Gorredijk
Jews
settled in Gorredijk during the second half of the eighteenth
century. At that time, Jews arriving in Gorredijk faced no
occupational restrictions. By 1800, the Jewish population of
Gorredijk had risen to a level sufficient for the formal
organization of a community.
In 1804, the Gorredijk community purchased ground for a cemetery in
the village of Kortezwaag, nowadays the southern part of Gorredijk,
to replace an earlier cemetery located in the village of Noordwolde.
In its early years, the Gorredijk community gathered to pray in a
room on the Noordoost-Dubbelestraat. A small synagogue local on the
Langewal was inaugurated in 1807. In 1817, a school and a dwelling
for its teacher were built adjacent to the synagogue. The school
building was replaced with a new structure in 1856.
With
the reorganization of the formal structure of Jewish communal life
in the Netherlands in 1817 under the Nederlands Israelitisch
Kerkgenootschap (central consistory of Dutch Jewry), the
Gorredijk community was appointed as a Ringsynagoge or
regional community. Bijkerken (local communities) under
the aegis of the community at Gorredijk included those of at
Noordwolde and Heerenveen. The Jewish community
at Drachten was also named a Bijkerk under Gorredijk, but remained
so only until 1821.
The Jewish community at Gorredijk was governed by a directorate and
a council. Voluntary organizations included a Talmudic study
fellowship, separate burial societies for men and for women, and a
society for the placement of gravestones. A house for the poor was
established by the community in 1853. In 1871, a local Jewish
theater group held several performances. A branch of the
Alliance Israelite Universelle was active in Gorredijk
from late in the nineteenth century on.
Over
the first third of the twentieth century, the number of Jews living
in Gorredijk had fallen to the point that synagogue services could
no longer be held regularly. In September, 1942, during the midst
of World War II, the majority of those Jews still living in
Gorredijk was deported and subsequently murdered in Nazi
concentration camps. Only a few Jews from Gorredijk were able to
escape death in hiding. A few dozen Jews from elsewhere in the
Netherlands also managed to live out the war in hiding places in
the vicinity of Gorredijk.
The Jewish community at Gorredijk was formally dissolved in 1948
and administratively merged into that of Leeuwarden. The synagogue,
despite having come through the war unharmed, soon fell into
disrepair and was razed in 1953.
In 1956, a plaque in memory of Gorredijk Jews murdered during the
war was mounted on the wall of a building located in the
Hoofdstraat.
In 2001, in the Van Haersma Park in nearby Drachten, a monument
was unveiled commemorating the fourteen Jews of Drachten and the
municipality of Smallingerland who were murdered during the war.
The Jewish cemetery at Gorredijk, located on the Dwersfeart in
Kortezwaag, is currently maintained by the municipality of
Opsterland, of which Gorredijk forms part.
Jewish population in Gorredijk and surroundings:
| 1798 | 39 |
| 1809 | 70 |
| 1840 | 153 |
| 1869 | 186 |
| 1899 | 137 |
| 1930 | 47 |
Collectie en mediatheek
Dossier
Dossiers (158) van de Commissie voor Oorlogsschade mbt 155 joodse
gemeentes (Amsterdam en mediene), 1945-1950.
Collectie > Documenten > 00005954
meer treffers in Collectie > Documenten
Biema
1807
object, biema. maker, anoniem. materiaal, hout. datering, 1807. plaats, Gorredijk
& Nederland. collectie, Joods Historisch Museum. trefwoorden, ...
Collectie > Museumstukken > 02684
Toramantel
1918 (?)
Helderblauw fluwelen mantel met halfhoge splitten en geappliqueerde Hebreeuwse tekst,
omgeven door olijftakken. De gaten bovenop zijn afgezet met een messing ring ...
Collectie > Museumstukken > 02676
Overzichtsfoto
1982 (ca.)
foto's (8) van Joodse begraafplaats NIG Gorredijk te Kortezwaag, circa 1982.
Collectie > Fotos > 40002406
Alfabetisch register op de collectie Brilleman van de begraafplaatsen der Nederlands...
1991
Alfabetisch register op de collectie Brilleman van de begraafplaatsen der Nederlands
Israelietische Gemeenten in de Mediene Friesland = index graveyards Friesland ...
Collectie > Literatuur > 11508649
meer treffers in Collectie > Literatuur
Centraal Israel. Weeshuis
1882
Vermelding van ingekomen giften in december 1881.
Collectie > Joodse pers > 20030394
