in the middle of the former
Jodenbuurt in an engraving from the
Fouquet-Atlas ( 1760-1783 ). Photo: bma.amsterdam.nl. The first Jews to settle in Amsterdam were the
Sephardim, who had been expelled from
Portugal and
Spain in 1493. They were joined in the following decades by the Ashkenazi from Central and Eastern Europe, the first of whom had come from
Germany in 1600. In those years, the only available land for them was at the outskirts of the eastern side of the
Centrum — the island of
Vlooienburg, surrounded by the Amstel River and the canals — so they settled along the island's main street, Breestraat, which quickly became known as
Jodenbreestraat [ "Jewish Broad Street" ]. ( The nearby square,
Waterlooplein [ "Waterloo Square" ], would not be created until 1882, when the Leprozengracht and the Houtgracht were drained. ) By 1612, the population was about 500 people but it doubled to about 1,000 in 1620 and again to 2,500 in 1672. The Jews gave their new home, Amsterdam, its Hebrew name,
Mokum ( "place" ) to show that they had finally felt at home in the city. This was because, with the
Union of Utrecht in 1579, all the residents of the
Dutch Republic were to be given religious freedom, the first time a European country had ever established and enshrined the freedom of religion as the law of the land. So the Jews were allowed to build their own
synagogues. The first of them was the Beth Jakob, built between 1602 and 1610, followed by the second synagogue, Neve Shalom, constructed between 1608 and 1612, and the third, Beth Israel, founded in 1618. They were all Sephardic. They were all hidden and therefore not visible from the streets. But the Jews were not alone in the
Jodenbuurt. They were joined by several Christians. One of them was the artist
Rembrandt, who was fascinated by the "Biblical" faces of his new neighbors. In 1641, a group of
Franciscans also came to establish a
Catholic clandestine church in a house called "
Moses", out of the reach of the
Protestant authorities of Amsterdam. Known as the "Jewish Church", it began as the
Sint-Anthoniuskerk [ "St.
Anthony of Padua Church" ] but it grew into the
Mozes en Aäronkerk [ "Moses and
Aaron Church" ]. It is still standing today at the Waterlooplein. . On 8 November 1616, the Jews were made legal citizens by the City of Amsterdam. But they were still
not allowed to enter certain occupations; they were not permitted to join the guilds of Amsterdam. So they were limited to street trading, financing, book printing and diamond cutting — the only occupations that were open to them. From 1622, the synagogues began to cooperate for the good of the
Jodenbuurt. On 3 April 1693, they merged their districts into a single municipality under the name of
Talmud Torah. In that year, they also opened the first synagogue that was visible from the streets. It stood on the Houtgracht, at the present Waterlooplein. Next to the new synagogue on
Nieuwe Amstelstraat [ "New Amstel Street" ] was a meat market, where the residents of the neighborhood could buy their
kosher meat. The Sephardi did not have proper knowledge about
Judaism. They were not allowed to be Jews in Portugal and Spain but they were allowed to live as the so-called
Marranos or fake Christians. So in Amsterdam they sent for the
rabbis to come out of
Italy,
North Africa, and the
Ottoman Empire to teach them the ways of Judaism in the
Jodenbuurt. The first Ashkenazi
shul, the Great Synagogue ( now the
Jewish Historical Museum ), and the fifth Sephardi
shul, the
Portuguese-Israelite Synagogue, were opened in 1671 and 1675, respectively, immortalized by the
engravings of the Dutchman,
Romeyn de Hooghe ( 1645–1708 ). The Portuguese Synagogue was the place where Spinoza was placed under the ban by the Sephardic Jewish community in 1656. Because of their knowledge of
Spanish and
Portuguese, many of the Sephardim were involved with trade and plantations in the Spanish and Portuguese colonies in
South America. Several Jews, such as
Isaac de Pinto and his father David, had a great influence on the national government of the
Republic of the Seven United Provinces but they came under heavy criticism from the
Doelisten, a political coalition of
Orangists, moderates, radicals and democrats. In the days of the
Batavian Republic, several residents of the
Jodenbuurt, including
Jonas Daniel Meijer ( 1780–1834 ), the first Jewish lawyer in the Netherlands, and Carel Asser ( 1780–1836 ), a judge, were admitted to the bar, the civil societies and even municipal politics but they came in conflict with the
parnassiem, the religious leaders of their neighborhood.
19th and early 20th centuries The achievements of
Isaac da Costa,
Abraham Capadose and other Jews were made possible by the emancipation of the Jews around 1825. In the 19th century, many Jews were active in processing, cutting and trading diamonds, leading to the first trade union in the Netherlands – the
Algemene Nederlandse Diamantbewerkersbond [ "
General Dutch Diamond Workers' Union" ], chaired by
Henri Polak. Its headquarters, the
Beurs van Berlage [ "Berlage Exchange" ], named in honor of its architect
Hendrik Petrus Berlage, was in the Plantage. With the increase of their wealth in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, many of the residents moved out of the
Jodenbuurt for the newer neighborhoods, such as the
Transvaalbuurt, the
Watergraafsmeer [ "Water Count's Lake" ] and the
Rivierenbuurt [ "Rivers Neighborhood" ]. After the Leprozengracht and Houtgracht were filled in 1882, the
Jodenbuurt market was moved from Jodensbreestraat to the new square, Waterlooplein, and became a popular Sunday attraction for the rest of Amsterdam. The
Amsterdam Tram 8 Alliance began in 1906 to run its lines from the
Central Station through Nieuwmarkt, Waterlooplein,
Weesperplein to Van Woustraat and later the
Rivierenbuurt. But Line 8 died in the summer of 1942 after the German occupiers forbade the Jews to ride the trams. In the 1930s, with the rise of
Adolf Hitler, many German Jews fled from the persecutions of the
Nazis to the Netherlands but the Dutch government would accept them only if they were in "direct danger of life". In 1933, it also decided that the state would not be responsible for the financial expenses of resettling the Jewish refugees.
World War II During the Second World War, the Germans invaded the Netherlands in May 1940 and stayed until May 1945. In 1941, the
Jodenbuurt was declared by the Nazis to be the Jewish Ghetto and subjected to ever-increasing restrictions. A big fence was erected around the entire quarter and many bridges were placed under permanent guard to control the comings and goings of the residents. Many other Jews were warehoused in the Transvaalbuurt. On 10 January 1941, all the Jewish citizens had to register with the Nazis. On 6 July 1942, they were not allowed to make any phone calls and receive Gentile visitors. On 23 October 1942, they were prohibited from driving cars and trucks. Three major raids took place in Amsterdam, including the
Jodenbuurt, in May, June and September 1943, and from these raids hundreds of Jews were deported to "the East". But many more of them went into hiding with the help of their Christian neighbors and friends and survived the war. So the
Jodenbuurt was virtually empty and it would stay that way until the end of the war. Then came the
Hunger Winter of 1944-1945. Many buildings of the
Jodenbuurt were demolished by the cold and starving people of Amsterdam to feed their stoves and fireplaces for the cooking and heating. The four Ashkenazi synagogues on the Jonas Daniel Meijer Square were not spared. They were stripped of almost all wood, from the galleries and even three of the four sacred
Arks (
aron hakodesh, the cabinets for housing the scrolls of the
Torah ). Only the Holy Ark of the Great Synagogue was left alone because it was made of marble, not wood. The war decimated the Jewish population of Amsterdam. Before the Germans came, there were 80,000 Jews in the whole city but, after they left, there were only 5,000 left. They were the ones who returned from the death camps in Germany and
German-occupied Poland. Some of the Dutch saved many more of the Jews in their homes, cloisters and orphanages.
After World War II (Jewish Historical Museum) After the war, what was once a bustling, thriving neighborhood was largely abandoned and neglected. In 1953 the municipal government made plans for a major renovation, including a large expansion to Weesperstraat and Prins Hendrikkade and the construction of the so-called 'oostlijn' expansion to the
Amsterdam Metro. Many houses were demolished and replaced with large apartment blocks and office buildings, including the
Maupoleum, built by and named for the Jewish real estate developer
Maup Caransa, who had survived the war in the neighborhood and acquired much of it. Today, little remains of the once-thriving Jewish neighborhood that once existed in the Jodenbuurt; however there are a few surviving monuments from Amsterdam's Jewish history. These include the
Jewish Historical Museum and the
Portuguese Synagogue. Saved from nearly being demolished in 1975, the
Huis de Pinto is a mansion in Sint Antoniesbreestraat that once belonged to a wealthy Portuguese Sephardic family often referred to as the
Rothschild family of the
Dutch Golden Age. ==See also==