Mokum in Amsterdam

Mokum, the biography of Jewish Amsterdam

In the rich history of 750 years of Amsterdam, Jewish life has been deeply rooted for four centuries. Over time, the city was affectionately given the name Mokum, the Yiddish word for place or city. A name that has been embraced and celebrated by many Amsterdammers. Think of the hits by Johnny Meyer and Manke Nelis, among others, with *Mokum wat maak je me nou*, and André Hazes wistfully singing to Amsterdam in *Wat was jij toch mooi, m'n Mokum*.

World-famous Jewish Amsterdammers such as Baruch Spinoza, Samuel Sarphati, and Anne Frank, and words derived from Yiddish such as geheime, mazzel, jatten, gozer, and tof, are inextricably linked to the city. We owe even the typically Amsterdam pickled vegetables to Jewish street vendors. High-profile icons such as De Bijenkorf, Tuschinski, and the Amstel Hotel are the initiative of Jewish entrepreneurs.

The Nieuwe Kerk concludes Amsterdam’s anniversary year with the exhibition Mokum, the biography of Jewish Amsterdam. This exhibition highlights a turbulent, often recalcitrant, and multifaceted history. In doing so, the exhibition casts a glance at one of the oldest pillars of the multi-voiced Amsterdam. It tells the stories of well-known and unknown inhabitants of Mokum: starting with the first Jewish residents fleeing persecution based on their religion, through civil equality and relative prosperity and the murder of 60.000 Amsterdam Jews during the Second World War, to the cautious revival of religious and cultural identity. There is also room for the enormous diversity among Jews in the Netherlands, societal hardening, the protests in the city, and the search for connection in the Mokum of today.

 

Baruch spinoza

Benedictus de Spinoza, Latinized form of Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), was a Dutch philosopher, political thinker, and exegete of the Golden Age. He is considered one of the founders of rationalism and one of the inspirations of the Enlightenment. To earn a living, he ground spectacle lenses and microscope lenses. His books were placed on the Roman Catholic Index of Forbidden Books because his historical biblical criticism was believed to lead to atheism and fatalism. Spinoza was a follower and critic of René Descartes and a contemporary of Nicolas Malebranche and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, also rationalists of early modern philosophy.

Much of what has been written about Spinoza's private life seems to have been fabricated to fill gaps. Nevertheless, the stories have often degenerated into legends. Only what is mentioned in the introduction to his Opera Posthuma, in his letters, and in official documents can be verified. The rest may be doubted.

 

Portuguese Synagogue

The Portuguese-Israelite Synagogue of Amsterdam is a 17th-century synagogue built by the Sephardic Jews. The synagogue is located on Mr. Visserplein and Jonas Daniël Meijerplein in the former Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam. When it was built, it was the largest synagogue in the world. The synagogue is used for worship services by the Portuguese-Israelite Congregation, founded in 1639.

The Snoge is part of a large synagogue complex. Only the Portuguese-Israelite Synagogue still fulfills its original function. Today, the Great Synagogue, together with the Obbene Synagogue (1685), the Dritt Synagogue (1700), and the Neie Synagogue (1750/1752), forms the Jewish Museum. Unlike that of the High German synagogues, the interior of the Portuguese-Israelite Synagogue has been preserved, including the brass chandeliers and candle holders, and dates entirely from the time of construction, which is exceptionally rare. In terms of design and spatial layout, the synagogue served as a model for, among others, the Mikvé Israel-Emanuel Synagogue in Willemstad on Curaçao and the Tzedek ve-Shalom Synagogue in Paramaribo.

 

Anne Frank

Annelies Marie (Anne) Frank (Frankfurt am Main, June 12, 1929 – Bergen-Belsen, February 1945) was a German and later stateless Jewish girl who became world-famous through her diary, which she wrote during World War II while in hiding in the Secret Annex on the Prinsengracht in Amsterdam. She presumably died of typhus in February 1945 in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. However, her official date of death has been established by the Dutch authorities as March 31, 1945. Her diary was published posthumously and is one of the most widely read books in the world. Through her diary, Anne Frank has become an international symbol of the Holocaust, the murder of six million Jews during World War II. Anne Frank is included in the Canon of the Netherlands as one of the fifty themes of Dutch history.

 

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Mokum, the biography of Jewish Amsterdam, until April 6, 2026, at the Nieuwe Kerk Amsterdam:

https://www.nieuwekerk.nl/tentoonstellingen/mokum/

Previous museum blogs: https://www.postzegelblog.nl/tag/made-in-holland/