HISTORY

It is likely that the first Jews settled in the Netherlands in small numbers and isolated communities during the Roman conquest some 2,000 years ago. Documentary evidence begins in the 1100’s. For several centuries, the record reflects that the Jews were persecuted and expelled on a regular basis. The most violent persecution took place in 1349, after they were accused of spreading the Black Plague. For the next 200 years, the number of Jews in the area was close to zero.

Beginning in the sixteenth century, the Netherlands became home to numerous Portuguese merchants, as Amsterdam became a center of world trade and shipping. Among these merchants were many Marranos who had been forced to flee from the Spanish Inquisition in 1492. They kept their identities secret and by the end of the century formed a community in Amsterdam. When their community was discovered and their leaders arrested by the ruling Protestant church, some of the Jews moved to other towns which extended them protective charters. The majority, however, stayed in Amsterdam, with new statutes regarding religious tolerance issued in 1619. The overall status of Jews in the Netherlands remained inconsistent but was generally in Jews’ favor.

In 1620, the first Ashkenazi Jews arrived in Amsterdam, where they formed a community by 1635 and further settled in Rotterdam and Hague. The Ashkenazim Jews soon became superior in number to the Sephardim, but with the exception of a few wealthy families, remained inferior socially and economically.

While in general European Jews isolated themselves economically, socially and politically, the Jews of the Netherlands enjoyed economic and social integration as early as the seventeenth century, something that the rest of European Jewry would not experience for hundreds of years. Professions like medicine became very popular and the Jews, particularly the Sephardim, with their knowledge of languages and connections to the international trade network of Jews and Marranos, played a major role in the economic expansion that elevated the Netherlands to a world center in the 1600’s. Jews were also prominent in the tobacco, sugar refining and printing industries. Most of all, the diamond industry became an almost exclusively Jewish occupation in the Netherlands due to their success in this field.

Because of their economic integration, Jews in the Netherlands united with the greater society to a much larger extent than any other Jewish community in this period. They lived not in a ghetto, but in a Jewish quarter, which they were free to leave and which was frequented by non-Jews, including the artist Rembrandt, who lived and worked in the Jewish quarter. The anti-Semitic violence still prevalent in this period in Germany and Eastern Europe was non-existent in the Netherlands.

DEMOGRAPHY

Prior to the Holocaust, 140,000 Jews were living in the Netherlands. During the 1930s, the community was active in helping Jews leave Germany, so that by the outbreak of the war, some 30,000 had found sanctuary in the Netherlands. The tragedy of Dutch Jewry during the Shoah was marked by a paradoxical response by the Dutch people. Many of the Dutch collaborated with the Germans, while many others strove to rescue their Jewish neighbours. By the end of the war, over 100,000 Dutch Jews had been murdered. Some 10,000, including 3,500 children, had been hidden until the danger passed.

At present, there are approximately 41,000 to 45,000 Jews in the Netherlands, with approximately 30,000 defined as Jews accordingly to ‘halacha’ (the Rabbinic law of matrilineal lineage) and another 10,000-15,000 descending from Jewish fathers. The majority of Jews (approximately 15,000) lives in Amsterdam. There are medium-size communities in Rotterdam and The Hague, and smaller ones in Almere, Amersfoort, Arnhem, Bussum, Eindhoven, Enschede, Groningen, Haarlem, Leeuwarden, Leiden, Utrecht, and Zwolle. Contemporary Dutch Jewry is overwhelmingly Ashkenazi. Nowadays, the Sephardic community is concentrated in Amsterdam and numbers some 270 families (600 persons), constituting approximately 2% of the Dutch-Jewish community.

COMMUNITY

The Netherlands hosts a rich variety of Jewish organizations and socio-cultural activities. WIZO and B’nai B’rith, Maccabi are present, as well as several youth movements (Bnei Akiva, Habonim-Dror, Hasjalsjelet, Tikwatenoe), serving some 500 children in annual summer or winter camps. A comprehensive welfare structure exists, including a Jewish hospital and the Sinai (psychiatric) hospital in Amstelveen, as well as retirement homes in Amsterdam and The Hague, and the only Jewish hospice in Europe.

CULTURE AND EDUCATION

Three Jewish day schools operate in Amsterdam. The Rosj Pina elementary school, with over 300 pupils is the largest Jewish school in the Netherlands. Maimonides, with 160 students, is the largest Jewish high school. Although founded as a Jewish school and also affiliated to the NIK, it has a secular curriculum.

To serve the ultra-Orthodox members of NIK, Cheider operates a day care, primary and secondary school in the capital. There are also several religious institutes of higher learning.

The weekly publication Nieuw Israelitisch Weekblad is widely read by the community. The journal Studia Rosenthaliana is published twice a year by the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana (the Judaica library of Amsterdam University). The ‘Joodse Omroep’, is a public broadcast organisation, with weekly programs on national radio and tv.

RELIGIOUS LIFE

Dutch Jewry is organised into three councils based on affiliation: Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Reform. These councils are the Nederlands-Israelitisch Kerkgenootschap (traditional), the Portugees-Israelitisch Kerkgenootschap (traditional) and the Verbond voor Progressief Jodendom (progressive).

There are currently some 150 synagogues catering to all Jewish denominations in the Netherlands, of which some 50 are actively used for religious services.

Amsterdam has ten Ashkenazi and two Sephardi synagogues. The Hague and Rotterdam have Ashkenazi Orthodox synagogues, as do the cities of Almere, Amersfoort, Arnhem, Breda, Bussum, Eindhoven, Enschede, Groningen, Haarlem, Leiden, Leeuwarden, Middelburg, Utrecht, and Zwolle. The Netherlands’ Liberal congregation has synagogues in Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, Tilburg, Utrecht and other towns. One Conservative congregation makes use of a small synagogue just outside of Amsterdam. Kosher food is readily available.

Amsterdam is one of the few European cities with a Shabbat boundary (Eruv). There are 10 Mikvaot in the country of which five are located outside Amsterdam.

SITES

Amsterdam also features many sites of Jewish interest, starting with the famous Portuguese Synagogue, directly opposite the Jewish Historical Museum. The Anne Frank House draws an enormous number of visitors from all over the world. It also houses an exhibition exposing contemporary European intolerance. The Resistance Museum, close to Hollandsche Schouwburg from where the Jews were deported from Amsterdam and which is a Holocaust remembrance and museum location today, has many sections of particular Jewish interest.

In recent years, synagogues have been restored in Amsterdam, Groningen, Middelburg, Rotterdam and Breda. The Enschede synagogue is impressive for its surprising size and architecture. Close to the location of the former detention camp at Westerbork there is a commemoration center. There is also a small museum at the Hollandsche Schouwburg, where Amsterdam Jews were assembled prior to deportation.

The Spinoza House, the Portuguese Synagogue in The Hague and the old Jewish cemetery at Ouderkerk-on-the-Amstel near Amsterdam are other recommended sites of interest, besides different locations in the former Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam, where Jews lived for some 300 years, with their non-Jewish neighbours including painter Rembrandt, whose house is on Jodenbreestraat (Jews Broadway).

ISRAEL

The Netherlands established diplomatic relations with the State of Israel in 1949.

Since 1948, 6,120 Dutch Jews have immigrated to Israel.