How the Jews Modernized: The Western Nations (original) (raw)

Assimilating Jews in Dutch nation-building: the missing 'pillar

Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie, 2002

Until the Second World War the Netherlands housed a Jewish minority, which varied from 1.4% to 2.2% of the Dutch population in the 1800-1940 period. In this paper an analysis is made of their numerical development and geographical distribution based on census data, and of the consequences of the Jewish demography and geography for the assimilation into Dutch society. Among other factors, it appears that the small size of the Jewish population, their strong geographical dispersion, their strong propensity for internal migration, their orientation towards rival liberal and socialist institutions in Amsterdam have prevented the rise of a Jewish 'pillar' and encouraged assimilation into Dutch society.

The Religious Cultures of Dutch Jewry

2017

part 4 Ceremonial Dimensions 9 Jewish Liturgy in the Netherlands: Liturgical Intentions and Historical Dimensions 209 Wout van Bekkum 10 Paving the Way: "Deaf and Dumb" Children and the Introduction of Confirmation Ceremonies in Dutch Judaism 222 Chaya Brasz part 5 Jewish Identity and Religiosity 11 Religion, Culture (and Nation) in Nineteenth-Century Dutch Jewish Thought 249 Irene E. Zwiep 12 "Religiosity" in Dutch Jewish Art in the Nineteenth and the Early Twentieth Century 270 Rivka Weiss-Blok ix Contents part 6 The Master: Images of Chief Rabbi Jozeph Zvi (Hirsch) Dünner 13 "The Great Eagle, the Pride of Jacob": Jozeph Hirsch Dünner in Dutch Jewish Memory Culture 299 Bart Wallet 14 Image(s) of "The Rav" through the Lens of an Involved Historian: Jaap Meijer's Depiction of Rabbi Jozeph Hirsch Dünner 316 Evelien Gans part 7 Religious Life after the Catastrophe: Post-1945 Developments 15 The Return to Judaism in the Netherlands 329 Minny E. Mock-Degen 16 Vanishing Diaspora? Jews in the Netherlands and Their Ties with Judaism: Facts and Expectations about Their Future 342 Marlene de Vries Index 353 Preface xvi youngsters who had been in the movement made aliya in the 1920s and 1930s. Some of them trained themselves as halutzim when still in the Netherlands; next to general organizations for pioneers, separate ones for religious pioneers were set up: Torah Vaarets as a funding and supervising agency, and Bahad (Brith Halutzim Datiyim, Union of Religious Pioneers) as the organization of the pioneers themselves. In any case, the young religious Zionists were one of the most active groups in Dutch Jewry in the 1930s. In the years after Hitler's ascendance to power (1933) and until the occupation of the country, thousands of refugees came to the Netherlands, the majority of them not affiliated to any religious stream. However, some of the Liberal-religious among them joined the tiny Liberal religious movement in Amsterdam and The Hague that had been initiated just shortly before 1933, thus strengthening it and giving Liberal Judaism for the first time a real stronghold in the Netherlands. In the Orthodox arena, the coming to the Rabbinical Seminary of the charismatic Rabbi Dr. Jakob Jekutiel Neubauer from Würzburg, was of importance. Yet, altogether, these years before the storm were too limited to allow for a lasting impact. The occupation of the Netherlands by Nazi Germany in May 1940 changed the picture entirely. One can observe a series of efforts to intensify Jewish identity vis-à-vis the persecutions, both in the years before the beginning of the deportations (1940-1942), and afterward in the camps Westerbork and Vught, through educational activities emphasizing the historical past and religious origins and sources, carried out sometimes in settings such as synagogues; but this was short-lived and the arrests and deportations of 1942-1944 put an abrupt end to them. The hardships of this period challenged the faithfulrabbis as well as ordinary Jews-regarding the keeping to halakhic rules and raised theological questions. This would have an impact on the attitude and practices of the surviving remnant to the faith. Postwar Dutch Jewry was a decimated remnant of the prewar considerable community: about 75% of the 140,000 Jews were murdered in the Shoah. As said above, already before 1940, religious life and culture had declined, and that had affected especially the little communities outside Amsterdam. Many communities did not have a minyan any more, and functionaries, including cantors, teachers and rabbis who had led religious life before the war, did not survive. Synagogues and ritual baths had been ruined or damaged. Attempts at rehabilitation and revival were made though. The prewar community structure, anchored in law and tradition, was restored. The overall idea was to centralize activities and institutions; thus, in 1947, the official chief Orthodox rabbinate of the Netherlands was established, a novum. Religious and educational activities were undertaken in order to provide the remnant, and xvii Preface xxi Preface and religious laxity. The description of the confrontation between him and the rabbi of the Curaçao community, Mendes de Solla, and the internecine controversies among the various factions of the Jews on the island sheds light on the differences between the religious culture of the Jews of the Caribbean islands and the religious norms prevalent in the leading community of Amsterdam. Years after leaving the island, Aboab converted to Christianity and became a Christian Hebraist, who was connected with the circle of Hutchinsonians in England. Under the influence of the new winds blowing in France, which brought the ideas of the Enlightenment to the shores of the Caribbean and North America, the Jewish community of Surinam became a fertile soil for intellectual ferment and cultural experiments in the spirit of the ideas of the eighteenth-century philosophes. The article by Jonathan Israel analyzes the activity of a small group of Jewish youths in Surinam during the last thirty years of the eighteenth century. This group was headed by David Cohen Nassy, an enlightened Jewish intellectual who, years later, became a consistent fighter for Jewish emancipation. This group of young people established a Jewish literary and learned society, in which Christians also participated. It held discussions in French and Dutch and was exposed to the literature of the radical Enlightenment. One of the goals the circle proposed for itself was curtailment of the religious authority of the Mahamad in the name of equality and individual liberty. Nassy developed an educational curriculum intended for women as well, and central to it was to be the establishment of a Jewish school based on the principles of the Enlightenment. The fourth section, Ceremonial Dimensions contains two articles about Dutch Jewry in the nineteenth century. Following the law of emancipation, trends of acculturation into the majority society grew stronger among the Jews of Holland. While most of the Jews remained Orthodox in their way of life, among the cultivated intelligentsia the influence of the Jewish Enlightenment, in its German version, was increasingly felt. The educated Jewish bourgeoisie sought to introduce certain changes in religious ceremonies, in order to endow them with decorum, in an effort to imitate the dignified atmosphere prevalent in the Calvinist churches. As early as the seventeenth century, the Sephardi community in Amsterdam passed ordinances calling for maintenance of order and discipline within the synagogue, stating that this was proper for gente politica, that is to say, civilized people, and it was expected that those committed to the values of bom judesmo, that is, proper Judaism, should behave in this manner. Among other things, the Sephardi worshipers were asked not to talk during prayers, not to rise and offer a seat to gentile visitors, and not to bang with hammers during the reading of the Scroll of Esther on Purim. However, under the influence of the reforms in the synagogue rite among German xxii Preface for Research on Dutch Jewry in Jerusalem, its chairman Mr. André Boers and all the members of its Board of Directors. We also wish to thank the Friends of the Center for Research on Dutch Jewry in the Netherlands for their cooperation. Throughout all the stages of preparing this volume, Irene Sommer, the devoted secretary of the center, spared no effort, always managing to inspire us with good spirits. Last but not least, deep gratitude is due to Dr. Sharon Assaf for her careful copy-editing, which assured consistency in spelling and style throughout the volume.