The Disappearing Dutch Jew

Are Dutch Jews disappearing?

The point of view of Jaap Meijer (1912 - 1993, major historian of the Dutch Jewish community of Amsterdam in the post-war years, father of playwright and columnist Ischa Meijer (1943 - 1995), who in his own way painted perfect word portraits of Amsterdam in his column 'De Dikke Man') was that there was little to preserve, and unless the survivors firmed up, little that could be preserved. At that time (late forties), of the 140 thousand plus pre-war Dutch Jews, barely 30 thousand had come back.

In the following years the community seemed to continue shrinking, as members left for Israel and the United States, for a variety of reasons, many due to having a bad Dutch taste in their mouth (one SF resident told me that he just could not face his former neighbors in Amsterdam anymore, because he held them responsible for what had happened, and resented them for having stolen his furniture the moment the Germans arrested him and his family. Another one said that he never realized how evil bankers could be until he found out how the Dutch banks had collaborated with the Germans to rob the Jews).


Yet by the eighties, it seemed like the community had partially recovered, and had found a measure of stability. Or so I thought. The fight against the Dutch government, and against Dutch society, over blame and loot, flared up again, with the Dutch government and Dutch society as usual taking the well-worn approach that "we did everything we could, we didn't do anything wrong, we weren't as bad as the other Europeans, we suffered too you know, we were forced to do what we did, and anyhow we didn't keep anything".


And, in the meantime, the world made heroes out of the courageous Dutch, and wept for Anne Frank.

Not to denigrate Anne Frank in any way, but the Dutch were perhaps not quite as courageous and heroic as they and the world believe. In any case, their train system was more efficient than anybody else's at carting off Jews, and the Germans boasted that the destruction of Jewry in the Netherlands went smoother than was the case anywhere else in Europe.

So questions about the Dutch commitment to their fellow Jews can validly be asked, and certainly the Dutch commitment to Jewish property is up for discussion.

One could also re-open the files on collaborators with friends in high places, who were protected by the European governments after the war. Such as Pieter Menten - a Dutchman with extensive experience in the rape of Galicia.

And one might perhaps suspect that, just as there was a network of German good ole boys protecting their comrades, there were Dutchmen and Flemings performing the same devoted service for theirs.


Anyhow (and sorry for the sidetrack), my point is that here we are in 2005, and it is questionable whether one hundred years from now there will still be Dutch Jews. Even though there are over thirty-five thousand Jews in the Netherlands, and another ten-thousand people who are half-Jewish, the survivability of the community seems more in doubt than ever. The community is much more divided than it was years ago (religiously, socially, politically), the tendency to make aliyah is perhaps stronger than it has ever been in this generation (and may even be at its strongest yet), and the Netherlands is now home to nearly a million Muslims. All of this, and the usual anti-Israel sentiment, too (74 percent of the Dutch, in a survey last year, were of the opinion that Israel was the greatest threat to world peace).


Dutch-Jewish organizations on the internet seem defunct or somnolescent, and many have no more recent entries than Chanuka of last year or Purim of this year. The major news-brief, Joods Nederland, has been having financial and internet troubles for about a year now.


The Livraria Montezinos (Ets Haim library: http://www.etshaim.org/page.php?page=1&lang=2&title=Library) is still in need of funds for the restoration of the oldest Jewish library in the world - one which existed as a resource in an Amsterdam where at one point nine out of ten Jewish books in the world were published or printed.


It is not antisemitism that threatens Dutch Jewry, it is a combination of factors. Integration on the one hand, emmigration on the other. And on the third hand (oh marvelous multi-limbed beast!), a sense that the end of the long stay in the Netherlands is drawing near, that the community is no longer itself committed to the country. The Netherlands today is not the only refuge, nor even the best refuge. There IS a future for Jews in the Netherlands, certainly, but not the best future a Dutch Jew could aspire to. And the old mediene has almost entirely disappeared - today's' Dutch Jew is not a provincial 'plattelands Jood', but an urban, trans-national type, capable of functioning as well in New York, Tel Aviv, or Paris as in Mokum Alef. The modern Dutch Jew is Dutch by accident, rather than intent.



In an article in today's Volkskrant newspaper (in Dutch - click here to read:
http://www.volkskrant.nl/binnenland/1130825183610.html), Rabbi Aryeh Ralbag (identified as chief rabbi of Amsterdam) warns that the community is in danger of dying out. He says: "Wij kunnen niet eenvoudigweg de fysieke vernietiging van ons volk in herinnering roepen, terwijl wij tegelijkertijd zwijgen wanneer we vandaag nog geconfronteerd worden met onze geestelijke vernietiging door onze kinderen geen joods onderwijs te geven of door niet-joodse partners te huwen. We maken ons dan schuldig aan spirituele zelfmoord."

[Translation: "We cannot merely bring up the remembrance of the physical destruction of our people, while at the same time we remain silent when confronted with our spiritual destruction by giving our children no Jewish education, or by marrying non-Jewish partners. By doing so, we make ourselves guilty of spiritual suicide."]


He continues: "Het is nu een kleine gemeenschap, negentig procent is toen gedood. Puur uit het oogpunt van overleving en behoud van de joodse identiteit, kan ik zo’n gemengd huwelijk niet goedkeuren. Het is zelfmoord. Zulke huwelijken leiden ook vaak tot gebroken gezinnen, scheidingen en een identiteitscrisis bij de kinderen."

[Translation: "It is a small community now, ninety percent was killed. Purely from the point of view of survival, and maintenance of Jewish identity, I cannot approve of such a mixed marriage. It's suicide. Such marriages often lead to families torn apart, divorces, and an identity crisis for the children."]


While I do not necessarily agree with what he says, or the blunt way he says it, I agree that there is a crisis.
I would like to see a stronger Dutch Jewish community, and a community whose survival and vibrant future is guaranteed. But IF they all eventually emmigrate, I sure wouldn't mind them moving to San Francisco - we need more Dutch speakers here.

Barring that, it's time for all you English speakers to learn Dutch.

- - - - - - - - - - -

By the way, Rabbi Aryeh (Ben Jehosef) Ralbag is not Dutch - he's the Rabbi of Young Israel of Avenue K, and Congregation Ahavas Yisroel in Brooklyn, New York. I believe he also heads the Beis Din of the Agudas Ha Rabbonim.

The very fact that an Israeli-American is the 'opperrabijn' of Amsterdam speaks volumes - we used to train 'em locally.

Not to in any way say one thing or the other about the issue, but he was also involved in that dispute over the 'Hundred Rabbis Dispensation', Sieger v. Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the United States & Canada. Which is a fascinating machloikes all by itself.