For many years, Dutch Jews widely held the opinion that during the 1930s Jewish refugees from Nazi-Germany introduced “Liberal” Judaism – nowadays called “Progressive” Judaism – to the Netherlands. The earlier beginnings of Liberal Judaism as a genuine Dutch development seemed to be forgotten. The same was true for its struggle to preserve an independent Dutch character when confronted with a massive influx of German refugees from 1933 onwards. This forgetfulness cannot be explained only by a traditional inclination among Dutch Jews to define modern forms of Judaism as “foreign import” or “not really a Dutch development”. The distorted picture was indeed strongly confirmed by postwar realities: it was an overwhelmingly German group of survivors that revived and continued the Liberal congregation after the Holocaust.

As a result of this postwar reality, the notion that Liberal Judaism was a German import was confirmed. Consequently, we fail to see not only that the beginnings of the Liberal community were a genuine Dutch development, but also that the development of Liberal Judaism before and after the war was strongly influenced by the uneasy relationship between Dutch Jews and German immigrants. In this article, I will sketch how Progressive Judaism developed in the interaction between Dutch and German Jews.

TORAH IM DEREKH ERETZ

In order to understand the establishment of the first Dutch Liberal congregation in 1931, it is necessary to elaborate on the character of Dutch Judaism as such. Dutch Jews received equal citizenship at the end of the eighteenth century (1796), long before most of them spoke, read, and wrote Dutch. Like in France, this early emancipation, followed by a long process of acculturation, led to a rather petrified type of Orthodox Judaism.

Dutch Jews in general were hostile to German Reform Judaism. During the nineteenth century, they perceived it as part of the political struggle of German Jews to achieve the equal citizenship they themselves already had. There was no need for a similar movement in the Netherlands. In Dutch synagogues, no dramatic changes occurred beyond the introduction of sermons in the vernacular, clothing for rabbis similar to that of Protestant clergymen, and other adjustments in the decorum alone.