Dutch Republic: 17th-18th Centuries

Abstract

Small Jewish communities began to appear soon after the establishment of the Republic of the Seven United Provinces, which came into being following the Union of Utrecht in 1588. Most of these were established in the main province of Holland in its major cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague. The States of Holland, the highest political organ in the province, decided not to formulate a comprehensive policy on the admission and terms of settlement of Jews. The cities were thus free to adopt their own policies. The example of the province of Holland was followed by other provinces to the extent that they all drew up their own policies. Major differences existed within the Dutch Republic, with Amsterdam welcoming Jews, while other cities, such as Utrecht, did not allow them to settle. The first communities were founded by Iberian immigrants, who arrived as “New Christians” but gradually transformed into “New Jews.” Their transnational networks and connections to colonial trade gave them a prominent position in the developing Dutch economy. These Sephardic communities paved the way for Ashkenazim, who settled in the Dutch Republic as refugees fleeing the Thirty Years War in Germany and the Chmielnicki pogroms of 1648–1649. During the 17th century, the Sephardim dominated, but from the 18th century onward the demographic balance shifted in favor of the Ashkenazim. In 1795, the armies of revolutionary France invaded the Dutch Republic and the Batavian Republic was subsequently founded. In 1796, Jews were formally emancipated and received full political and civil rights. Research on Dutch Jewry oscillates between a focus on exceptionalism and on a larger, transnational interpretation of both Dutch policies of toleration and the specific character of Dutch Jewish communities. Beginning in the 19th century, most research has concentrated on the Amsterdam Sephardim, mainly in the 17th-century Dutch “Golden Age.” New scholarship since the 1980s also includes, or even concentrates on, the Ashkenazic communities, Jews outside of Amsterdam, and the 18th-century transformation of relations among Jews themselves and between Jews and Christians.