Diaspora During the Belle Époque: the Netherlands
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DIASPORA DURING THE BELLE ÉPOQUE: THE NETHERLANDS AND Al ice van Zinnicq Bergmann 11930063 JEWISH MIGRANTS FROM Religious Studies EASTERN EUROPE, 1880-1914 Graduate School of Humanities University of Amsterdam Research into the reception and attitude in Dutch-Jewish periodicals DIASPORA DURING THE BELLE ÉPOQUE: THE NETHERLANDS AND JEWISH MIGRANTS FROM EASTERN EUROPE, 1880-1914 Research into the reception and attitude in Dutch-Jewish periodicals Alice van Zinnicq Bergmann 11930063 Supervisor: Mr. Dr. F.S.L. Schouten First Examiner: Mr. Prof. Dr. J.W. van Henten Second Examiner: Ms. Prof. Dr. I.E. Zwiep ‘Religious Studies Master’s Thesis’ October 14, 2019 TABLE OF CONTENTS Preface ....................................................................................................................................... 1 1 The Westward mass migration of East European Jews .................................................... 6 1.1 Pogroms, anti-Jewish legislation, and a mass exodus ....................................................................6 1.1.1 Repression and restriction ................................................................................................................ 6 1.1.2 The calamitous 1900s ........................................................................................................................ 8 1.1.3 Stateless Jews in Rumania ................................................................................................................. 9 1.2 The reception by Western authorities and populations ................................................................10 1.2.1 A broad spectrum of migrants ......................................................................................................... 11 1.2.2 Implementation of control measures ............................................................................................... 11 1.3 The reception by native Jews .......................................................................................................12 1.3.1 Western versus Eastern Jewry ......................................................................................................... 14 1.3.2 Jewish aid committees ..................................................................................................................... 15 1.3.3 Repudiating and expatriating .......................................................................................................... 16 2 Jews in the Netherlands ................................................................................................... 18 2.1 From Jewish ‘nation’ to Jewish congregation ..............................................................................18 2.1.1 The first steps to assimilation .......................................................................................................... 19 2.1.2 Separation of Synagogue and State ................................................................................................. 20 2.1.3 The NIK ............................................................................................................................................ 21 2.1.4 Dutch-Jewish population distribution ............................................................................................. 23 2.1.5 Jews in Amsterdam .......................................................................................................................... 24 2.2 Social and political compartmentalisation ...................................................................................25 2.2.1 The SDAP and the ANDB .................................................................................................................. 26 2.2.2 The NZB ........................................................................................................................................... 27 2.2.3 From Dutch Jews to Jewish Dutchmen ........................................................................................... 28 2.3 East European Jewish migrants in Amsterdam ............................................................................29 2.3.1 Registered Jewish migrants ............................................................................................................. 30 2.3.2 Jewish aid committees ..................................................................................................................... 33 2.3.3 Settlement of East European Jewish immigrants ............................................................................ 35 2.3.4 The second migrant city of the Netherlands: Rotterdam ................................................................. 36 2.3.5 Destination country or transit cities? .............................................................................................. 37 3 Dutch-Jewish periodicals ................................................................................................. 38 3.1 Weekblad voor Israëlieten / Nieuwsblad voor Israëlieten ...........................................................38 3.1.1 News coverage pertaining to East European Jewish migrants ....................................................... 41 3.1.2 Peak year 1882 ................................................................................................................................ 43 3.1.3 Destination: America? Palestine? Suriname? The Netherlands? ................................................... 46 3.1.4 Hagnosath Orchim .......................................................................................................................... 48 3.1.5 Perspectives of the WI/NI and its readers ........................................................................................ 50 3.1.6 Distinctions between the editors-in-chief ........................................................................................ 53 3.1.7 Comparison with the NIW ................................................................................................................ 54 3.2 De ,,Alliance”: Orgaan van de Nederlandsche Afdeeling der ,,Alliance Israélite Universelle” ..56 3.2.1 News coverage pertaining to East European Jewish migrants ....................................................... 57 3.2.2 Internationally focussed .................................................................................................................. 58 3.2.3 Proposal for an umbrella committee for transmigrants .................................................................. 60 3.2.4 The perspective of the Alliance ....................................................................................................... 61 4 Kinship, philanthropy, or detachment? ......................................................................... 63 Appendix I ............................................................................................................................... 67 Appendix II ............................................................................................................................. 71 Abbreviations .......................................................................................................................... 72 Bibliography ........................................................................................................................... 73 Preface From 1881 to 1914, approximately two million East European Jews migrated westward due to continual pogroms, anti-Semitic regulations, economic strangulation, and the subsequent deteriorated living condition.1 Refuge was sought in Central and Western Europe, although most migrants only passed through there to embark for the United States. Many governments implemented measures regarding migration control due to the influx of migrants who travelled through or wanted to settle in their country. To coordinate the mass migration, as well as providing aid, national and private organisations were established across the world. The arrival of these needy East European Jewish migrants also caused commotion within native Jewish communities. The – assumed – arduous relationship between the ‘ghettoised’, impoverished Jews from Eastern Europe and the emancipated and acculturating Western Jews is the subject of many studies. However, relatively little is known about the reception of East European Jewish migrants by the native Jewish population in the Netherlands between 1881 and 1914. Although far fewer foreigners entered the Netherlands, than, for instance, Germany, England, or France, this still could have had an impact on the Dutch-Jewish communities. One of the first elaborated studies is that of Paul Visser, Broeders en vreemdelingen: Een studie van de opvang van Oost-Europese joodse migranten in Nederland in de jaren 1881- 1933 tegen de achtergrond van het Nederlands-joodse acculturatieproces (1988). His PhD thesis is about the establishment and activities of the aid committees in the Netherlands during 1881 and 1933. A year later, Joël J. Cahen (b. 1945) points to the fact that “the topic of ‘Ost-Jidden-, i.e. Eastern European Jews, has, however, not been studied systematically in the framework of Dutch-Jewish History: it is one of the remaining tasks for historians.” 2 Cahen introduces hereby the essay “Migration versus ‘Species Hollandia Judaica’” of Dan Michman (b. 1947) in a special edition of Studia Rosenthaliana. Michman focuses on the relations that developed between Dutch Jews and East European Jewish migrants as well as with