Dutch Jews in Israel

The Dutch Jewish community in Israel is one of the smaller Western European immigrant communities. Before the Second World War, the Netherlands had an established Jewish population and active Zionist institutions that trained and organized prospective immigrants to Palestine.[6][7] The Holocaust destroyed most of Dutch Jewry, while emigration and a low birth rate further reduced the postwar community.[3]

Zionism was an important motive for prewar and postwar immigration, and it remains prominent in individual accounts of more recent aliyah.[6][8] Other immigrants have combined Zionist commitments with education, professional opportunities, military service, or family connections to Israel.[9] Following antisemitic violence in Amsterdam in November 2024, a report also described heightened interest in aliyah among some Dutch Jews concerned about personal safety.[10]

Organized Zionism in the Netherlands dates to 1899, when the Dutch Zionist Union, or Nederlandse Zionistenbond, was established. The 1907 Zionist Congress in The Hague contributed to its growth, and the Joodse Jeugdfederatie was established in 1917 as an umbrella for Zionist youth groups.[7] Agricultural training for halutzim — pioneers preparing for life in Palestine — took place on Dutch farms, while several hundred Pioneers were in training in the Netherlands at the start of the 1940s.[6][7]

Membership in the Dutch Zionist Union stood at just over 2,000 at the start of the 1930s and had risen to more than 4,000 by 1939.[6] Ben Braber estimates that approximately 1,600 Jews from the Netherlands moved to Palestine before the Second World War, with 58 percent coming from outside Amsterdam. These emigrants were perceived in Palestine as law-abiding, disciplined, punctual, and industrious, descriptions that reflected contemporary impressions rather than measured characteristics.[6]

When Germany occupied the Netherlands, 821 Palestine Pioneers were present in the country. Because the Netherlands had not been considered a danger zone, including by the World Zionist Organization, more than 800 halutzim were trapped there.[11] Just over 400 Pioneers went into hiding and 361 survived the war. The Westerweel group assisted approximately 200 Pioneers; about 150 attempted the journey to Spain, 80 reached Spain, and 70 ultimately settled in Palestine.[6]

Irgoen Olei Holland — the Organisation of Dutch Immigrants in Palestine — played an important role during these years. Braber dates its establishment to 5 May 1940 and names Mirjam de Leeuw-Gerzon among its organizers, while a National Library of Israel catalog description gives 1943 as the date when it was officially instituted. These accounts may describe different stages of the organization's formation.[6][12] During the occupation, it sought certificates permitting emigration to Palestine, though such documents were unavailable or ineffective for most Pioneers.[6]

In July 1944, 222 former Bergen-Belsen inmates arrived in Palestine, including 102 Dutch Jews. Later that year, about 61 Palestine Pioneers assisted by the organization also reached Palestine. An effort to arrange the release and exchange of 1,000 Dutch Jewish children was refused by the British government.[12]

In September 1947, the Ilania children's village in Apeldoorn received 421 children from Romania, accompanied by 37 counsellors and four teachers; another 32 children later arrived from Berlin. After Israel's establishment, the children and their caretakers left the Netherlands for Haifa aboard the Negba in October 1948, following a year of preparation for immigration and life in the new state.[13]

The Dutch Jewish population stood at roughly 30,000 in 1946, approximately one-fifth of its prewar size.[3] About 5,000 Jews left the Netherlands in the immediate postwar years, mainly for the United States; approximately 1,500 Zionists among these emigrants went to Israel before 1950.[7] The postwar Dutch Zionist movement was dominated by a radical current calling for mass aliyah, and much of its leadership migrated to Israel.[11]

Statistical sources give varying counts for postwar immigration. Netherlands Central Bureau of Statistics figures recorded 1,524 Netherlands citizens emigrating to Israel between 1948 and 1956, with 711 returning during the same period.[14] An immigration table lists 1,208 arrivals from Holland between 1919 and 14 November 1948, 1,077 from 15 November 1948 through 1951, 646 from 1952 to 1960, 353 from 1961 to 1964, and 1,117 from 1965 to 1971.[15] Another source estimates that about 4,000 of the 25,000 Jews who survived in the Netherlands settled in Israel between 1948 and 1969.[11] Several thousand Dutch Jews also emigrated after the Korean War began in 1950.[2]

The Israel Population and Immigration Authority counted 97 immigrants from the Netherlands between 2012 and November 2019.[16] A 2016 report stated that 96 Dutch citizens made aliyah in 2015, then the highest annual figure in a decade, although the total represented less than 0.2 percent of the Netherlands' estimated 50,000-strong Jewish population.[17] JPR estimates that approximately 45 Dutch Jews without a prior Israeli connection moved to Israel annually during 1995–2020. The report says this rate changed little over the quarter-century studied and remained considerably below the levels of the 1980s and early 1990s.[5]

One account identified Irgun Olei Holland, the Dutch Immigrants' Organization, as the principal organization of Dutch Jews in Israel; its name continues that of the wartime Irgoen Olei Holland active in Palestine.[1][6] Historical estimates have placed the community at roughly 9,000 to 10,000 people, including Holocaust survivors and descendants, but the available sources do not present these figures as current population counts.[1][2]

The community's organizational structure expanded during the late 1990s in connection with Holocaust-era restitution. HONI — Hulp aan Oorlogsslachtoffers uit Nederland in Israel, or Aid to War Victims from the Netherlands in Israel — was established to coordinate Dutch organizations in Israel in dealing with war claims; sources give its creation as either 1997 or February 1998.[1][2] HONI coordinated project proposals to the Dolman Committee and administered approved projects funded from the gold pool. The Dutch Jewish community in Israel received 9.4 million guilders from the international Nazi Persecutee Relief Fund allocation, and HONI was dissolved in 2008 according to its original plan.[2]

Stichting Platform Israel was established in 1999 as an umbrella organization for Dutch Jewish cultural, social, and financial interests in Israel. Avraham Roet served as its first chairperson and represented the organization in negotiations with Dutch counterparts.[2] The National Library of Israel also catalogs an archival series titled "Various organizations connected to the Netherlands in Israel," covering approximately 1960–1990, though the catalog record does not identify the individual organizations or describe their activities.[18]

The most intensive period of engagement between the Dutch Jewish community in Israel and the Dutch government came during the late 1990s and early 2000s, when Holocaust-era financial restitution was being negotiated. Stichting Platform Israel maintained an independent position, distinguishing itself from the Central Jewish Organization in the Netherlands. In a letter dated 16 March 2000 to Finance Minister Gerrit Zalm, it stated that the Central Jewish Organization could not speak for Holocaust survivors outside the Netherlands or for Dutch Jews in Israel.[2]

Platform Israel, particularly Avraham Roet, was credited with helping break a deadlock in negotiations with the Amsterdam Stock Exchange by bringing the World Jewish Congress into the process. The resulting agreement of 15 June 2000 provided 314 million guilders to the Jewish community.[2]

During Prime Minister Wim Kok's visit to Israel in April 2000, Platform Israel representatives argued that the proposed financial restitution was insufficient and criticized the Dutch government's treatment of Jewish restitution. Former Israeli diplomat Yaakov Yannai told Kok that "your government has not been a party to the injustice we underwent," but argued that it bore indirect co-responsibility as the successor to earlier governments and authorities.[1]

A significant part of the Dutch Jewish community in Israel consists of Holocaust survivors and their descendants. In a 2015 opinion article, the Netherlands' ambassador to Israel wrote that Dutch legislation provided special allowances for survivors and that a bilateral social-security treaty allowed Dutch citizens who moved to Israel to retain most of their entitlements. He said the embassy paid particular attention to approximately 1,300 Dutch Holocaust survivors living in Israel.[19]

One reported case illustrated the intersection of social-security rights and political geography. Dutch citizens residing in Israel were entitled to Dutch old-age pensions under the bilateral agreement, but the Dutch government did not consider the agreement applicable beyond the Green Line. A 90-year-old Dutch Holocaust survivor living in the West Bank — known by its original, indigenous Jewish name of Judea and Samaria — faced a 35 percent reduction in her pension after officials determined that she lived in a settlement. Following public protest, the Dutch ambassador announced that her pension would not be reduced.[20]

Individual profiles illustrate the range of motivations and experiences among Dutch immigrants to Israel. Batja Huisman immigrated from the Netherlands at about age 20 after growing up in a Zionist home, attending a Jewish school and Zionist youth movement, and visiting Israel regularly. She described the Masa program as the decisive catalyst for her aliyah; by 2021 she had lived in Israel for nine years and was working as a marketing manager at an Israeli technology startup.[8]

Gideon Keyson, who held Dutch, American, and Israeli citizenship, moved from Amsterdam to Israel after high school. He enrolled in a programming boot camp organized by Masa and the Israel Innovation Authority before serving as a lone soldier in the Israeli Navy.[9] During this period, he and his brother Nadav developed Riverside, a technology company they ultimately chose to base in Israel. Their parents had met while studying at Tel Aviv University before settling in the Netherlands.[9]

Levi Preger grew up in a small Dutch town in a Christian household and discovered as a teenager that his Jewish great-grandmother had survived the Holocaust in hiding. After researching his family history and reconnecting with Judaism, he came to Israel to study Hebrew, made aliyah at 20, and served nearly five years in the IDF, including in the Nahal Reconnaissance Unit, as a lone soldier.[21]

Raymond and Mirjam Reijnen arrived in Israel with their three young children shortly after the 2014 Gaza war and settled in a Sha'ar Hanegev village near the Gaza Strip. In May 2019, a rocket struck their home while the family sheltered inside; Raymond said afterward that the family would not be deterred from living there.[22]

Following violence against Jewish fans in Amsterdam in November 2024, Shraga Evers — an immigrant from the Netherlands who led the Western European immigration organization Shivat Zion — reported that approximately 40 people attended a single Amsterdam event for prospective immigrants, about the number who would ordinarily attend over a full year. The report did not provide a total for Dutch Jews who subsequently applied for or completed aliyah.[10]

The history of Dutch Jews in Israel connects the organized Zionism of the late nineteenth century with the establishment and development of the modern Jewish state. Dutch Zionist institutions recruited members, trained pioneers, and facilitated emigration, while the Palestine Pioneers and Westerweel network demonstrated how Zionist preparation also became a framework for rescue and resistance during the Holocaust.[6][7]

After the war, Dutch Jewish organizations in Israel gave survivors and their descendants an independent voice in restitution negotiations with the Dutch government and financial institutions.[1][2] More recent immigrants have participated in Israeli technology, military service, and public life, illustrating the community's continuing integration into Israeli society.[8][9]

The available sources principally concern Dutch Jews and Dutch Jewish organizations; they do not provide a comprehensive current total for all Dutch-born people, Dutch citizens, or residents of Dutch origin in Israel. Even estimates of the Dutch Jewish community vary. One account gives approximately 9,000, while another says the number is unknown and often estimated at about 10,000.[1][2]

Postwar aliyah counts also use different populations, periods, and statistical procedures. One source says that about 4,000 of the 25,000 Jewish survivors in the Netherlands settled in Israel between 1948 and 1969.[11] Another identifies approximately 1,500 Zionists who went to Israel before 1950, while historical statistical series provide totals that do not map directly onto either figure.[14][7] The broader immigration table uses still different periods and notes changes in the categories counted.[15]

The founding date of Irgoen Olei Holland is reported differently across sources: Braber gives 5 May 1940, while a National Library of Israel catalog entry says it was officially instituted in 1943. These may refer to different stages of its development.[6][12] HONI's establishment is likewise dated to 1997 in one account and February 1998 in another.[1][2] These differences are best treated as unresolved documentary discrepancies rather than fundamental disputes over the community's history.