Zwolle
A number of Jews from Westphalia settled in Zwolle during the
first half of the 14th century. The small community was wiped out
in 1349 during the brutal persecution of Jews that followed in the
wake of the bubonic plague epidemic at the time. A few Jews settled
anew in Zwolle at the start of the 15th century; an expulsion order
issued in 1490 by the town fathers of Zwolle soon ended their stay
on the town.
By the 1680s, the attitudes of the town had changed and Jews again
were granted the right to settle in Zwolle. During the second
quarter of the 18th century, the retail merchants' guild at Zwolle
decided to admit Jews into its ranks. Beginning in 1756, the town's
tanners' and hide merchants' guilds also admitted Jewish
members.
Over the course of the 18th century, the Jewish population of
Zwolle rose to the point that an organized Jewish community could
be formed. In 1722, the community purchased ground for a cemetery
on the present-day Willemsvaart (at the time the Kleine Schans or
Luurderschans). The official statutes of the community were drawn
up in 1747. During the early years of Jewish settlement at Zwolle,
religious services were held in a private home. In 1746, the Jews
of Zwolle were granted the right to hold religious services openly.
They then hired the Olde Munte (the Old Mint House) for use as a
synagogue. During the 1750s, the municipality of Zwolle donated the
Librije building, part of a former Dominican monastery located on
the Broerenkerkplein, to the Jewish community. The building was
restored and consecrated as a synagogue in 1758. At the time, the
Jewish community at Zwolle was governed by a seven-member council.
The community employed a rabbi, a religious teacher, and a
cantor.
The relatively good economic circumstances in Zwolle attracted
many, mostly poor, Jews to the town. Throughout the 18th century,
the city fathers of Zwolle and the local Jewish community attempted
to stem this flow. At the time, most of the Jews in Zwolle worked
in the textile and clothing trade and the dying of clothes and
fabrics, as street vendors, in the trade in hides and in grain, in
the potash industry, and as butchers and livestock traders. Two
Jewish doctors also lived in the town.
In 1795, following the establishment of the Batavian Republic, the
Jews of Zwolle achieved de facto the same civil rights as the other
residents of the town. The official emancipation the Jews of the
Netherlands was declared one year later. In 1814, as part of the
reorganization of Dutch Jewry and the establishment of community
hierarchies and jurisdictions, Zwolle was selected as the seat of
the upper rabbinate for the provinces of Drenthe and Overijssel.
During the second half of the 19th century, the reformist
tendencies of upper rabbi Jacob Fränkel created considerable
controversy within local Jewry.
The Jewish population of Zwolle continued to grow throughout the
19th century and reached its zenith as the century came to a close.
The majority of the Jews in the town lived near the synagogue in
the Waterstraat. At the time, most of the Jews in Zwolle worked in
the clothing and textile industry, in commerce, and in various
professions. Zwolle was home to a large Jewish working class
population.
The
Broerenkerkplein synagogue was refurbished in 1860 despite its
having become too small for the sizable community that it served.
By 1899, the community built a new synagogue and schoolhouse in the
Schoutenstraat.
Jewish education had been provided to the children of the
community since the beginning of the 19th century. A second Jewish
cemetery located in the Watersteeg (the present-day Kuyerhuislaan
in the Herfte neighborhood of Zwolle) was established in 1887.
During the second half of the 19th century, the Zwolle community
was governed by a council that also administered aid to the poor.
Other community officials included two treasurers for the
collection and disbursement of donations to the Jews of Eretz
Israel. The Jews of Zwolle maintained numerous voluntary
organizations including burial societies, charitable societies, and
societies for the care of the interior of the synagogue.
Even though the Jewish population of Zwolle set into decline as the
20th century began, Jewish life in the town continued apace. From
the turn-of-the-century to the outset of the Second World War, new
social and cultural societies were founded including Zionist
societies and a sport and recreational society for the Jewish youth
of the town. During the 1930s, the Zwolle community lent support to
the considerable number of Jewish refugees who had flocked there
from Germany.
In 1941, during the second summer of the World War II German
occupation of the Netherlands, Jewish livestock dealers were barred
from Zwolle's livestock market. Following the expulsion of Jewish
children from public education, a separate elementary school and
two separate middle schools were established for Jewish children
living in the town. The first mass arrests of Jews in Zwolle took
place in October 1941; thereafter, an unknown number of those Jews
who had been apprehended were transported to Mauthausen
concentration camp where they were murdered. Deportation of Jews
from Zwolle continued apace from August 1942 until April 1943. Most
of the Jews of the town eventually were sent to Nazi death camps in
Eastern Europe and murdered; only a few returned alive. A quarter
of the Jewish population of Zwolle managed to survive the war in
hiding.
During the war, the German authorities confiscated the Zwolle
synagogue and use the building as a storage place for the household
furnishings of deported Jews. The synagogue's Torah scrolls and
ceremonial objects had been hidden on time and were recovered after
the war. Many gravestones were removed from the old Jewish cemetery
on the Willemsvaart during the course of the war. The cemetery was
cleared away during the postwar period.
Jewish life in Zwolle arose anew after the war. The community
continued to gather in the Schoutenstraat synagogue on Sabbaths and
holidays. The synagogue was restored in 1991. On the occasion of
its re-consecration, a portion of the Schoutenstraat and the Nieuwe
Markt was renamed after Samuel Hirsch, the last upper rabbi of
Zwolle. A dozen streets in the Schellerbroek quarter of Zwolle are
named after local Jews murdered during the war. A monument to all
the deported and murdered Jews of Zwolle was unveiled in 1985. In
1999, the community celebrated the 100th anniversary of its
synagogue. To this day, the building is used intensively by the
community for religious and cultural activities.
Jewish population of Zwolle:
| 1753 | 40 families |
| 1788 | 60 families |
| 1809 | 343 |
| 1840 | 535 |
| 1869 | 607 |
| 1899 | 691 |
| 1930 | 595 |
| 1951 | 150 |
| 1971 | 104 |
| 1998 | 47 |
Collectie en mediatheek
Officiëele Feestgids uitgegeven ter gelegenheid van het 25-jarig bestaan van de...
1924-08-17
Oficiële feestgids ter gelegenheid van het 25-jarig
bestaan van de synagoge in Zwolle, 1924.
Collectie > Documenten > 00009869
meer treffers in Collectie > Documenten
Fotoalbum
Twee losbladige fotoalbums met 148 kleurenfoto's van joodse
begraafplaatsen in Nederland, jaren '80.
Collectie > Fotos > 40006664
meer treffers in Collectie > Fotos
[Portret van rabbijn Mozes Joel]
1800-1825
Portret van rabbijn Mozes Joel met witte baard en snor, ten halve lijve en profiel
naar rechts, afgebeeld in een ovaal medaillon. Draagt een zwarte jas en hoed. ...
Collectie > Museumstukken > B2116
meer treffers in Collectie > Museumstukken
[Binnenland] : Amsterdam
Vermelding van benoemingen met betrekking tot de Ned. Isr. schoolbesturen.
Collectie > Joodse pers > 20031385
meer treffers in Collectie > Joodse pers
Gids langs de geschiedenis van joods Zwolle
1999
Gids langs de geschiedenis van joods Zwolle.
Collectie > Literatuur > 12007698
meer treffers in Collectie > Literatuur
Ik kom uit de mediene
titel, Ik kom uit de mediene. maker, Lindwer, Willy. gegevens, VIDEO, min. -
NIK: 1984-04-20. materiaal, video video U-matic. trefwoorden, ...
Collectie > Audiovisueel > 40000108
