(JTA) — Two museums in the Netherlands have agreed to return two Nazi-looted paintings to the descendants of a Holocaust survivor. The Central Museum in Utrecht will return to the family of Jacob Lierens the painting titled “Pronkstilleven” by Jan Davidsz, which the Jewish collector was forced to sell under duress, the news site jonet.nl…
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — The Netherlands’ main Jewish weekly is the kingdom’s oldest commercial magazine and one of its most reputable publications. Which is why many Dutch were shocked to read a column Tuesday by its editor announcing that she is leaving for Israel because of rising anti-Semitism here. “I am leaving for the only country where…
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — An official Dutch foreign ministry document listed as an objective actions that “encourage diaspora Jewish communities to voice their opposition to the occupation.” The statement, which is unusual for European governments offering funding for organizations they say are promoting peace of coexistence between Israel and Palestinians, appeared in a report published earlier…
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — Following record-breaking temperatures in the Netherlands, a tree planted years ago by a Jewish woman near the capital produced what may be the country’s first naturally grown etrog fruit in decades. Rachel Levy eight years ago planted several seeds of an etrog tree, a citrus whose fruits are used for ceremonial purposes…
(JTA) — A barbershop in Italy, and Holocaust monuments in the Netherlands and France were targeted in separate incidents deemed anti-Semitic. The perpetrators of the incident involving Gianni Errichiello’s barbershop in a northern suburb of Turin in northern Italy torched a car parked in front of the establishment on Marconi Square. They splashed red paint…
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — On the national day of mourning for Holocaust victims in the Netherlands, a major mosque in the kingdom’s capital celebrated the conversion to Islam of a Jewish survivor of that genocide. At least, that’s what Amsterdam’s Blue Mosque said. According to its Facebook, 87-year-old Sal van Coeverden converted on May 4, the Dutch…
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — The Jewish community of Deventer in the east of the Netherlands is protesting a Dutch-Turkish entrepreneur’s plan for transforming their former synagogue into a restaurant. Tom Fürstenberg, chairman of Deventer’s Beth Shoshanna Jewish community, made up of several dozen members, told the regional newspaper De Stentor that it would be “scandalous” if…
([JTA](http://www.jta.org ” “JTA”)) — For most matzah bakeries, Passover is their lifeline and only claim to financial viability. After the weeklong holiday, during which Jews are commanded to consume matzah to commemorate their ancestors’ hurried flight out of Egypt, demand for the famously tasteless cracker drops sharply. Except, that is, in the Netherlands. A centuries-old…
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