In many respects, the history of the Hollandsche Schouwburg is characteristic of the development of the Dutch Jewish community between the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the Second World War. The theatre had Jewish owners for decades and famous Jewish actors and directors celebrated triumphs there, but, at the same time, no one would have called it a Jewish theatre. The companies that performed there were mixed, as were the audiences, and the plays that were put on could seldom be described as ‘Jewish’. In other words, the history of the Hollandsche Schouwburg mirrored the political and cultural integration of Dutch Jews from the end of the nineteenth century onwards. In this chapter, this development is described with a particular focus on Amsterdam, the city that had formed the heart of the Dutch Jewish community since the seventeenth century.

An Unusual Production

Christmas Eve, 1898. It is bitterly cold. From all around, people are walking towards the Hollandsche Schouwburg, the grand theatre built in classical style in Amsterdam's leafy Plantage neighbourhood. It is the evening of the premiere of Ghetto, the most recent play by the flamboyant socialist writer and journalist Herman Heijermans. The play has been the subject of media speculation for weeks. The tension is great, including for the playwright himself, who does not attend the performance, but awaits its reception in a nearby café.

The play's theme promises to be explosive: the ‘Jewish isolation from the world’, an issue on which public controversy had raged for months, fuelled by a campaign for the founding of more Jewish schools by Joseph Hirsch Dünner, the chief rabbi of Amsterdam. Dünner, who was also a public school inspector, was concerned about the decline of Jewish life in the Netherlands. He wished to reverse this tendency by means of education based on religious foundations, among other things. This provoked a sharp response from defenders of public education, namely liberals and socialists – both Jews and non-Jews – and a fierce and lengthy public debate between Dünner and the city government of Amsterdam.

There could not be any doubt as to where the Jewish socialist Heijermans stood in this controversy; this was something he had already made clear.