Concertgebouw to cancel concerts of Israeli group for demonstration
AMSTERDAM – The Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam has announced the cancellation of two performances by the Israeli music ensemble, Jerusalem Quartet. This decision comes amidst concerns over potential demonstrations and recent events surrounding protests in Amsterdam. The Concertgebouw cites a commitment to ensuring the safety of all involved, including employees, visitors, and musicians.
The scheduled concerts, featuring compositions by Felix Mendelssohn, Claude Debussy, and Israeli composer Paul Ben-Haim, were slated for Thursday and Saturday. Comprising three violinists and a cellist, the string quartet has faced disruptions in the past. In February of this year, a performance at the Diligentia theatre in The Hague was disrupted by pro-Palestinian activists who vocally protested and displayed Palestinian flags. Similar incidents occurred previously, including one at the Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ in Amsterdam.
Critics, particularly anti-Israel organisations, argue that the quartet’s performances serve to polish Israel’s reputation while diverting attention from the situation in the Palestinian territories. The Central Jewish Consultation (CJO) expressed astonishment and disappointment at the Concertgebouw’s decision, accusing them of succumbing to “cancel culture” and urging them to reconsider their stance.
Press Statement: Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, has urged the Royal House to strip the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague of its "KONINKLIJK" predicate
Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, has urged the Royal House to strip the Royal Academy of Visual Arts in The Hague of its “KONINKLIJK” predicate. This request comes after the academy, under pressure from its union, ended its partnership with Bezalel University in Israel.
Expressing his dismay, Rabbi Jacobs remarked, “That doesn’t seem very ‘royal’ to me.” The Chief Rabbi has frequently faced crude antisemitic insults, with vandals attempting to breach the garden fence behind his residence just last weekend.
According to Chief Rabbi Jacobs, institutions adorned with the royal designation should not engage in hate campaigns. He emphasizes the longstanding ties between the Jewish community in the Netherlands and Israel, spanning many centuries.
Rabbi Jacobs questions the value of institutions that promote hatred and intolerance while bearing the royal predicate. He suggests that such involvement greatly diminishes their stature.
Declaration Against Jew Hatred Sparks Hope Among Dutch Jewish Community: Chief Rabbi's Emotional Response
To the signatories (and their supporters) of the Declaration Against Jew Hatred. With tears of gratitude and emotion, I have taken note of your clear condemnation of anti-Semitism. Hopefully, the Netherlands will take in your message in its full breadth, because aftershooting, honking, threats and deadly looks are now part of the normal everyday for me. Fortunately, I also hear warm shalom much, much more often, but the ratio between a positive wish and a criminal hateful curse has clearly changed to the detriment of shalom since 7 October.
This evening, I received your anti-Jewish hate statement dozens of times from members of the Jewish Community who wanted to draw my attention to your brave words. Sign, then, that your words have landed with the Jewish Community. Prof Presser, the historian, indicated in his book “Ondergang” that 5% of the Dutch population committed resistance, 5% collaborated with the Nazis and 90% saw it and let it happen. It is about this 90% of the Dutch that I worry. Their direction is not determined by thought and reason but solely by emotions.
Your Declaration, which leaves no room for ambiguity, will hopefully, with G’d’s help, influence the direction of the 90% herd for the better and quell expressions of anti-Semitism. Whether this will eliminate anti-Semitism, I doubt, but at the very least, I can again just walk the streets without extra alertness and use Public Transport again. Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs.
Israel’s President Herzog to attend Sunday’s inauguration of National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam
Herzog’s visit to the Netherlands is part of Israel’s ongoing efforts to free the hostages held by terrorist group Hamas. In this context, he will have a series of diplomatic meetings focusing on efforts to return the hostages brutally held by Hamas in Gaza, as well as on raising awareness of the need to combat the worrying rise in antisemitism in Europe and around the world following the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, Herzog’s office said.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog will attend on Sunday the inauguration of the National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam.
The official ceremony will be held in the city’s famous Portuguese Synagogue, in the presence of King Willem-Alexander of the Netherlands, together with the President of Austria, Alexander van der Bellen, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the President of the Bundesrat or German Federal Council, Manuela Schwesig, the Mayor of Amsterdam, and Jewish leaders from around the world.
Herzog’s visit if part of Israel’s ongoing efforts to free the hostages held by terrorist group Hamas. In this context, he will have a series of diplomatic meetings focusing on efforts to return the hostages brutally held by Hamas in Gaza, as well as on raising awareness of the need to combat the worrying rise in antisemitism in Europe and around the world following the Hamas terrorist attack of October 7, Herzog’s office said.
The President will be joined by the family of the late Major (Res.) Yitzhar Hoffman, who fell in battle against terrorists in January. The Hoffman family was saved in the Holocaust by Dutch citizens who were later recognized as Righteous Among the Nations.
On the same day, he will visit The Hague, where he will meet with Prime Minister Rutte President van der Bellen of Austria, and other senior officials. The President is also expected to meet with families of Israeli hostages visiting the country.
In each of his meetings, Israeli President Isaac Herzog (pictured) ”will raise the ongoing and vital struggle to secure the release of all the hostages held by Hamas.”
He will also meet with leaders of Jewish communities in the Netherlands, and will visit the Jewish school in Amsterdam.
‘’In each of his meetings, President Herzog will raise the ongoing and vital struggle to secure the release of all the hostages held by Hamas. He will also emphasize the important need to combat global antisemitism, and stress the centrality of Israel in the Jewish world,’’ his office said.
According to the Dutch media, pro-Palestinian activists are expected to protest the presence of President Herzog. “We value freedom of speech,” said a spokesman for the National Holocaust Museum. “We just say: keep it dignified. Keep in mind that Holocaust survivors will also be present.”
The National Holocaust Museum in Amsterdam which will be inaugurated on Sunday and will open to the public the next day, tells the story of the Nazi persecution and murder of the Jews of the Netherlands. It is the first and only museum to tell this story.
The Museum is mocated on Amsterdam’s Plantage Middellaan where hundreds of Jewish children were saved here during the war.
Visitors will learn about how it was possible for the Holocaust to happen, who the victims were, and the perpetrators – and how we can make sure that this never happens again.
Authentic elements emphasize the role played by the building during the war, like the fence where children were passed over from the adjacent kindergarten to members of the resistance.
The National Holocaust Museum is located in the old Jewish neighbourhood in the heart of Amsterdam. It is also home to the Jewish Museum and Jewish Museum junior, the Portuguese Synagogue and Hollandsche Schouwburg.
Prior to the Holocaust, 140,000 Jews were living in the Netherlands. During the 1930s, the community was active in helping Jews leave Germany, so that by the outbreak of the war, some 30,000 had found sanctuary in the Netherlands.
During the Holocaust, many of the Dutch collaborated with the Germans, while many others strove to rescue their Jewish neighbours. By the end of the war, over 100,000 Dutch Jews had been murdered. Some 10,000, including 3,500 children, had been hidden.
Diary Reflections on Jewish Identity and Antisemitism in the Netherlands
“I stress time and again that most victims of ISIS are Muslims. And when a topper from our government said to me, when we were discussing anti-Semitism, that in the Netherlands today 98 per cent of anti-Semitism comes from Muslims living in our country, I pointed out to him that when 80 per cent of my family was murdered there was not a single Muslim to be seen in the Netherlands,” I wrote in my diary of 7 February. Let me add that the day after 7 October, I received a phone call from our minister of general affairs, Van Gennip, who asked interestedly how I was doing and told me that “both the Moroccan and Turkish communities in the Netherlands do not find the events of 7 October acceptable”.
Probably I am a little too naive, because as far as I know, no mosque or Islamic community has dared to publicly distance itself from the 7 October massacre. Yes, a number of befriended imams let out a sincere and condemning sound in a personal conversation (I will not mention their names here, to avoid getting into Islamic trouble), but the Islamic silence at the time and the anti-Israel demonstrations at the opening of the Holocaust Museum and the anti-Herzog call by two hundred mosques do not make me feel good and worry for the future of Jewish Holland. Where were those two hundred mosques immediately after October 7? And I dare even ask myself: is there any future for the Jewish community in my homeland?
And the Netherlands is my homeland! Through my father’s line, I am the fourteenth generation after Chief Rabbi Moses Uri Halevi, the founder of the Portuguese-Israelite Congregation in Amsterdam. His congregation made Amsterdam into Amsterdam, put the city on the map and thus made a gigantic contribution to today’s Mokum. This makes it all the more painful to see the anti-Israel demonstrations and the enormously rising anti-Semitism close to the place from which 46 thousand Amsterdam Jews were deported on the trams of the GVB in World War II to end up, via Westerbork, on the trains of our own Dutch Railways, finally via the chimneys of the crematoria in the extermination camps in the dark hole of oblivion.
I dare even ask myself: is there any future for the Jewish community in my homeland?
How was the official opening of the Holocaust Museum? King Willem-Alexander, the president of Israel, the president of Austria and the chairman of the German Bundesrat spoke impressive, well measured words. The music, the speech by my friend Emile Schrijver, director of the Jewish Cultural Quarter, the other speakers, the voices of survivors, the children and the master of ceremonies Petra Katzenstein. If I wanted to properly put into words the impression this unforgettable, historic day made on me, I would read a few lines without words.
Every word I would write would be one too many, because the opening, the ceremony, the togetherness transcended all words. It was a deeply emotional event. Words describe, but words also limit and so: not a word I can dedicate to it.
And yet something also went wrong, wrong. Throughout the happening, anti-Semitic protests were heard. While the speakers were not drowned out, the music remained audible, their roar was like false-sounding background music, which, while not distracting from the perfect programme, demonstrated how necessary the Holocaust Museum is. In my opinion, the emotional damage done to survivors present was not adequately taken into account. And although, thank God, I was born only after the war, I too felt brutalised by the shouting crowd. I cherish freedom of speech, but the bestial manner in which I was shouted at, and with me so all those who came outside the Snoge, I find unacceptable. I do not understand why this was tolerated. The location from where the chanting was carried out was also painful: Waterloo Square, the source of Jewish life in the Jewish quarter at the time!
During the ceremony, fortunately I had my phone set to ‘do not disturb’, as a number of calls had come in from enraged Jewish people who, I later learned, found it unacceptable that protests were allowed and guests were allowed to be booed as they left the Snoge. At the amazing lunch at the Jewish Museum and especially when touring the Holocaust Museum, I was able to provide a lot of pastoral care. Many felt deeply hurt and abandoned … Yet, the feeling of gratitude and joy that this great monument was officially opened prevailed with everyone.
I cherish freedom of speech, but I find the bestial way I was called names unacceptable.
With this afternoon’s anti-Semitic roar still buzzing in my ears, I watched the documentary on the Jewish Council. It won’t be too bad, it was thought at the time. And so the Jewish Council was established. How do we view the growing anti-Semitism in 2024? Will it not be too bad?
But I must stop now to pack my suitcase and then quickly go to bed. Tomorrow at six o’clock the taxi will arrive and I will be on the plane at ten to eight on my way to Oporto for a three-day conference on kashrut. I hope and expect to learn a thing or two there. Keynote speakers from the rabbinical world, experts on kashrut, will give the speeches. I also have to speak, but what and where is not quite known yet. Probably at the unveiling of the monument being unveiled there in memory of the victims of 7 October.
And meanwhile, I float between my bed and the documentary on the Jewish Council, meet the grandsons of Asscher and Cohen, the chairmen, and wonder whether I am alarmist or realist. Cohen’s grandson fights with me against rising anti-Semitism. I don’t feel myself more unsafe than usual, but anti-Semitism is getting closer … am Jisraeel chai!
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