Jerusalem on the Amstel : the quest for Zion in the Dutch Republic / Lipika Pelham.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pelham, Lipika, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jews--Netherlands--Amsterdam--History.

Jews.

Zionism--Netherlands--Amsterdam--History.

Zionism.

History.

Amsterdam (Netherlands)--Ethnic relations.

Amsterdam (Netherlands).

Ethnic relations.

Netherlands--Amsterdam.

Genre:

History.

Physical Description:

xxii, 389 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

London : C. Hurst & Co. (Publishers) Ltd., 2019.

Summary:

Seventeenth-century Amsterdam was a cosmopolitan 'carnival of nations': French Huguenots, North African merchants, Spanish Moriscos-and Iberian New Christians, formerly Jewish families forcibly converted to Catholicism, now fleeing the Inquisition and rediscovering their ancestral faith. This is the extraordinary tale of Amsterdam's prosperous Sephardi community during the Dutch Golden Age. Trading, writing, publishing, staging plays and being painted by Rembrandt, this Nação (Nation) of formerly wandering Jews not only settled but thrived, enjoying high status and unparalleled freedom. At a time when Dutch Catholics were repressed and Jews elsewhere were confined to the ghetto, this community dared to nurture the 'Hope of Israel', sowing the seeds of Zionism. Lipika Pelham charts the captivating history of Amsterdam's Jews, from their integral role in the Dutch economic miracle and the Enlightenment to a sombre coda in 1942, when the Nazis herded them into the 'Jewish Theatre' for deportation to the camps. But this was not the death of the resilient Nação -- Pelham also seeks out its descendants in present-day Amsterdam, offering poignant reflection on the meaning of nationhood, the Holocaust and what remains of Jerusalem on the Amstel.

Seventeenth-century Amsterdam was a cosmopolitan 'carnival of nations': French Huguenots, North African merchants, Spanish Moriscos-and Iberian New Christians, formerly Jewish families forcibly converted to Catholicism, now fleeing the Inquisition and rediscovering their ancestral faith. This is the extraordinary tale of Amsterdam's prosperous Sephardi community during the Dutch Golden Age. Trading, writing, publishing, staging plays and being painted by Rembrandt, this Nacao (Nation) of formerly wandering Jews not only settled but thrived, enjoying high status and unparalleled freedom. At a time when Dutch Catholics were repressed and Jews elsewhere were confined to the ghetto, this community dared to nurture the 'Hope of Israel', sowing the seeds of Zionism. Lipika Pelham charts the captivating history of Amsterdam's Jews, from their integral role in the Dutch economic miracle and the Enlightenment to a sombre coda in 1942, when the Nazis herded them into the 'Jewish Theatre' for deportation to the camps. But this was not the death of the resilient Nacao-Pelham also seeks out its descendants in present-day Amsterdam, offering poignant reflection on the meaning of nationhood, the Holocaust and what remains of Jerusalem on the Amstel.

Contents:

Introduction

Part I: An end to wandering. Tempest-tossed and found

From atonement to salvation

A sea-change in seafaring

The war of the rabbis

Judaism as nationality

The double life of Uriel da Costa

Baruch Spinoza: The heretic within

Hope in Israel: In "the land of milk and cheese"

The messiah who almost came

Rembrandt's neighbors

The Makom: "The glory of the Amstel and its senate"

Part II: From riches to rags. Abraham Palache, still a wandering Jew

David Cohen Paraira, the last Cohen of the Esnoga

The curious case of the Curiels

"They closed the curtains when the trains passed by"

Postscript

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781787380080

1787380084

OCLC:

1085666360

Publisher Number:

99979312361