Jews in Amsterdam

Having been expelled from the Netherlands in the Middle Ages, Jews only began to re-establish themselves there at the end of the sixteenth century. Amsterdam soon emerged as not merely the leading Dutch settlement, but the most important Jewish congregation of the Western diaspora, frequently described as a “New Jerusalem.” At first, those who settled there were Marranos or “New Christians,” Jews who had converted to Christianity, often for their own protection, especially in Spain and Portugal. The political and religious divisions of the Dutch Revolt (c. 1566–1648), and the formation of the United Provinces of the Netherlands in 1579, independent from Spanish rule, created a more fluid and tolerant environment for those of different religious outlooks. A small number of Sephardic conversos started to arrive in Amsterdam from 1593, and at first they were obliged, at least officially, to continue to deport themselves as Christians. But their mercantile expertise, extensive networks, and disinclination to cause trouble for the governing authorities all contributed to a growing acceptance of these emigrants. Jewish worship initially took place in private, but in 1612 the community was permitted to repurpose a private house as a synagogue, a first indication of more formal acceptance of their presence as Jews. Especially given their origins, the members of the Sephardic community had to devote considerable energies to reacquainting themselves with the nature and expectations of their Jewish faith, and on instilling orthodoxy within a community which had by necessity worshipped separately and with various compromises in place. In due course, Ashkenazic Jews also started to descend on Amsterdam, particularly in the wake of the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), which ravaged much of Europe, and the Chmielnicki Uprising in Poland (1648–1657). These Jews were typically much poorer than their Sephardic brethren and were only permitted to enter the city on the understanding that they would be supported by their Portuguese predecessors. In fact, over time Ashkenazim came to outnumber their Sephardic counterparts: by the late seventeenth century, there may have been 2,500–3,000 Sephardic Jews, and 5,000 or more Ashkenazic Jews. Nonetheless, the existing scholarship has focused much more heavily on the Sephardim than the Ashkenazim. The Sephardic congregation in particular was home to many influential rabbis and a vibrant religious and cultural life, reflected, for instance, in their impressive synagogue, and in the many books—in Portuguese, Spanish, and Hebrew—which issued from its presses.

Fetched live from OpenAlex and de-inverted. Abstracts are not stored in this database: the inverted indexes are 8.6 GB of the frame’s 9.3 GB of text, and the host has 13 GB free.