A Dutch museum canceled a planned exhibition marking the Amersfoort Synagogue’s 300th anniversary on November 4, citing “pressure” amid tensions over the Middle East.
Paul Baltus, director of Amersfoort in C, which oversees the museum and several other cultural institutions, made the call five years after planning began. The show, scheduled for early 2027, was among several events celebrating the historic synagogue, which opened in 1727 and remains the oldest Ashkenazi synagogue in Western Europe still in use.
Baltus acknowledged that guards and cameras were an option, but “the reality is that our volunteers would still have to deal with a range of reactions.”
Emile Schrijver, director-general of Amsterdam’s Jewish Cultural Quarter, which includes the Jewish Museum and the National Holocaust Museum, said the museum reached the decision without consulting the Jewish community or the groups involved. He rejected the security argument, pointing to regular events at his own sites despite anti-Israel demonstrations. “Yes, it’s difficult, but no, it’s not impossible,” he added.
Hans Weijel, vice chairman of the Centraal Joods Overleg, the umbrella body speaking for the Netherlands’ 40,000 Jews, noted the Jewish community’s contributions to Amersfoort since the mid-1600s. “The conflict is in the Middle East, not here,” he emphasized. “If you want proof that this is antisemitism, this is the proof.”
On the day of the cancellation, Mayor Lucas Bolsius told the City Council that the move had “caused considerable pain within the Jewish community, particularly by reinforcing the feeling that its members are not welcome or even allowed to exist.” Bolsius and Baltus have since agreed to explore a solution, although the exhibition’s opening remains uncertain.
“The moment you make Jewish history dependent on what is happening in the Middle East, you are making Jewish existence conditional,” Schrijver said.
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