jewish tour of amsterdam

Jewish Amsterdam Tour

• The Portuguese Synagogue
• The Jewish Museum
• The Holocaust Memorial
• Landmarks in Amsterdam’s old Jewish quarter
• Small group tour with max 10 participants
• Daily 3 hour tour 10am-1pm
• Professional Jewish guide Naomi Koopmans
• The tour is operated in English
• Price €45 p.p. excl. entrance fees €20  p.p.

Background and experience

Jew ish Amsterdam Tour

is operated by

Naomi Koopmans ,

whose background and experience 

match her role as passionate storyteller of Amsterdam’s Jewish history and present.

“Ten important years of my life I spent in Israel. There I was privileged to explore in depth my Jewish heritage. My related B.A. – and M.A. degrees  from Tel Aviv University and experience as a licensed tourguide in Israel are the best background for a tourguide of Jewish heritage in Amsterdam or anywhere in the world”,

says Naomi Koopmans.

Community involvement

Naomi ‘s current involvement in 

Amsterdam’s Jewish community

and her readiness to share 

the ins and outs thereof,

complete her narration and keep it up to date.

“My daughter was Bat-Mitzvahd last year in the local Jewish progressive community and my son’s Bar-Mitzvah is upcoming.

Our congregation is vibrant and active.

It feels like my second home”,

Private tours available upon request

from November through March.

Daily 10am-1pm group tour available

from April through October.

operated by

Naomi Koopmans

www.jewishamsterdamtour.com

+31624681003

Jewish Cultural Quarter Amsterdam

The Jewish Cultural Quarter of Amsterdam is an organization that since 2012 has managed important Jewish heritage sites in Amsterdam, such as the Portuguese Synagogue and the Jewish Museum.

In these locations, five synagogues were opened in the 17th century, by Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe and Portugal who found safety and protection in Amsterdam.

 View of Portuguese Synagogue (right) 

and Ashkenazi Synagogue (left) in Amsterdam around 1675.

Only the Portuguese Synagogue remained in tact during WWII and still serves to host Jewish religious services.

“The Jewish Cultural Quarter of Amsterdam is doing a very important job displaying the beauty of Jewish religion and culture to its visitors. There is no better place for people to enhance their understanding and appreciation of Jewish religion and culture than in historic sites like those” ,

Four centuries of Jewish culture at four locations

What's on now

Practical information

Jewish Museum + junior

Nieuwe Amstelstraat 1 1011 PL Amsterdam View on Google Maps Portuguese Synagogue

Mr Visserplein 3 1011 RD Amsterdam View on Google Maps

National Holocaust Museum

Plantage Middenlaan 29 1018 DB Amsterdam View on Google Maps Hollandsche Schouwburg

Plantage Middenlaan 24 1018 DE Amsterdam View on Google Maps

The Jewish Cultural Quarter is open (almost) every day from 10am to 5pm. The Portuguese Synagogue has different opening times. Check in advance to ensure the location you want to visit is open.

Opening times for Jewish Museum + junior Opening times for Portuguese Synagogue Opening times National Holocaust Museum Opening Times Hollandsche Schouwburg

Jewish Museum junior is specially designed for children (6+). Here children learn through play what being Jewish is about.

• The Jewish Museum and Portuguese Synagogue is suitable for children from the age of 10.
• For the National Holocaust Museum and Hollandsche Schouwburg we also advise a minimum age of 10. By that age children can empathise, they can understand the difference between then and now and they realise what it means to remember and to commemorate.

View our tips for visits with children .

Free audio guides are available at all our locations. These provide you with extra background information. No headphones or earpods required. Various guided tours are also available every day. View our guided tours .

All our locations are accessible for wheelchair users. We also have tours for the hard of hearing and for visitors with a visual impairment. View our guided tours .

From infants to high school, you’ll find out everything you always wanted to know about Judaism at the Jewish Cultural Quarter. Our educational programmes, tours and walks help you to learn from and with each other.

View our school activities .

Statement regarding the War in Israel and Gaza

The Jewish Cultural Quarter is profoundly concerned by the war and the consequences this conflict has had, first and foremost for the citizens of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.

We stand for a just and secure resolution for all those directly involved. There can be no question regarding Israel’s right to exist and we support the right of Palestinians to autonomy.

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Jewish Amsterdam History Tour

• Portuguese Synagogue
• Jewish Historical Museum

• Explore Jewish culture and influence in Amsterdam
• Led by a local historian or scholar

Jewish Amsterdam Tour

Venturing inside the portuguese synagogue, "seeing the portuguese synagogue was a highlight of my entire week in amsterdam - i really appreciated [my guide's] knowledge.", marred by tragedy, diary of a young girl, important info: anne frank house.

Reviews can only be left by Context customers after they have completed a tour. For more information about our reviews, please see our FAQ .

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Jewish History Amsterdam

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Jewish History Amsterdam - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

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Tour Global Jewish Life: Amsterdam

Hosted By: American Jewish University

Join Nachshon Rodrigues Pereira – one of the few original Portuguese Jews left in Amsterdam – for a vivid account of Amsterdam’s Jewish community today and its remarkable past from the 17th century, when the city was the epicenter of Jewish life (in the Netherlands or Europe?). In the 1600s, Amsterdam stood out as one of the few European cities that offered a significant yet limited freedom of expression, enabling a rich tapestry of Jewish history to unfold. The city boasted unparalleled Jewish education, harbored renowned Rabbis, and hosted the world’s largest synagogue.

Additionally, Amsterdam’s Jews profoundly influenced the Dutch economy, infrastructure, and language during this time. We will examine how this community took shape as a response to the Spanish Inquisition and how it, in turn, left an indelible mark on its surroundings. We will also reflect upon the immense losses suffered during World War II, exemplified by the hidden refuge of Anne Frank and her family in the secret annex, and contemplate what remains of this historic community today.

The event listed here is hosted by a third party. My Jewish Learning/70 Faces Media is not responsible for its content or for errors in the listing.

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Amsterdam to mark role of tram system in transportation of Jews to death camps

Documentary on deportation of 48,000 Jewish Amsterdammers during Holocaust prompts city to act

On 8 August 1944, an Amsterdam tram took Anne Frank from Weteringschans prison, past the “ secret annexe ” where she had hidden from the Nazis, on the start of a journey to her death.

It was one of a series of Dutch night trams that deported 48,000 Jewish Amsterdammers during the Holocaust , trams commissioned by the Nazis and paid for with the Jewish wealth they stole.

Two weeks after the release of a documentary by the Emmy award-winning film director Willy Lindwer, showing the complicity of the city’s transport service, Amsterdam has announced it will mark the network’s role in the Holocaust with memorial boards at key stations.

In Lindwer’s film, Lost City, which has been subtitled in English, Lindwer and the author Guus Luijters ride a historic tram 8 around the city, interviewing Holocaust survivors about the role of trams in carrying away 48,000 of the 63,000 Jewish Amsterdammers who were murdered.

“This is very emotional for me,” said Lindwer. “The tram played a terrible role in the war years as the first deportation route for Jews from Amsterdam. When I discovered the Amsterdam tram had played such a large and systematic role, it was shocking. This is a first step, and it comes at a very important moment of … an enormous rise in the number of antisemitic incidents.”

Line 8 was scrapped after the second world war, but until now there has been no official apology to a Jewish population that once numbered 80,000.

The film also reveals evidence that for two years a debt agency was employed to get back the 80 guilders for Frank’s last tram journey.

According to the documentary, records show the municipal transport company hired a debt collector because it “never received payment for the deportation by tram of Anne Frank and her family”. . Documents from the Amsterdam archives reveal that the GVB tram company sent detailed bills to the Zentralstelle für jüdische Auswanderung, which organised the deportation of Jewish people, but it is unclear who it was pursuing after the war.

The Netherlands has the worst record in western Europe for the murder of three-quarters of its Jewish population during the second world war, a history the country is only now processing. Salo Muller, a Holocaust survivor, received €50m (£43m) in group compensation from the Dutch NS railway for profiting from transporting Jewish people to their deaths.

Since the launch of Lindwer’s film, Amsterdam has announced, 80 years after the second world war, that there is a “historic and moral responsibility to account for the cooperation of the municipal tram in deporting Amsterdam Jews”, while the GVB tram service has expressed “heartfelt and sincere regret”.

Permanent memorials will go up at Beethovenstraat and Victorieplein stops, and at Plantage Middenlaan, where a Holocaust Museum opened this month.

Amsterdam is also paying €100,000 to the Centraal Joods Overleg Jewish organisation, in an initial recognition of the amount – equivalent to €61,000 – the city charged for the tram tickets. Compensation is expected to follow after an official study on the role of the city in collaborating with the Nazis later this year.

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The Morning

Eclipse mania.

There’s still reason to get excited, even if you’re not convinced by the hype.

By Melissa Kirsch

On Monday, the moon will steal between the Earth and the sun, a total solar eclipse in North America. The path of totality, the strip of the continent where the moon will completely obscure the sun, begins in Mazatlán, Mexico, crosses over more than a dozen U.S. states, from Texas to Maine, and ends in Newfoundland, Canada.

For umbraphiles (“shadow lovers,” in Latin), as eclipse enthusiasts are known, this is a big deal. They’ve had hotel rooms in Buffalo and Carbondale, Ill. booked for months if not years. They’re following weather reports closely, praying for cloudless skies.

The first time I heard of an eclipse, I was in sixth grade. My science teacher, too aptly named Mr. Lux (“light,” in Latin), described the mechanics of the event, but what stayed with me, an anxious child, was not the idea of a world plunged into daytime darkness but the risk of permanent retinal damage posed by looking directly at the eclipse. I couldn’t believe I was permitted proximity to this much peril, this much responsibility over my safety. One glance skyward and I could damage my eyesight forever. Why was I just learning about this now?

I didn’t think much of eclipses again until the very branded “Great American Eclipse” of 2017, for which I procured safety glasses and witnessed a few moments of the sun mostly disappearing on a crowded street corner in Manhattan, near my office. The experience was brief, strange, uncoordinated. A quick astronomy interlude then back to work.

This time around, I’ve been considering the eclipse the way I did the coronation of Charles III: It’s not an event of organic fascination for me, but there’s enough hype and chatter afoot that I want in. I’ll read up and geek out so that I understand its significance, so that I can be a part of the pop-up community that materializes when big things are happening. That’s the blessing and the curse of endless information: If everyone’s talking about something, you can join in on the fun! Also, everyone’s always talking about something; why won’t they ever shut up.

Or, as a friend of mine put it grumpily, “Is this a disturbance in the heavens or a pure product of a grotesque news cycle where everything has to be a topic of ‘the national conversation’?”

I heard him, but given an option to quash my cynicism, I’ll always pursue it. I got on a video chat with my friends Christa and Ali, umbraphiles who are traveling from their home in Amsterdam to an Airbnb in the Adirondacks for Monday’s spectacle. In 2017 they rented a house in the path of totality in Oregon, and immediately afterward booked accommodations for this year.

What had they seen last time that made them so eager to do it again?

They described the hours leading up to the eclipse, when the weather gets colder, when you’re suddenly aware of how much the sun is heating us. In Oregon, the streetlights had come on and the birds went silent at 10 in the morning. Kids got tired and more snugly, bedtime behavior triggered.

“I’m not a spiritual person. I don’t usually think about the bigger picture of what we’re swimming in,” Ali said. “But I felt that at the eclipse. I had a sense that I’m this one person in this huge thing.” That’s the feeling she’s hoping to encounter again. Christa compared the experience to the awe felt by astronauts seeing Earth from space for the first time.

Why was I just learning about this now? Or why was I just paying attention now? It’s way too late to travel to see the main attraction, but the next best thing might be reading Annie Dillard’s incandescent account of seeing the 1979 eclipse on a hilltop in central Washington State: “There was no sound. The eyes dried, the arteries drained, the lungs hushed. There was no world.”

Most of our communal enthusiasms these days are human-made: the Oscars, the Super Bowl, the election, the new Beyoncé album. A total solar eclipse is a product of the natural world. It happens without elaborate stagecraft, without any outlay of capital. For this reason alone, it’s a rare occurrence. And there won’t be another in the United States until 2044.

I asked my friend Ali what she hoped to get out of her eclipse trip this year. She’s hoping to leave with a deep sense that we aren’t in control of everything, and that that’s OK. “Sometimes, the things that we’re not in control of are really beautiful,” she said. “It’s not just bad things.”

FAQ s about the eclipse.

Some maps of the eclipse’s path.

Check the weather forecast for Monday.

Last-minute strategies if you still want to get closer to the action.

The Wirecutter explains how to photograph an eclipse .

Learn how Times journalists are covering the eclipse .

“Once upon a time there was light in my life, but now there’s only love in the dark .”

THE WEEK IN CULTURE

Film and TV

Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph are good friends and alumnae of “Saturday Night Live.” They spoke with The Times about their new Apple TV+ show, “Palm Royale.”

Andrew Scott, the Irish actor known for playing the priest in “Fleabag,” will star in a Netflix adaptation of “The Talented Mr. Ripley.” Read a review .

Rumors have swirled about who might play James Bond next. Styles reporters discussed possible candidates, including Dev Patel and Jennifer Lawrence .

“Godzilla x Kong” has plenty of destruction, but little concern about death toll, writes Esther Zuckerman .

Eli Noyes, an animator whose clay and sand stop-motion animations influenced a generation of filmmakers, died at 81 .

In an age when images of naked bodies are easily accessible, a new generation of artists are painting nudes that reflect a fuller understanding of the body .

The Whitney Museum of American Art appointed Kim Conaty , the curator behind the museum’s celebrated Edward Hopper exhibition, as its new chief curator.

Leonardo DiCaprio, Tracee Ellis Ross and Gayle King were among the stars who came out to celebrate New York’s museums this week. See photos from the parties .

Other Big Stories

Forbes added Taylor Swift to its list of billionaires. The publication reports that she became a billionaire last year, largely because of her Eras Tour.

Boat shoes go in and out of fashion like the tide. Right now, they’re very much in .

The estate of George Carlin reached a settlement with the makers of a podcast who had used A.I. to impersonate the comedian.

THE LATEST NEWS

Israel-Hamas War

Israel said a string of errors led to the fatal attack on the World Central Kitchen aid convoy. The military removed two officers from their posts and reprimanded three senior commanders who were involved.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken welcomed Israel’s announcement that it would open more aid routes into Gaza, but said the U.S. would be watching to see if Israel prioritized easing the humanitarian crisis there. “The proof is in the results,” he said.

President Biden’s call with Benjamin Netanyahu demanding Israel change its approach was meant to force a course correction , not to rupture the U.S.-Israel relationship, Peter Baker explains.

A magnitude-4.8 earthquake shook buildings across the northeastern U.S. but caused little damage. The epicenter was in New Jersey, about 50 miles west of New York City.

U.S. employers added 303,000 jobs in March , more than expected, and the unemployment rate fell. The job market has grown for 39 straight months.

F.B.I. agents have examined valuable flight upgrades they believe Eric Adams, New York City’s mayor, received from Turkish Airlines for free , part of an investigation into his campaign fund-raising.

TikTok is spending millions on TV and social media ads — tagged #KeepTikTok — as the Senate considers a bill that could ban the app nationwide.

Big tech companies have skirted rules online to harvest data for A.I. training. Read much more about the issue here.

CULTURE CALENDAR

By Alexis Soloski

🎤 “Just for Us” (Saturday): It sounds like the setup to a joke: A nice Jewish boy walks into a meeting of white supremacists. In Alex Edelman’s HBO standup special, it’s the setup to many. This solo show, which played on Broadway last summer, is a giddy, bristly exploration of antisemitism. “People often tell me how timely the show is,” Edelman confessed recently, “but people have been telling me that since 2018.”

🎥 “Civil War” (Friday): It has become fashionable to describe America as more politically polarized than at any time since the Civil War. For the filmmaker Alex Garland, that could only mean one thing. This movie, starring Kirsten Dunst, embeds with a cadre of journalists racing toward an imperiled Washington, D.C.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Rendang daging (beef rendang).

By Genevieve Ko

Rendang is richness upon richness , built from beef simmering in chiles and lemongrass-scented coconut milk until the sauce caramelizes onto the tender meat. Make this beloved Indonesian dish today, as many do, for Lebaran (the Indonesian term for Eid al-Fitr) to mark the end of Ramadan and its period of fasting.

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The hunt: Two farmers from Virginia sought a small second home in Manhattan for less than $800,00. Which did they choose? Play our game .

What you get for $3.2 million: A 19th-century farmhouse in Leeds, N.Y.; a townhouse in Savannah, Ga.; or a 1927 five-bedroom house in Salt Lake City .

Curmudgeon: Larry David’s own style may be simple, but he’s one of the best fashion critics of our time , Ruth La Ferla writes.

Heart and stomach: Cooking for someone in the early stages of dating can be loaded with meaning. So, when is the right time ?

Travel 101: Trying to pack light? Here’s how .

ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER

This toaster oven really can do it all.

As we transition from low-and-slow braises to meals that highlight spring’s bounties, it’s natural to turn away from our ovens. But don’t forget about your toaster oven. Really good ones, like our roomy top pick or this one that doubles as an air fryer , can whip up ramp quiches, picnic-friendly roast chickens or springy cakes just as well as your wall oven can. They can also churn out toast for busy mornings, quickly reheat leftovers or sizzle fries and chicken wings to air-fryer levels of crispness. Of all the kitchen gadgets we test that promise do-it-all magic, these versatile workhorses come closest. — Marilyn Ong

GAME OF THE WEEK

South Carolina vs. Iowa, women’s N.C.A.A. championship: South Carolina is one win away from a perfect season, after the Gamecocks easily handled N.C. State , 78 to 59. This game might not be so easy, though, as they face Caitlin Clark and Iowa, who outlasted UConn last night , 71 to 69, to reach their second straight final. Clark has racked up countless records over her college career, but she hasn’t won a national title. This will be her last chance. 3 p.m. Eastern tomorrow on ABC

NOW TIME TO PLAY

Here is today’s Spelling Bee . Yesterday’s pangrams were decimate, decimated, emaciated, medicate and medicated .

Take the news quiz to see how well you followed this week’s headlines.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword , Wordle , Sudoku and Connections .

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa

Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox . Reach our team at [email protected] .

Melissa Kirsch is the deputy editor of Culture and Lifestyle at The Times and writes The Morning newsletter on Saturdays. More about Melissa Kirsch