Utrecht
Jews have lived in Utrecht on and off, and under varying
circumstances, since the 14th century. During the 15th century,
Jews lived in the center of the city in a street that is still
called 'Jodenrijtje' (Jew's Row), located in a courtyard
behind the Bakkerstraat. Both the city fathers and the Spanish
governor of Utrecht expelled Jews from the city several times. In
1546, King Charles V banned Jews from residing within the entire
bishopric of Utrecht.
The first Jew to obtain citizenship in Utrecht did so at the
beginning of the 18th century. In the aftermath of an epidemic in
1712, all Jews, except those holding citizenship, were expelled
from the entire province of Utrecht. The ban did not apply to
Jewish students at the University of Utrecht, however. As to other
Jews, no exceptions were made, not even on market days. The
expulsion decree and ban were lifted in 1736. Thereafter, Jews
began to settle in locales close to the city of Utrecht. Between
1720 and 1730, the city of Utrecht unsuccessfully attempted to
attract Portuguese-Jewish merchants to the city in the hope that
this would strengthen the local economy. In 1733, a number of Jews
were awarded citizenship in the city.
Only the intervention of Prince Willem V in 1788 enabled more Jews
to settle in Utrecht, albeit in the face of strict restrictions.
Most of the first wave of Jews to settle in Utrecht at the time
moved there from the nearby town of Maarssen.
In the 18th century, Jews visiting Utrecht for the annual fair
gathered for prayer at De Hollandse Tuyn, a rooming house
located in the Boterstraat. Synagogue services were arranged by the
Reis Chewre, a religious traveler's aid society organized
by the Jews of Utrecht. During, the closing decades of the 18th
century the Jewish population of Utrecht had grown to such an
extent that in 1792 a former Mennonite church located in the
Jufferstraat/Springweg was hired for use as a synagogue. Prior to
then, Jews residing in Utrecht prayed in a private in the 1792
Korte Nieuwstraat. The former church was purchased by the Utrecht
community in 1796 and remained in use as a synagogue until 1981.
The building was restored four times over the almost two centuries
it the served community as a house of prayer.
During the period of Napoleonic rule in the Netherlands, Utrecht
was chosen as the seat of the provincial chief rabbinate. After the
redistricting of Jewish communities under the reign of King Willem
I, the residence of the chief rabbi was moved to Amersfoort. In
the 1830s, the Utrecht community was divided by a series of
conflicts over the banning of Yiddish as a language of prayer in
the synagogue.
Until 1807 the Jews of Utrecht buried their dead in a Jewish
cemetery near the nearby town of Maarssen. In 1808, the community
purchased ground for new cemetery on the Zandpad adjacent to the
river Vecht.
A religious teacher provided the children of Utrecht community with
a Jewish education. In 1821, a new schoolhouse was built for the
community's school for poor Jewish children. The number of children
educated at the school rose throughout the course of the19th
century, this despite the ongoing integration of Jewish children
into public education following the passage of country-wide
educational reform legislation in 1857
The Jewish community of Utrecht was governed by a community
directorate and community council. Other official positions within
the community included a treasurer for collection and distribution
of aid to Jewish settlers in the holy land and a board for
distributing assistance to the local poor. Voluntary organizations
included societies dedicated to aiding children, the elderly,
travelers, refugees, immigrants, the infirm, and orphans. The Jews
of Utrecht also maintained study fellowships. Women's organizations
included a society responsible for upkeep of the synagogue. A
synagogue choir was established in Utrecht during the last years of
the 19th century as were local branches of the Maatschappij tot
Nut der Israëlieten in Nederland (The Society for the Welfare
of Israelites in the Netherlands), the Alliance Israélite
Universelle, and the De Vereeniging tot Beoefening van
Joodsche Wetenschappen (The Society for the Practice of Jewish
Sciences). The Centraal Israëlietisch Weeshuis (Central
Israelite Orphanage) was opened in Utrecht in 1871.
The
Jewish population of Utrecht grew rapidly over the first decades of
the 20th century. As a result, the seat of the provincial chief was
returned to Utrecht in 1917. During the same period, new Jewish
organizations arose in Utrecht including Zionist and non-Zionist
societies, a youth movement, and a sports club. At the time, the
majority of the Jews of Utrecht worked as shopkeepers and as
peddlers. Other of the city's Jews worked as wholesale merchants,
civil servants, teachers, university professors, and lawyers.
During the early years of the World War II German occupation of the
Netherlands, foreign Jews were driven out of the coastal areas of
the country. Many came to Utrecht forming a community of German
Jewish refugees. All the Jews of Utrecht were affected by
anti-Jewish measures implemented by the Germans and their
collaborators. In November 1940, local Jews were fired from the
civil service. The mayor of Utrecht was later dismissed because of
his reluctance in implementing anti-Jewish measures. Jewish
children were expelled from Utrecht's public schools in September,
1941. Separate Jewish schools were organized the same autumn. In
October, 1941, a representative of the German controlled Jewish
Council was appointed in Utrecht.
Deportation of Jews from Utrecht began in September, 1942. Even
during the period of deportations, Jewish life in Utrecht remained
active, both on the cultural and the religious fronts. The last Jew
known to the authorities to remain in Utrecht was deported to the
detention camp at Vught in April, 1943. Several hundred other Jews
remained behind in hiding, helped in part by resistance groups in
Utrecht including the Kindercomité. Other Jews found
hiding places in the nearby towns and villages of Zeist,
Maartensdijk, and Loosdrecht.
In 1941, on the eve of the Jewish day of mourning commemorating the
instruction of the first Temple in Jerusalem, an attempt was made
to burn down the Utrecht synagogue. The attempt failed. The
synagogue was sealed following the deportation of the last Jew
apprehended in the city. The building came through the war
undamaged and was reopened on May 10, 1945 just after the
liberation of Utrecht. A number of the synagogue's Torah scrolls
and ceremonial objects had been hidden and during the war and were
later recovered.
Jewish life continued in Utrecht during the postwar period. A
monument to the more than 1,000 Jews of Utrecht murdered during the
war was erected at the Jewish cemetery in 1948. Utrecht was
selected as the seat of the chief rabbinate of all of the
Netherlands outside of the cities and surroundings of Amsterdam,
The Hague, and Rotterdam, each of which had their own rabbinates.
The name of the Utrecht-based chief rabbinate was later changed to
the Interprovinciaal Opperrabbinaat (Inter-Provincial Chief
Rabbinate). In 1988 the seat of the Interprovinciaal Opperrabbinaat
was transferred to the city of Hilversum.
By 1981 the synagogue in the Springweg had become too large for the
dwindling Utrecht community and was sold. In the time since, weekly
religious services have been held in a smaller locale furnished
with the Holy Ark of the former Ashkenazi synagogue at Maarssen
(founded in 1776). The Jewish community at Utrecht celebrated its
200th anniversary in 1989.
The Jewish cemetery was restored in 1990. In 2004, volunteers from
the Stichting Boete en Verzoening (Foundation for Penance and
Reconciliation) assisted in the restoration of 200 gravestones at
the cemetery.
A Liberal Jewish community was established in Utrecht in 1993. The
offices and synagogue of the Liberal community are located in the
building of the former Centraal Israëlietisch Weeshuis
(Central Israelite Orphanage) on the Nieuwegracht. In 1994, the
mayor of Utrecht unveiled in the building a plaque commemorating
the former orphanage.
Environs of Utrecht
During the German occupation, approximately 70 Jewish refugees
driven from the coastal regions of the Netherlands were resettled
at Doorn. Almost half the group was able to hide from deportation,
some of the help of local civil servants. Other refugees expelled
from the coast were settled at Driebergen, De Bilt, and Zeist. In
2001, a monument was unveiled in the Walkart Park in Zeist in
memory of 102 Jews from the town murdered during the war. A war
monument erected in 1996 at nearby Baambrugge includes the names of
two local Jewish families deported and murdered during the
war.
Jewish population of Utrecht and surroundings:
| 1809 | 383 |
| 1840 | 684 |
| 1869 | 676 |
| 1899 | 852 |
| 1930 | 1218 |
| 1951 | 438 |
| 1971 | 300 |
| 1998 | 119 |
Collectie en mediatheek
[aanwezigen 13de NVV-congres, Vorrink & de Jonge & Moltmaker & v.d. Lende & v.d. Walle...
1926
Portret lb vertikaal: van de Lende, en 3/4 naar links, ter halve lijve zittende,
lezende in krant (?). Portret rb: de Jonge, en profile nl, schouderstuk, oudere ...
Collectie > Museumstukken > 05701-02
meer treffers in Collectie > Museumstukken
Gezangen voorgedragen in de sijnagoge te Utrecht, tijdens het tweede eeuwfeest aldaar,...
1836
Pamflet met gezangen voorgedragen bij het tweehonderdjarig
bestaan van de synagoge in Utrecht, 1836.
Collectie > Documenten > 00009809
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
Centr. Isr. Krankzinnigengesticht.
Eerste deel van het verslag van de opening van het "Centraal Isr. Krankzinnigengesticht"
te Apeldoorn. In dit deel wordt de openingsrede van de heer S. van Os weergegeven ...
Collectie > Joodse pers > 20000164
meer treffers in Collectie > Joodse pers
Utrecht en omstreken [en] Oud-Beijerland
1981
Utrecht en omstreken [en] Oud-Beijerland.
Collectie > Literatuur > 11000049
meer treffers in Collectie > Literatuur
[interview met Dina Goldschmidt-Klein]
2009
Dina Goldschmidt-Klein was na de oorlog wees en woonde op vele plaatsen. In de jaren
'50 werd ze opgenomen in het orthodoxe gezin Koetser in Veenendaal. Twee gezinnen ...
Collectie > Audiovisueel > 40002068
De Exodus van Shlomo Ben Ammon
Documentaire over Shlomo Ben Ammon (Alexander Klein), die kort na de Tweede
Wereldoorlog met 1500 joodse kinderen Palestina probeerde te bereiken. In 1947 ...
Collectie > Audiovisueel > 40000298
