History of the Jews in Amsterdam
[citation needed] At the end of the sixteenth century and beginning of the seventeenth, Portuguese Jews began settling in Amsterdam.
In 1497, the Portuguese monarch forced the conversion of Jews to Christianity, but also prohibited their leaving the kingdom.
Restrictions on their leaving Portugal were eased and some sought economic opportunities in Antwerp and in Amsterdam in the northern Spanish Netherlands, which had revolted against Habsburg rule.
The newly independent Dutch provinces provided an ideal opportunity for these Portuguese New Christians, many of whom had been practicing Judaism privately, to establish themselves as a community in an increasingly thriving economy and to practice Judaism more openly.
Collectively, they brought economic growth and influence to the city as they established an international trading hub in Amsterdam during the 17th century, the so-called Dutch Golden Age.
[7] Curiel was the single largest financial contributor to the building of the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam.
At this time, commerce in Holland was increasing; a period of development had arrived, particularly for Amsterdam, to which Jews had carried their goods and from which they maintained their relations with foreign lands.
The formal independence from Spain of the Dutch Republic, by the Act of Abjuration, theoretically permitted their openly practice of Judaism.
The first Ashkenazim, Jews from Central and Eastern Europe, who arrived in Amsterdam were refugees from the Chmielnicki Uprising in Poland and the Thirty Years War.
[17] Amsterdam, the largest city in the Netherlands,[18] had an estimated 75–80,000 Jews, approximately 53–57% of the country's Jewish population.
[23] Although less than 10 percent of Amsterdam's population was Jewish, there were two seemingly contradictory outcomes: Part of the Nazi action plan included consolidating the Dutch Jewish population into Amsterdam, prior to the "Final Solution.
These congregations combined form the Nederlands-Israëlietische Hoofdsynagoge (NIHS) (the Dutch acronym for the Jewish Community of Amsterdam).
[1] The Progressive movement currently has some 1,700 Jewish members in Amsterdam, affiliated to the Nederlands Verbond voor Progressief Jodendom.
Six Jewish cemeteries exist in Amsterdam and surroundings, three Orthodox Ashkenazi (affiliated to the NIK), two linked to the Progressive community and one Sephardic.
The Orthodox Ashkenazi cemetery[46][better source needed] at Zeeburg, founded in 1714, was the burial ground for some 100,000 Jews between 1714 and 1942.
