The Jewish Quarter, Amsterdam
For more than 350 years, Amsterdam was a center of Jewish life, and its Jewish community was a major contributor to the city's vitality and prosperity. The Waterlooplein area was their neighborhood, where they held their market and built their synagogues.
Of the five synagogues built in the 17th and 18th centuries, only the Portuguese Synagogue continued to serve as a house of worship after the devastating depletion of the Jewish population in World War II.
The Jewish Historical Museum conducts excellent tours of the Jewish Quarter. Just outside the museum's doors is the market at Waterlooplein, which hosts the famous flea market, as lively as it was in the 17th century.
The current Jewish community itself exists largely beneath the surface of Amsterdam, many of its constituents placing Dutch identity before Judaism.
Sites of interest in the Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam include:
