The Jewish Historical Museum of Amsterdam, currently housed in the former Ashkenazic synagogue complex on Jonas Daniel Meijerplein, was founded in 1930. It was officially opened two years later, on February, 24 1932, in the Weigh House on Nieuwmarkt in Amsterdam. The early history of the Museum has, until now, only been presented summarily. Descriptions have appeared in the various guidebooks published by the Museum and in a book entitled Vier eeuwen Waterlooplein, which appeared in 1987. My research in the archives of the Amsterdam municipality's art department, of Amsterdam's Ashkenazic community, the Jewish and non- Jewish press, and various museum catalogues has enabled me to trace the museum's development and function up to 1940 with reasonable accuracy.2 But because no prewar museum archive remains – it was presumably lost during the war – a highly detailed reconstruction has not been possible. The information that has come to light about the history of the museum provides new scope for research, particularly the links with Jewish museums elsewhere in Europe, as well as social, academic, and cultural developments in the Jewish community in the Netherlands.

EMANCIPATION AND AN INTEREST IN JEWISH CULTURAL HISTORY

In the second half of the nineteenth century, Jewish emancipation and the subsequent secularization resulted in a growing historical interest in the material objects of Jewish culture. For many, ritual objects used in the synagogue and the home had lost their religious significance and had become (historical) artifacts. One of the earliest collections of Judaica was amassed by Isaac Strauss (1806-1888), a French Jew who left his native Strasbourg in search of art throughout Europe. The Shabbat candlesticks, Kiddush cups, manuscripts and other ritual objects he acquired probably brought back memories of his youth and reconfirmed his Jewish identity. Strauss's presentation at the World Exposition in Paris in 1878 was the first private collection of Jewish ritual objects to be publicly displayed.

In Holland, this collection of ritual objects assembled and presented by a Jewish collector outside a religious context, was considered remarkable. Meijer Roest, librarian of the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana and editor of De Israelietische Nieuwsbode, called the show “a curious and exceedingly rich collection of artistic objects relating to Jewish prayer in public and in the home…”.