Amsterdam Synagogue, Jewish Hospice Targeted In Vandalism Incidents

Dutch police officer stands guard at Jewish school in Amsterdam. Image by getty images

By JTA January 19, 2018

AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Police in the Netherlands are investigating vandalism at a synagogue and a hospice for people dying of terminal diseases.

The incident at the Immanuel Hospice occurred on Jan. 2, the AT5 television channel reported Wednesday. A man wearing a sports jacket dislodged and stole two security cameras in the early hours of the morning.

The synagogue incident occurred on Dec. 31 at Chabad Central Amsterdam, the Nieuw Israëlietisch Weekblad newspaper reported Friday. Unidentified individuals hurled bricks at one of the building’s windows in what a police spokesman told the weekly was an incident “with all the signs of a deliberate attack against a Jewish institution.”

The incidents follow the Dec. 7 shattering of glass at a kosher restaurant in Amsterdam by a Syrian man who was waving a Palestinian flag as two police officers and passers-by watched. The officers arrested the man after he broke into the restaurant through the door he had smashed and removed an Israeli flag.

Dutch Jewish leaders criticized police for releasing the man, whose trial is ongoing, after 60 hours in detention and despite reports that he said he planned similar actions in the future.

In July, police dialed back their armed security around Jewish community buildings, replacing several watch posts manned by agents with security cameras. Security was increased again following the kosher restaurant incident.

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO