Portugees-Israëlitisch Kerkgenootschap
Encyclopedia
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
. Sephardic Jews have been living in the Netherlands since the 16th century with the forced relocation of Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
but above all Portuguese
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
Jews from their home countries due to the Inquisition
Inquisition
The Inquisition, Inquisitio Haereticae Pravitatis , was the "fight against heretics" by several institutions within the justice-system of the Roman Catholic Church. It started in the 12th century, with the introduction of torture in the persecution of heresy...
. Nowadays some 270 families are connected to the PIK, also sometimes called PIG, which stands for Portugees-Israëlitische Gemeente (Portuguese Israelite Congregation).
History
The PIK was founded in 1814 under the reign of Willem I, although the first steps towards a central organization of Jewish communities in the Netherlands were already taken in 1808, under command of the Napoleonic king, Louis BonaparteLouis Bonaparte
Louis Napoléon Bonaparte, Prince Français, Comte de Saint-Leu , King of Holland , was the fifth surviving child and the fourth surviving son of Carlo Buonaparte and Letizia Ramolino...
. Both the Ashkenazi as well as the Sephardic communities were included. This lasted until 1871, when the PIK (founded in 1870 by dissatisfied Sephardic Jews after arguments about where the central organization which represented all Jews in the Netherlands was to be settled and after the wish to remove itself from their Ashkenazi co-religionists) removed itself from the Ashkenazi community and became a fully independent segment within Dutch Judaism.
Center of Sephardic life in the Netherlands was Amsterdam, although throughout time, communities also existed in places like The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
, Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
(twice, in the 17th and in the 19th century), Middelburg
Middelburg
Middelburg is a municipality and a city in the south-western Netherlands and the capital of the province of Zeeland. It is situated in the Midden-Zeeland region. It has a population of about 48,000.- History of Middelburg :...
and Naarden. At the eve of the Holocaust, some 4,300 Sephardic Jews were living in the Netherlands, the majority of them in Amsterdam. Most of them were killed; at the end of the war, an estimated 800 were still alive.
Today
Currently the PIK, or PIG, has some 270 families (an estimated 600 persons) affiliated to it. The community regularly holds services in the monumental EsnogaAmsterdam Esnoga
The Portuguese Synagogue also known as the Esnoga , or Snoge, is a 17th-century Sephardic synagogue in Amsterdam. Esnoga is the Ladino word for synagogue.-Background:...
synagogue or Snoge in downtown Amsterdam near Waterlooplein (Waterloo Square). There is also a small PIG-Sephardic synagogue in Amstelveen
Amstelveen
' is a suburban municipality in the Netherlands, in the province of North Holland. It is part of the metropolitan area of Amsterdam. The municipality of Amstelveen consists of the following villages and/or districts: Amstelveen, Bovenkerk, Westwijk, Bankras-Kostverloren, Groenelaan, Waardhuizen,...
with weekly activities. Almost all community members live in Amsterdam and surroundings. The PIG also has a youth group, called J-PIG (Jongeren Portugees-Israëlitische Gemeente) (Youngsters' Portuguese Israelite Community). Chief Rabbi (chacham) of the community was S. Rodrigues Pereira, one of the few rabbis that survived the Holocaust. Since he died the community has been led by rabbis B. Drukarch, S. Haliwa and since about 1998 by Rabbi Dr. P.B. Toledano, who lives in London but visits Amsterdam frequently.
Cemeteries
Several Sephardic Jewish cemeteries have been founded since the first Jews settled in the Netherlands in the 16th century. Some of them have grown to be huge monuments of a once lively community. On the most well-known is Beth Haim in Ouderkerk aan de AmstelOuderkerk aan de Amstel
Ouderkerk aan de Amstel is a town in the Dutch province of North Holland. It is largely a part of the municipality of Ouder-Amstel, and lies about 9 km south of Amsterdam. A small part of the town lies in the municipality of Amstelveen....
. Jews have been buried there since the year 1614 (making it the oldest Jewish cemetery in the Netherlands); until 1642, several Ashkenazi Jews were also buried at the cemetery, before buying their own piece of land to bury their dead near the village of Muiderberg. Throughout history, some 28,000 Sephardic Jews were buried at Beth Haim, making it one of the largest Jewish cemeteries in the Netherlands. Among the ones buried at this monumental site are rabbi Menasseh ben Israel
Menasseh Ben Israel
Manoel Dias Soeiro , better known by his Hebrew name Menasseh Ben Israel , was a Portuguese rabbi, kabbalist, scholar, writer, diplomat, printer and publisher, founder of the first Hebrew printing press in Amsterdam in...
, diplomat Samuel Palache and the parents of philosopher Baruch Spinoza
Baruch Spinoza
Baruch de Spinoza and later Benedict de Spinoza was a Dutch Jewish philosopher. Revealing considerable scientific aptitude, the breadth and importance of Spinoza's work was not fully realized until years after his death...
.
Other Sephardic cemeteries are found in Middelburg
Middelburg
Middelburg is a municipality and a city in the south-western Netherlands and the capital of the province of Zeeland. It is situated in the Midden-Zeeland region. It has a population of about 48,000.- History of Middelburg :...
, Amersfoort
Amersfoort
Amersfoort is a municipality and the second largest city of the province of Utrecht in central Netherlands. The city is growing quickly but has a well-preserved and protected medieval centre. Amersfoort is one of the largest railway junctions in the country, because of its location on two of the...
, Rotterdam
Rotterdam
Rotterdam is the second-largest city in the Netherlands and one of the largest ports in the world. Starting as a dam on the Rotte river, Rotterdam has grown into a major international commercial centre...
and The Hague
The Hague
The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...
.