A Guide To Amsterdam's Jewish Cultural Quarter

The Portuguese Synagogue was built in the late 17th century by Amsterdam’s Sephardic Jewish population. During this period, many Jewish people fled from the Iberian peninsula to escape persecution and settled in the Dutch Republic, partly due to the country’s liberal religious laws. The Portuguese Synagogue is still an important place of worship and contains one of the oldest Jewish libraries in the world, Ets Haim Library.

The Jewish Historical Museum conserves over 11,000 culturally important artefacts and regularly hosts temporary exhibitions covering specific aspects of Judaism. Its two permanent exhibitions trace the history of Judaism in the Netherlands and detail important Jewish ceremonies, traditions and customs. The museum is built upon four former synagogues that originally stood in Amsterdam’s historical Jewish quarter. A smaller museum for children is also located on its grounds.

During the Nazi occupation of Amsterdam, the Hollandsche Schouwburg theater was converted into a deportation centre. Thousands of Jewish people were forcefully gathered in this building and then sent to transportation camps on the Dutch-German border. Most were eventually transported to extermination camps inside Germany or Poland and murdered. After the war, Amsterdam’s municipality converted the theater into a monument and erected a memorial obelisk in its courtyard.

The National Holocaust Museum looks directly onto the Hollandsche Schouwburg, and is built inside a former school that was used by Dutch resistance fighters to smuggle Jewish children out Amsterdam during the Nazi occupation. The museum documents the stories of people effected by the Holocaust and regularly hosts temporary exhibitions covering modern Jewish history.