Tagged Dutch Jewry

In Amsterdam, the world’s priciest menorah gets a new life

The Rintel Menorah on display at the Jewish Historical Museum of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. (Courtesy of the Jewish Cultural Quarter/JCK)
December 26, 2019 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — For the Amsterdam Jewish Historical Museum, Hanukkah this year entailed the stressful chore of assembling the world’s most expensive menorah. Last week, the Rintel Menorah, a 266-year-old menorah valued at over a half-million dollars, was put back on display at Amsterdam’s Jewish Historical Museum following the… Read more »

How a graphic novel kept this Dutch Jewish couple close but out of Nazis’ reach

Emmanuel and Hetty Joels in Amsterdam in 2012. (Courtesy of Jet Naftaniel)
April 26, 2016 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — As a Dutch Jewish couple hiding separately from the Nazis, Emmanuel Joels and Hetty van Son were literally drawn together by a comic book of Emmanuel’s romantic invention. After narrowly avoiding deportation to Auschwitz thanks to a policeman’s tip, the young couple spent 2 1/2 years living less than… Read more »

In face of labeling push, Dutch Christians hawking Israeli settlement goods

Workers installing a 36-foot menorah outside the Dutch headquarters of Christians for Israel, December 2013. (Courtesy of Christians for Israel)
March 3, 2016 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

NIJKERK, Netherlands (JTA) — As a boy, Pieter van Oordt would often accompany his father, Karel, on the elder van Oordt’s weekly shopping excursions specifically seeking out products made in Israel. A Christian Zionist businessman in Amersfoort, some 25 miles east of Amsterdam, Karel van Oordt sought to strengthen… Read more »

Some fear refugee center planned for Amsterdam’s Jewish heart

Dutch rabbis in the Amsterdam suburb of Buitenveldert, the site of a planned center to house migrants from the Middle East. (David Serphos)
October 28, 2015 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — In Buitenveldert, a quiet residential area of the Dutch capital, special forces soldiers are watching over a Jewish school from inside unmarked cars. About half of the Netherlands’ 40,000 Jews live here and in the adjacent suburb of Amstelveen, the only areas of the country with a… Read more »