Hoorn
Historical evidence indicates that in 1604 there existed in
Hoorn a street named 'Jeudje' or Jews' Street, possible
proof that Jews resided in the town at the time. References also
point to the presence of converts to Judaism in the surroundings
during the same period. Three such converts were put on trial in
nearby Grosthuizen at the start of the seventeenth century.
Hoorn
flourished as a port and trading center throughout the seventeenth
century and its rise attracted many newcomers. In 1622, several
Portuguese-Jewish merchants settled in the town. Although two of
these new arrivals received full rights and citizenship in 1631, it
remained forbidden to Jews to open stores or engage in retail trade
in Hoorn. Jews were also barred from guild membership. Ashkenazi
Jews settled in Hoorn during the eighteenth century.
It was not until the second half of the eighteenth century that a
formal Jewish community was organized in Hoorn. Initially,
religious services were held in a private home. Only in 1780 did
the community build a synagogue of its own, located on the
Italiaanse Zeedijk. The Jewish cemetery at Hoorn was officially
inaugurated in 1778; however, the oldest remaining gravestone in
the cemetery is dated 1762.
The Jewish population of Hoorn increased over the first half of the
nineteenth century. By 1860, the Hoorn community was the thirteenth
largest in the Netherlands. The community offered Jewish education
for its children and built a schoolhouse in 1835. The synagogue was
restored in 1874 and enlarged in 1883.
The
Hoorn community maintained an official synagogue council. Voluntary
organizations included a burial society, a women's society for the
upkeep of the interior of the synagogue, and societies providing
aid to the sick and to women in childbirth. A trade school was
opened for a short time beginning in 1865. After its closure, the
community continued to maintain a loan fund to assist youngsters in
learning trades. A number of Jewish residents of Hoorn participated
in local and national government. As the nineteenth century passed,
membership in the Jewish community declined, a process that
continued into the twentieth century. By the years preceding the
German occupation of the Netherlands during the Second World War,
the Hoorn synagogue was used only on special occasions.
A few weeks after the German invasion in 1940, all German-Jewish
residents in Hoorn were arrested and send to the prison and transit
camp for Jews at Westerbork. In April, 1942, those Jews remaining
in Hoorn were forcibly removed to Amsterdam and subsequently
deported to Nazi death camps. A few managed to escape into hiding.
During the war years, the synagogue was sold to a member of the
Dutch collaborationist NSB party. The contents of its interior
remain unaccounted for. After the war, in 1953, the synagogue was
sold to the municipality of Hoorn and subsequently razed.
The Jewish community of Hoorn was dissolved and administratively
merged into that of Enkhuizen in 1948. The cemetery
was cleared away in 1969 to make way for road construction.
Gravestones and the remains of the dead were exhumed and moved to
the non-confessional cemetery on the Berkhouterweg. A memorial
plaque marks the site of the former Jewish cemetery. In 1979, the
municipality unveiled a monument to the memory of the murdered Jews
of Hoorn. A plaque commemorating the former synagogue is affixed to
the wall of the post-war building that now stands on its
site.
Jewish population of Hoorn and surroundings:
| 1809 | 267 |
| 1840 | 486 |
| 1869 | 433 |
| 1899 | 208 |
| 1930 | 57 |
Collectie en mediatheek
Fotoalbum
Twee losbladige fotoalbums met 148 kleurenfoto's van joodse
begraafplaatsen in Nederland, jaren '80.
Collectie > Fotos > 40006664
meer treffers in Collectie > Fotos
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
[Binnenland] : Benoemingen
Benoemingen door de Permanente Commissie in diverse schoolbesturen.
Collectie > Joodse pers > 20031865
meer treffers in Collectie > Joodse pers
Joden in Hoorn
1979
Joden in Hoorn.
Collectie > Literatuur > 11000415
