Groningen
The first reports of Jews living in Groningen date to the end of
the sixteenth century. At the time, Jews were denied permission to
reside permanently in the city. The residential status of Jews in
Groningen continued to remain uncertain throughout the seventeenth
century, despite Jews being allowed to engage in commerce and
despite one of their numbers being appointed leaseholder of the
municipal lending bank. As late as 1691, Jews in Groningen still
were forbidden to gather together for prayer. In 1710, the city
council of Groningen passed measures limiting the number of Jews
from German East Friesland allowed to enter the city.
The situation began to change in 1711 when a Jew from Amsterdam
obtained the lease to operate Groningen's municipal pawnshop and
was granted the right to hold religious services in a house on the
Poelestraat. Not long thereafter, the ongoing growth of the city's
Jewish population prompted local Jews to rent a house on the
Steenstilstraat and equip it to serve as their synagogue. As the
eighteenth century progressed, several Jews managed to become
members of Groningen's merchants' and market vendors' guild, this
despite strong opposition. Eventually, Groningen's butchers' and
button makers' guilds also opened their ranks to Jews.
An
organized Jewish community finally came into being in Groningen
during the 1740's following the approval of its statutes by the
city council. The Groningen community built a new synagogue in the
Volteringstraat, the later Kleine Folkingestraat, in 1756. At the
time, the majority of the Jews of Groningen lived in closed
proximity to the new synagogue. The Volteringstraat synagogue was
opened despite opposition from Christian citizens. Local enmity
toward Jews was so strong that the synagogue had been constructed
without windows so that Jews could worship in anonymity. From 1776
until 1808, Groningen's mayor and city council went so far as to
closely watch over the internal affairs of the Jewish
community.
In 1813, Abraham Deen, chief rabbi of the newly established Jewish
consistory of the north of the Netherlands chose Groningen as his
residence over the competing city of Leeuwarden, enabling the former
to emerge as the leading center of Jewish life in the region. In
1848, the Groningen community split over the wish of its leaders to
modernize Jewish worship. This led to the founding of a separate
ultra-orthodox community in 1852. In 1881, the split was healed and
the community reunited.
Throughout the nineteenth century, the Groningen
community maintained numerous religious, cultural, social, and
recreational organizations. From its founding, the community had
provided education to its children. Jewish education in Groningen
was modernized in 1815. Following the introduction of compulsory
primary education throughout the Netherlands, enrolment in the
Jewish school fell. By the end of the nineteenth century, the
school only taught Jewish subjects.
The first Jewish cemetery in Groningen, the Jodenkamp
(Jews' field) near the Bloemsingel, was purchased in 1747. Prior to
then, the Jews of Groningen buried their dead in Leeuwarden,
Appingedam, and Noord and Zuid Pekela. From 1838 until 1909, the
Groningen community used the Moesstraat cemetery, a section of the
public non-sectarian Noorderbegraafplaats cemetery located on the
former Boteringepoort. A new cemetery was inaugurated on the
Winsumerstraatweg, the present-day Iepenlaan, in 1909.
As the nineteenth century progressed, Jews became
influential in the economic life of Groningen. As in other
provincial capitals, many of Groningen's Jews were vendors,
shopkeepers, butchers and livestock dealers. Other Jews, such as
the Polak and Levie families, were important in the development of
local retail emporia and industrial concerns. Jews were also active
at the University of Groningen. In 1851, Izaak Van Deen, the son of
chief rabbi Van Deen, was appointed to a professorship at the
university, thereby becoming the first Jewish professor in all of
the Netherlands. Aletta Jacobs (1854-1929), the Netherlands' first
female medical student and later a pioneering women's rights
activist, was of Jewish origin and studied at the University of
Groningen. Not least, the Netherlands' leading impressionist
painter, Jozef Israëls, was born and raised in Groningen.
During the first decades of the twentieth century, the Jewish
population of Groningen remained relatively stable, despite a
general demographic trend of migration to the west of the country.
A large new synagogue - a remarkable building built in a
neo-Byzantine style with neo-Moorish elements - was constructed in
1906 on the Folkingestraat. In January 1940, a young peoples'
synagogue was opened on the nearby Folkingedwarsstraat.
During the inter-war period the Jewish community at Groningen
blossomed. The majority of Groningen's Jews by then had achieved
middle class status and many practiced professions. New Jewish
organizations at the time included Zionist and anti-Zionist groups
- these not always on the best of footings - as well as Jewish
scouting, gymnastic, and sports associations. A Jewish theater
group was also active. During the 1930's, the arrival of 250 Jewish
refugees in Groningen served to bolster the size of the
community.
Under the German occupation of the Netherlands during the Second
World War, anti-Jewish measures were felt first in the field of
education, both at public schools and at the University of
Groningen. Professors and teachers were fired and Jewish students
expelled. Separate Jewish elementary, middle, and high schools were
established in September of 1941. 1941 also saw the banning of
Jewish livestock traders from the Groningen livestock market at the
instigation of members of the Dutch collaborationist NSB party. A
branch of the German-controlled Joodse Raad (Jewish Council)
responsible for the entire province of Groningen was opened in the
city of Groningen in November of 1941.
Deportation of Jews from Groningen commenced in August, 1942 with
the round-up of 600 Jewish men for confinement in work camps.
Deportations continued through April of 1943. Relatively few
Groningen Jews managed to escape deportation by going into hiding,
although a group of university students did manage to find hiding
places for a number of Jewish children.
After the war, Jewish life in Groningen was reestablished by those
few Jews who returned to the city from hiding or from concentration
camps. The Folkingestraat synagogue came through the war undamaged
but was sold in 1952. The building first housed a laundry and dry
cleaning plant and then became a church and assembly hall of the
Apostolisch Genootschap (Apostolic Fellowship). The
Stichting Folkingestraat Synagoge (the Folkingestraat
Synagogue Foundation) was established in 1973 with the aim of
restoring the former synagogue. Beginning 1981, the building was
once again used as a synagogue, albeit part-time. Today, a number
of Jewish youth and student organizations are active in Groningen.
The Stichting Joods Maatschappelijk Werk (Jewish Social
Work Foundation) and the Joodse Ambulante Geestelijke
Gezondheidszorg (Jewish Society for Outpatient Mental Health
Care) maintain branches in the city.
The Jewish cemetery on the Bloemsingel was cleared away early in
the 1950's; remains from the cemetery were re-interred at the
Moesstraat cemetery. The cemetery on the Iepenlaan was refurbished
in 1985 and again in 1999 by the Dutch Stichting Boete en
Verzoening (Foundation for Penance and Reconciliation). In
2001, volunteers from the Dutch Christian fellowship Kerk en
Israël (Church and Israel) commenced restoration of
gravestones at the Moesstraat cemetery. Both cemeteries currently
are maintained by the local municipal authorities. Several
monuments in Groningen are dedicated to the Jews of the city
murdered during the Second World War.
Jewish population of Groningen and surroundings:
| 1580 | 10 |
| 1690 | ca. 50 |
| 1750 | ca. 100 |
| 1776 | ca. 260 |
| 1798 | 396 |
| 1809 | 516 |
| 1840 | 1200 |
| 1869 | 1652 |
| 1899 | 2688 |
| 1930 | 2408 |
| 1951 | 225 |
| 1971 | 128 |
| 1998 | 53 |
Collectie en mediatheek
Reclamekaart
1900 (ca.)
Afbeelding van een meisje op klompen, met wit kapje op het hoofd en een blauw
gestreepte rok die een kaart vasthoudt waarop in rood en geel de reclameboodschap.
Collectie > Museumstukken > 07743
meer treffers in Collectie > Museumstukken
Uitboezeming eens hebreërs, na den tiendaagschen veldtogt, tegen den vijand van vorst...
1831
Pamflet met uitboezeming van een 'Hebreër' na de tiendaagse
veldtocht in het Hebreeuws en het Nederlands, 1831.
Collectie > Documenten > 00009808
meer treffers in Collectie > Documenten
Portretfoto
1942
Simon van Hasselt en dochter, met jodensterren, op de Vismarkt in Groningen, 1942.
Collectie > Fotos > 40000202
meer treffers in Collectie > Fotos
[Binnenland] : Amsterdam
Vermelding van benoemingen met betrekking tot de Ned. Isr. schoolbesturen.
Collectie > Joodse pers > 20031385
meer treffers in Collectie > Joodse pers
Gedenkboek van de feestelijke bijeenkomst van leden en genoodigden der vereeniging...
1931
Gedenkboek van de feestelijke bijeenkomst van leden en genoodigden der vereeniging
"Ligwoud beis Tefilloseinoe" ter gelegenheid van de herdenking van het 25-jarig ...
Collectie > Literatuur > 12006056
meer treffers in Collectie > Literatuur
[Bouw en inwijding van de kindersynagoge in de Folkingedwarsstraat in Groningen]
1939
Bouw en inwijding door opperrabbijn Dasberg (op 13-9-1939) van de
kindersynagoge in de Folkingedwarsstraat te Groningen.
Collectie > Audiovisueel > 40000128
