.
Amsterdam is home to ''
Beit Ha'Chidush
Beit Ha'Chidush (meaning ''House of Renewal'' in Hebrew language, Hebrew) (BHC) is a Jewish congregation founded in 1995 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was founded by Jews, many of which were expats, with secular and religious backgrounds who wa ...
'', a progressive religious community that was founded in 1995 by Jews with secular as well as religious backgrounds. They wanted to create a more open, diverse, and renewed Judaism. The community accepts members from all backgrounds, including homosexuals and half-Jews (including Jews with a Jewish father, the first Jewish community in the Netherlands to do so). Beit Ha'Chidush has links to
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Renewal () is a recent movement in Judaism which endeavors to reinvigorate modern Judaism with Kabbalistic, Hasidic, and musical practices. Specifically, it seeks to reintroduce the "ancient Judaic traditions of mysticism and meditation, ...
in the United States, and
Liberal Judaism in the United Kingdom. The rabbi for the community was German-born
Elisa Klapheck Elisa Klapheck (born 10 December 1962) is the first female rabbi to serve in the Netherlands, although she was born in Germany. She was also one of the organizers of Bet Debora Berlin, a conference of European women rabbis, cantors, scholars, and ra ...
, the first female rabbi of the Netherlands. It is now Clary Rooda. The community uses the in the center of Amsterdam.
Reconstructionist Judaism
The Open Jewish Congregation
OJG Klal Israël in
Delft
Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...
was founded at the end of 2005, to establish an accepting home for all Jews. The first service was held on 6 January 2005 in the historic Koornmarkt synagogue of
Delft
Delft () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, Netherlands. It is located between Rotterdam, to the southeast, ...
. Services have continued every two weeks, alternating on Friday evening or Saturday morning, next to holidays. Klal Israël has been affiliated with the Jewish
Reconstructionist Communities since November 2009. Participation in the activities is open to anyone who feels Jewish, is Jewish, or wants to be Jewish. Klal Israël is a progressive egalitarian community, where women and men enjoy equal rights. The siddurim – prayer books – contain Hebrew text as well as a phonetic transcription and a translation in Dutch. Klal Israël offers a giur procedure. As of the beginning of the Jewish year 5777 (2 October 2016),
Hannah Nathans
Hannah Nathans (born 1944 in Amsterdam) is an author and spiritual counselor. She is currently working as rabbi of the Open Jewish Congregation Klal Israel in Delft, and is leading HaMakor for the Centre for Jewish Spirituality.
Life
Hannah Nathan ...
is rabbi of the kehilla (congregation, Hebr.).
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism
Conservative Judaism, known as Masorti Judaism outside North America, is a Jewish religious movement which regards the authority of ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions as coming primarily from its people and community through the generatio ...
("Masorti") was introduced in the Netherlands in 2000, with the founding of a community in the city of
Almere
Almere () is a Planned community, planned List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Flevoland, Netherlands, located about 20 km ...
. In 2005 ''Masorti Nederland'' (Masorti Netherlands) had some 75 families, primarily based in the greater Amsterdam-Almere region. The congregation uses the 19th century synagogue in the city of
Weesp
Weesp () is a city, an urban area in the municipality of Amsterdam and a former municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands. It had a population of in . It lies on the river Vecht and next to the Amsterdam–Rhine Canal in an are ...
. Its first rabbi is
David Soetendorp (1945).
There is also a second Dutch Masorti kehilla in the city of
Deventer
Deventer (; Sallands: ) is a city and municipality in the Salland historical region of the province of Overijssel, Netherlands. In 2020, Deventer had a population of 100,913. The city is largely situated on the east bank of the river IJssel, bu ...
called Masorti Jewish Community
:nl:Beth Shoshanna that began in 2010 and holds services and other activities in the 19th century
Great Synagogue of Deventer
The Great Synagogue of Deventer ( nl, Grote Synagoge van Deventer) is a synagogue in Deventer, Netherlands.
History 19th century
This temple was built in 1892 by J.A. Mulock Houwer. It is a Neo-Renaissance building with Moorish influences. ...
.
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Renewal
Jewish Renewal () is a recent movement in Judaism which endeavors to reinvigorate modern Judaism with Kabbalistic, Hasidic, and musical practices. Specifically, it seeks to reintroduce the "ancient Judaic traditions of mysticism and meditation, ...
was first introduced in the Netherlands in the 1990s by Carola de Vries Robles. ''HaMakor – Center for Jewish Spirituality'' is the current home for Jewish Renewal and is led by Rabbi
Hannah Nathans
Hannah Nathans (born 1944 in Amsterdam) is an author and spiritual counselor. She is currently working as rabbi of the Open Jewish Congregation Klal Israel in Delft, and is leading HaMakor for the Centre for Jewish Spirituality.
Life
Hannah Nathan ...
. They do not have membership dues and therefore most activities require money paid to participate.
Education and youth
Jewish schools
There are three Jewish schools in the Netherlands, all in Amsterdam and affiliated with the
Nederlands Israëlitisch Kerkgenootschap
The Nederlands-Israëlitisch Kerkgenootschap ( en, Dutch Israelite Religious Community) (NIK) is the umbrella organisation for most Ashkenazi Jewish communities in the Netherlands, and is Orthodox in nature, while to be described as traditional i ...
(NIK). ''Rosj Pina'' is a school for Jewish children ages 4 through 12. Education is mixed (boys and girls together) despite its affiliation to the Orthodox NIK. It is the largest Jewish school in the Netherlands. As of 2007, it had 285 pupils enrolled. Maimonides is the largest Jewish high school in the Netherlands. It had some 160 pupils enrolled in 2005. Although founded as a Jewish school and affiliated to the NIK, it has a secular curriculum. ''
Cheider'', started by former resistance fighter
Arthur Juda Cohen, presents education to Jewish children of all ages. Of the three, it is the only school with a
Haredi
Haredi Judaism ( he, ', ; also spelled ''Charedi'' in English; plural ''Haredim'' or ''Charedim'') consists of groups within Orthodox Judaism that are characterized by their strict adherence to ''halakha'' (Jewish law) and traditions, in oppos ...
background. Girls and boys are educated in separate classes. The school has some 200 pupils.
The Hague
Tzemach Hasadeh is a Jewish kindergarten in The Hague. It has been active since 1997 and has a Jewish, Dutch and Israeli education program.
Jewish youth
Several Jewish organisations in the Netherlands are focused on Jewish youth. They include:
* Bne Akiwa Holland (
Bnei Akiva
Bnei Akiva ( he, בְּנֵי עֲקִיבָא, , "Children of Akiva") is the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world, with over 125,000 members in 42 countries. It was first established in Mandatory Palestine in 1929.
History
B ...
), a religious Zionist youth organisation.
* CIJO, the youth organisation of CIDI (), a political Jewish youth organisation.
* Gan Israel Holland, the Dutch branch of the youth organisation of Chabad.
*
Haboniem-Dror, a socialist
Zionist
Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...
youth movement.
* Ijar, a Jewish student organisation
* Moos, an independent Jewish youth organisation
* Netzer Holland, a Zionist youth organisation aligned to the
NVPJ
* NextStep, the youth organisation of
Een Ander Joods Geluid
Een Ander Joods Geluid (A Different Jewish Voice) (EAJG) is a Dutch-Jewish organisation founded in May 2001 to promote the public debate concerning Israel. It wants to break the perceived silence in the Dutch-Jewish community concerning the occupat ...
Jewish health care
There are two Jewish nursing homes in the Netherlands. One, ''Beth Shalom'', is situated in Amsterdam at two locations, Amsterdam Buitenveldert and Amsterdam Osdorp. There are some 350 elderly Jews currently residing in Beth Shalom. Another Jewish nursing home, the ''Mr. L.E. Visserhuis'', is located in The Hague. It is home to some 50 elderly Jews. Both nursing homes are aligned to
Orthodox Judaism
Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on M ...
;
kosher
(also or , ) is a set of dietary laws dealing with the foods that Jewish people are permitted to eat and how those foods must be prepared according to Jewish law. Food that may be consumed is deemed kosher ( in English, yi, כּשר), fro ...
food is available. Both nursing homes have their own synagogue.
There is a Jewish wing at the ''Amstelland Hospital'' in
Amstelveen
Amstelveen () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands with a population of 92.353 as of 2022. It is a suburban part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area.
The municipality of Amstelveen consists of the historical villages o ...
. It is unique in Western Europe in that Jewish patients are cared for according to Orthodox Jewish law; kosher food is the only type of food available at the hospital. The Jewish wing was founded after the fusion of the Nicolaas Tulp Hospital and the (Jewish) Central Israelite Patient Care in 1978.
The ''Sinai Centrum'' (Sinai Center) is a Jewish psychiatric hospital located in Amsterdam,
Amersfoort
Amersfoort () is a city and municipality in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands, about 20 km from the city of Utrecht and 40 km south east of Amsterdam. As of 1 December 2021, the municipality had a population of 158,531, making it the second- ...
(primary location) and
Amstelveen
Amstelveen () is a municipality in the province of North Holland, Netherlands with a population of 92.353 as of 2022. It is a suburban part of the Amsterdam metropolitan area.
The municipality of Amstelveen consists of the historical villages o ...
, which focuses on mental healthcare, as well as caring for and guiding persons who are mentally disabled. It is the only Jewish psychiatric hospital currently operating in Europe. Originally focusing on the Jewish segment of the Dutch population, and especially on
Holocaust survivors
Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Axis powers, its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no unive ...
who were faced with mental problems after the Second World War, nowadays the Sinai Centrum also provides care for non-Jewish victims of war and genocide.
Jewish media
Jewish television and radio in the Netherlands is produced by ''NIKMedia''. Part of NIKMedia is the Joodse Omroep, which broadcasts documentaries, stories and interviews on a variety of Jewish topics every Sunday and Monday on the
Nederland 2
NPO 2 (''NPO twee'', formerly Nederland 2 until 2014) is a Dutch television channel, sister channel of NPO 1 and NPO 3. It was established on 1 October 1964 at 20:00, initially with a 2.5 hours schedule until 22:30.
NPO 2 tends to broadcast art ...
television channel (except from the end of May until the beginning of September). NIKMedia is also responsible for broadcasting music and interviews on
Radio 5.
The ''
Nieuw Israëlitisch Weekblad'' is the oldest still functioning (Jewish) weekly in the Netherlands, with some 6,000 subscribers. It is an important news source for many Dutch Jews, focusing on Jewish topics on a national as well as on an international level. The ''Joods Journaal'' (Jewish Weekly) was founded in 1997 and is seen as a more "glossy" magazine in comparison to the NIW. It gives a lot of attention to the
Israeli–Palestinian conflict
The Israeli–Palestinian conflict is one of the world's most enduring conflicts, beginning in the mid-20th century. Various attempts have been made to resolve the conflict as part of the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, alongside other ef ...
. Another Jewish magazine published in the Netherlands is the ''Hakehillot Magazine'', issued by the
NIK, the Jewish Community of Amsterdam and the
PIK
Pik may refer to:
People
* Pik, name used by comic creator Léo Quievreux as a musician
* Fong Chong Pik (1924–2004), Malaysian politician
* Pik Botha (1932–2018), former South African politician
* Tzvika Pick (1949–2022), Israeli compose ...
. Serving a more liberal Jewish audience, the
NVPJ publishes its own magazine, ''Levend Joods Geloof'' (Living Jewish Faith), six times a year; serving this same audience,
Beit Ha'Chidush
Beit Ha'Chidush (meaning ''House of Renewal'' in Hebrew language, Hebrew) (BHC) is a Jewish congregation founded in 1995 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was founded by Jews, many of which were expats, with secular and religious backgrounds who wa ...
publishes its own magazine as well, called ''Chidushim''.
There are a couple of Jewish websites focusing on bringing Jewish news to the Dutch Jewish community. By far the most prominent is
Joods.nl, which gives attention to the large Jewish communities in the Netherlands as well as to the
Mediene
The Mediene is the name given to all the Jewish kehillot in the Netherlands outside of the capital Amsterdam, the historical center of Dutch Judaism. From the 18th century onwards up until the Holocaust, dozens of Jewish communities were created ...
, to Israel as well as to Jewish culture and youth.
Amsterdam
Amsterdam's Jewish community today numbers about 15,000 people. A large number live in the neighbourhoods of
Buitenveldert
Buitenveldert is a neighborhood of Amsterdam, Netherlands. It is considered the modern Jewish quarter of Amsterdam with its Synagogue, Jewish schools, nursing homes, shops and restaurants.
History
From the Middle Ages the 'Binnendijksche Buitenve ...
, the
Oud-Zuid and the River Neighbourhood. Buitenveldert is considered a popular neighbourhood to live in; this is due to its low crime-rate and because it is considered to be a quiet neighbourhood.
Especially in the neighbourhood of Buitenveldert there's a sizeable Jewish community. In this area, Kosher food is widely available. There are several Kosher restaurants, two bakeries, Jewish-Israeli shops, a pizzeria and some supermarkets host a Kosher department. This neighourbood also has a Jewish elderly home, an Orthodox synagogue and three Jewish schools.
Cultural distinctions
Uniquely in the Netherlands, Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities coexisted in close proximity. Having different cultural traditions, the communities remained generally separate, but their geographical closeness resulted in cross-cultural influences not found elsewhere. Notably, in the early days when small groups of Jews were attempting to establish communities, they used the services of
rabbi
A rabbi () is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi – known as ''semikha'' – following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of ...
s and other officials from either culture, depending on who was available.
The close proximity of the two cultures also led to intermarriage at a higher rate than was known elsewhere, and in consequence many Jews of Dutch descent have family names that seem to belie their religious affiliation. All Dutch Jews have for centuries named children after the children's grandparents, which is otherwise considered exclusively a Sephardi tradition. (Ashkenazim elsewhere traditionally avoid naming a child after a living relative.)
In 1812, while the Netherlands was under
Napoleonic
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader who ...
rule, all Dutch residents (including Jews) were obliged to register surnames with the civic authorities; previously only Sephardim had complied with this. Although the Ashkenazim had avoided civic registration, many had been using an unofficial system of surnames for hundreds of years.
Also under Napoleonic rule, an 1809 law required Dutch Jewish schools to teach in Dutch as well as
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
. This excluded other languages.
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
, the
lingua franca
A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
of Ashkenazim, and
Judaeo-Portuguese
Judaeo-Portuguese, or Judeo-Lusitanic, is said to be the extinct Jewish language that was used by the Portuguese Jews, Jews of Portugal.
See also
* History of the Jews in Portugal
* Spanish and Portuguese Jews
* Lusophone
* Lusitanic
* Pallache ...
, the previous language of the Portuguese Sephardim, practically ceased to be spoken among Dutch Jews. Certain Yiddish words have been adopted into the Dutch language, especially in Amsterdam, where there was a large Jewish population. (The city is also called ''Mokum'', from the Hebrew word for town or place, ''makom''.)
Several other
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
words can be found in the local dialect, including: ''Mazzel'' from ''mazel'', which is the Hebrew word for luck or fortune; ''Tof'' which is ''Tov'', in Hebrew meaning good (as in מזל טוב –
Mazel tov
"Mazel tov" or "mazal tov" (Hebrew/Yiddish: , Hebrew: ''mazál tov''; Yiddish: ''mázl tov''; lit. "good fortune") is a Jewish phrase used to express congratulations for a happy and significant occasion or event.
Etymology and pronunciation ...
); and ''Goochem'', in Hebrew ''Chacham'' or
Hakham
''Hakham'' (or ''chakam(i), haham(i), hacham(i)''; he, חכם ', "wise") is a term in Judaism, meaning a wise or skillful man; it often refers to someone who is a great Torah scholar. It can also refer to any cultured and learned person: "He ...
, meaning wise, sly, witty or intelligent, where the Dutch ''g'' is pronounced similarly to the 8th letter of the Hebrew Alphabet the guttural ''Chet'' or
Heth
Heth, sometimes written Chet, but more accurately Ḥet, is the eighth letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Ḥēt 𐤇 , Hebrew Ḥēth , Aramaic Ḥēth , Syriac Ḥēṯ ܚ, Arabic Ḥā' , and Maltese Ħ, ħ.
Heth originall ...
.
The Dutch Ashkenazi Hebrew pronunciation has some specific features that distinguish it from other pronunciations. Most prominently, the letter "ע" (ayin) is pronounced as "ng" ("ngayin"). Additionally, certain vowels are different from the mainstream Ashkenazi pronunciation.
Economic influences
![Amsterdam - Hirsch&Co Leidseplein](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Amsterdam_-_Hirsch%26Co_Leidseplein.jpg)
Jews played a major role in the development of Dutch colonial territories and international trade, and many Jews in former colonies have Dutch ancestry. However, all the major colonial powers were competing fiercely for control of trade routes; the Dutch were relatively unsuccessful and during the 18th century, their economy went into decline.
Many of the Ashkenazim in the rural areas were no longer able to subsist and they migrated to the cities in search of work. This caused a large number of small Jewish communities to collapse completely (ten adult males were required to conduct major religious ceremonies). Entire communities migrated to the cities, where Jewish populations swelled dramatically. In 1700, the Jewish population of Amsterdam was 6,200, with Ashkenazim and Sephardim in almost equal numbers. By 1795 the figure was 20,335, the vast majority being poor Ashkenazim from rural areas.
Because Jews were obliged to live in specified Jewish quarters, there was severe overcrowding. By the mid-nineteenth century, many were emigrating to other countries where the advancement of
emancipation
Emancipation generally means to free a person from a previous restraint or legal disability. More broadly, it is also used for efforts to procure economic and social rights, political rights or equality, often for a specifically disenfranchis ...
offered better opportunities (see
Chuts
Chuts is the name applied to Jews who immigrated to London from the Netherlands during the latter part of the 19th century. They typically came from Amsterdam and practised trades they had already learned there, most notably cigar-, cap- and sl ...
).
See also
*
Israel–Netherlands relations
Israel–Netherlands relations are foreign relations between Israel and the Netherlands. The Netherlands has an embassy in Ramat Gan, an information office in Jerusalem and two honorary consulates in Eilat and Haifa. Israel has an embassy in The H ...
*
Beit Ha'Chidush
Beit Ha'Chidush (meaning ''House of Renewal'' in Hebrew language, Hebrew) (BHC) is a Jewish congregation founded in 1995 in Amsterdam, Netherlands. It was founded by Jews, many of which were expats, with secular and religious backgrounds who wa ...
*
Jewish Amsterdam Amsterdam has historically been the center of the Dutch Jewish community, and has had a continuing Jewish community for the last 370 years.
*
Jewish Eindhoven
*
Jewish Maastricht The history of the Jews in Maastricht, Netherlands, traces back to the Middle Ages. A synagogue with a mikvah existed in the city before 1295. However, severe pogroms persuaded Jews to leave Limburg ''en masse''. Hardly any Jews lived in Limburg ...
*
Jewish Tilburg
The history of the Jews in Tilburg, Netherlands, did not start until 1767, when a Jewish citizen of the town Oisterwijk was given permission to settle in Tilburg, despite objections from the city council. Several Jewish families also succeeded in s ...
*
List of Dutch Jews
This page is a list of notable Dutch Jews, arranged by field of activity.
Economists
Historians
Jurists
Mathematicians
Musicians
Actors
Visual arts
Politicians
Business
Athletes
Writers
Other
*Samuel Goudsmit (1902 ...
*
List of Jews deported from Wageningen (1942-1943)
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
*
Mediene
The Mediene is the name given to all the Jewish kehillot in the Netherlands outside of the capital Amsterdam, the historical center of Dutch Judaism. From the 18th century onwards up until the Holocaust, dozens of Jewish communities were created ...
*
Nederlands Israëlitisch Kerkgenootschap
The Nederlands-Israëlitisch Kerkgenootschap ( en, Dutch Israelite Religious Community) (NIK) is the umbrella organisation for most Ashkenazi Jewish communities in the Netherlands, and is Orthodox in nature, while to be described as traditional i ...
*
Nederlands Verbond voor Progressief Jodendom
The Nederlands Verbond voor Progressief Jodendom (Dutch Union for Progressive Judaism; until 2006: Verbond voor Liberaal-Religieuze Joden in Nederland, Union for Liberal-Religious Jews in the Netherlands) is the umbrella organisation for Progres ...
*
Nieuw Israëlietisch Weekblad
*
Pallache family
"Pallache" – also de Palacio(s), Palache, Palaçi, Palachi, Palacci, Palaggi, and many other variations (documented below) – is the surname of a prominent, Ladino-speaking, Sephardic Jewish family from the Iberian Peninsula, who spread mostl ...
*
Portugees-Israëlitisch Kerkgenootschap
*
Sephardic Jews in the Netherlands
As a result of the Alhambra Decree of 1492 and the religious repression by the Holy Office of the Inquisition, many Sephardim (Spanish and Portuguese Jews) left the Iberian peninsula at the end of the 15th century and throughout the 16th century, i ...
*
Nederlands Israëlitische Gemeente Den Haag
Further reading
* Arbell, Mordechai. ''The Jewish Nation of the Caribbean: The Spanish-Portuguese Jewish Settlements in the Caribbean and the Guianas''. Jerusalem: Gefen Publishing House, 2002.
* Corcos, Joseph. ''A Synopsis of the History of the Jews of Curaçao''. Curazao: Imprenta de la Librería, 1897.
* Emmanuel, Isaac S. and Suzanne A. ''History of the Jews of the Netherlands Antilles''. 2 vols. Cincinnati: American Jewish Archives, 1970.
*
Israel, Jonatha I., "Dutch Sephardi Jewry, Millenarian Politics and the Struggle for Brazil, 1650–54". In Jonathan Israel, ''Conflicts of Empires: Spain, the Low Countries, and the Struggle for World Supremacy, 1585–1713'', 145–170. London: The Hambledon Press, 1997.
* Kaplan, Yosef. "Amsterdam, the Forbidden Lands, and the Dynamics of the Sephardi Diaspora". In ''The Dutch Intersection: The Jews and the Netherlands in Modern History'', edited by Yosef Kaplan, 33–62. Leiden: Brill, 2008.
* Klooster, Wim. "The Geopolitical Impact of Dutch Brazil on the Western Hemisphere". In ''The Legacy of Dutch Brazil'', edited by Michiel van Groesen, 25–40. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
* ---. "Networks of Colonial Entrepreneurs: The Founders of Jewish Settlements in Dutch America, 1650s and 1660s". In ''Atlantic Diasporas: Jews, Conversos, and Crypto-Jews in the Age of Mercantilism, 1500–1800'', edited by Richard L. Kagan and Philip D. Morgan, 33–49. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.
* ---. "Communities of Port Jews and Their Contacts in the Dutch Atlantic World". ''Jewish History'' 20 (2006): 129–145.
* Offenberg, Adri K. "Spanish and Portuguese Sephardi Books Published in Northern Netherlands before Menasseh Ben Israel (1584–1627)." In ''Dutch Jewish History: Proceedings of the Fifth Symposium on the History of the Jews in the Netherlands'', edited by Jozeph Michman, 77–90. Van Gorcum: The Institute for Research on Dutch Jewry, 1993.
* Swetschinski, Daniel M. ''Reluctant Cosmopolitans: The Portuguese Jews of Seventeenth-Century Amsterdam''. Oxford: Littman Library of Jewish Civilization 2004.
* Williams, James Homer. "An Atlantic Perspective on the Jewish Struggle for Rights and Opportunities in Brazil, New Netherland, and New York". In ''The Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West, 1450–1800'', edited by Paolo Bernardini and Norman Fiering, 369–393. New York: Berghahn Books, 2001.
References
*
External links
Jewish Encyclopedia article on the Netherlands1906
*
ttp://www.jhm.nl/ Jewish Historical Museum (Amsterdam)U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum: 1940–1945 destruction of Holland's Jewish population during the HolocaustCenter for Research on Dutch Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the Archives Database of the Amsterdam City Archives
in the Archives Database of the Amsterdam City Archives
Joods.nl
*
ttp://www.nik.nl/Frames_eng.asp Dutch Israelite Religious Community (NIK)Dutch Union for Progressive JudaismMasorti Netherlands
HaMakorChabad Netherlands
Stichting Joods Bijzonder Onderwijs (Association Jewish Education)
Digital Monument of the Jewish Community in the NetherlandsJoods MonumentOndergang: De vervolging en verdelging van het Nederlandse jodendom 1940–1945by
Jacques Presser
Jacob (Jacques) Presser (24 February 1899 in Amsterdam – 30 April 1970 in Amsterdam) was a Dutch historian, writer and poet who is known for his book ''Ashes in the Wind (The Destruction of the Dutch Jews)'' on the history of the persecutio ...
(full online version)
Dutch Melodies (site of K'hal Adas Yeshurun Jerusalem)
{{Portal bar, Judaism, Netherlands