Dritt Shul

1700 / 1778

In 1680 the Ashkenazi community bought two houses with bell gables on today's Nieuwe Amstelstraat.
These were situated in front of the wooden meat market, on the site where the Obbene Shul was later built in 1685.

The two houses can be seen on an anonymous engraving made in 1693 titled the Ashkenazi Synagogue.
In 1700 a synagogue was established in these houses, called the Dritt Shul.

In 1777 the houses were replaced by a new building which was dedicated on 3 April 1778. This new building was also called the Dritt Shul.

The ground floor space and the galleries on either side were intended for synagogue services. Like those of the Obbene Sjoel, these galleries were also only for men.
According to an inventory drawn up in the late eighteenth century, there were 164 seats.

Both floors above the synagogue were originally used as classrooms by Beth Hamidrash Ets Haim, until the school moved to Rapenburgerstraat 109 109 in 1883.
After the renovation of the upper floors in 1884 the rooms were occupied by Reshit Chochma (start of wisdom).

All the furnishings disappeared during the war years. Only the traces in the wall betrayed the location of the Ark.

After Amsterdam city council took over the buildings in 1954, the Dritt Shul was restored in 1996 by architect J. Schippers. He rebuilt the facade, in which a large window had been placed in 1855-1856 between the two doors, returning it to its original state.

Between 1981 and 1985 (when the synagogue had already been assigned to the Jewish Historical Museum) members of the nearby Russian Shul, then being rebuilt, held services in the restored Dritt Shul.
Today the Dritt Shul houses the Jewish Historical Museum's offices.