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UvA-DARE (Digital Academic Repository) Jewish-Muslim relations in Amsterdam Cooperation and tension in times of turmoil Roggeveen, S. Publication date 2020 Document Version Final published version License Other Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Roggeveen, S. (2020). Jewish-Muslim relations in Amsterdam: Cooperation and tension in times of turmoil. General rights It is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulations If you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: https://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. UvA-DARE is a service provided by the library of the University of Amsterdam (https://dare.uva.nl) Download date:08 Oct 2021 Jewish-Muslim Relations in Amsterdam: Cooperation and Tension in Times of Turmoil Suzanne Roggeveen Jewish-Muslim Relations in Amsterdam: Cooperation and Tension in Times of Turmoil Cover design by: Linda de Graaff Layout and design by: Marilou Maes, persoonlijkproefschrift.nl Printing: Ridderprint BV | www.ridderprint.nl Jewish-Muslim Relations in Amsterdam: Cooperation and Tension in Times of Turmoil ACADEMISCH PROEFSCHRIFT ter verkrijging van de graad van doctor aan de Universiteit van Amsterdam op gezag van de Rector Magnificus prof. dr. ir. K.I.J. Maex ten overstaan van een door het College voor Promoties ingestelde commissie, in het openbaar te verdedigen in de Aula der Universiteit op vrijdag 13 maart 2020, te 11.00 uur door Suzanne Roggeveen geboren te Zaanstad Promotiecommissie: Promotores: prof. dr. G.A. Wiegers, Universiteit van Amsterdam prof. dr. J. Frishman, Universiteit Leiden Copromotor: dr. S.J. Vellenga, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen Overige leden: prof. dr. W.G.J. Duyvendak, Universiteit van Amsterdam prof. dr. J.W. van Henten, Universiteit van Amsterdam dr. B.T. Wallet, Universiteit van Amsterdam prof. dr. J.T. Sunier, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam dr. Y. Egorova, Durham University Faculteit der Geesteswetenschappen This work is part of the research programme Delicate Relations: Jews and Muslims in Amsterdam and London with project number 327-25-001, which is financed by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), the Ministry of Justice and Security and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This study provides insight into the factors that influence the relations between Muslims and Jews in Amsterdam. To understand how factors such as the impact of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict or cooperation strategies work in these relations, in the period between June 2014 and December 2015 I interviewed and observed many people who identified as Jews and Muslims in Amsterdam. During these 18 months I interviewed religious leaders, community leaders, policy makers, peer-educators, neighborhood workers, members of mosques and synagogues, members of migrant organizations and Muslims and Jews who were more or less involved in organizations. I also went to educational projects, dialog meetings, mosques, synagogues, cultural centers, demonstrations, meetings between anti-discrimination activists and people’s homes. Opening your house, your organization or place of worship to a researcher who asks you all kinds of questions is not the obvious thing to do. However, many Jews, Muslims and other respondents allowed me to ask questions and observe their projects and day-to-day lives. Without their cooperation this book would not have been possible, so I would like to thank all the participants for their openness, their interesting narratives, their life stories, their willingness to let me be present during their activities and the lessons that they taught me that I will never forget. This study would also not have been possible without the support of my promotor, Gerard Wiegers and co-promotors Sipco Vellenga and Judith Frishman. I would like to thank them first for giving me the opportunity to work on the research project ‘Delicate Relations: Jews and Muslims in Amsterdam and London’ of which this dissertation is a part. Without that decision I would not be presenting this book to an audience today. Second, I would like to thank you for your helpful feedback on this manuscript. Our many conversations, discussions and visits to conferences made this book far more detailed and interesting. Here I would also like to thank Susanne van Esdonk. When I did my research in Amsterdam, she was studying Jewish-Muslim relations in London. Having someone in the same project studying the same topic, but in a different context, has been truly great. On our first day, we were introduced as Suzanne and Susanne and over time this resulted in our being seen as the Su#annes. Sharing an identity, an office and our research projects has not just created a bond between us as researchers; we have become great friends as well. Susanne, as my friend and as a researcher you have been truly tremendous for the last six years and for that I cannot thank you enough. I In this project, I also worked together with the best research assistants you can wish for. Dorieke Molenaar, Sakina Loukili, Annemiek Lely and Emma Post helped me throughout the project by searching the media sources and policy documents used in this book. Dorieke and Annemiek created a database of newspaper articles with over 800 articles on all kinds of aspects of Jewish-Muslim relations. Sakina helped me at the end of my study by collecting background information on the organizations presented in Chapter 4 on the effects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Emma helped by searching through the municipal budget of the city of Amsterdam. They were accompanied by students who transcribed my interviews and for all of their assistance I am very grateful. I am also very grateful for the time and efforts the members of the committee took to take part in the committee for this doctoral thesis. In addition, I would like to thank the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research, the Ministry of Justice and Security, and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment for their financial support. This research would not have been possible without it. I would also like to thank all of the members of our user group. Their active participation and pleasant exchange of ideas helped to fine tune this study and provided me with important insights into the factors that shape Jewish-Muslim relations. Over the course of this project many others have helped me. To mention a few: big thanks to Gerben Moerman for fixing my problems with Atlas.ti. The last part of my study would have been a lot harder if you had not helped me. I would also like to thank Vanessa Vroon-Najem for showing our research team around her wonderful exhibition and bringing me in touch with one of my respondents whom I otherwise would not have been able to reach. Anna Domen, technically you are not my colleague, but one of my oldest friends. However, I would like to thank you here as a friend as well as a colleague, for the time we spend together in co-working spaces and libraries in the weekends. I am also very grateful to Yulia Egorova for providing lots of useful feedback on Chapter 4 of this book and Ulrike Popp-Baier for giving me confidence in my teaching skills. A special thanks to Bart Wallet who helped me on many occasions with his clear and precise way of providing feedback and doing research. Never will I forget the help of Ammeke, Nanouschka, Lucia and Susanne (again), my office mates, with whom I could always talk when I needed it most, celebrate our academic victories and share the hardships. I enjoyed our contact at work and outside of academia, at conferences and in our brainstorming sessions, but I especially enjoyed our book club, our promovendi etentjes, when we fetched our favorite lunches from ‘our’ Italian sandwich shop and when the temperature in our room at the Oude II Turfmarkt rose above 30 degrees in the summer so that going out for ice cream was the only solution. Events that were also often joined by Sakina and Dorieke. Besides being my colleagues, you have all become truly great friends. During my PhD trajectory I belonged to several other groups and networks, such as NOSTER (Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion), the platform for the study of relations between Jews and Muslims and the NGG network which discusses how to teach religion in secondary schools in the Netherlands. I would like to thank all my colleagues in these groups. Our discussions taught me a lot about Judaism and Islam, but also provided me with a broader and more informed look on religion in general. Our program group Religie in de Moderne Samenleving (Religion in Modern Society) of which this project is a part must also be mentioned here, because my colleagues working in this program have provided very helpful comments on my texts, presentations and my research in general. Although my project started in 2014, many others have supported me before then and it is only fair to mention them here. Before this project I worked in the sociology department, first as a research assistant and then as a junior researcher. Over the five years I was there I worked with many wonderful colleagues, but most often with Imrat Verhoeven, Evelien Tonkens, Marianne van Bochove, Loes Verplanke and Jan- Willem Duyvendak.