A narrative of absence: monumental synagogue architecture in late nineteenth-century Amsterdam

Abstract

This article examines synagogue building and synagogue architecture in Amsterdam during the second half of the nineteenth century. The Dutch capital, known in local parlance as “Mokum,” took a very different path than other European capitals. While Jewish communities across Europe initiated massive building plans, the Amsterdam Jewish community reverted to building small and modest hevra synagogues (independent prayer group synagogues) and refrained from constructing a monumental house of worship. There are multiple reasons why this happened: among others, the persistent poverty among the large working class population, the small Jewish elite, a communal priority given to providing poor relief rather than initiating new building programs, the presence of two large seventeenth-century synagogues in the center of the Jewish neighborhood, and a general disinterest in creating an “architecture of emancipation.” This article presents an analysis of the Dutch case and places it within the larger context of European synagogue architecture. It also takes a close look at the Gerard Dou synagogue which was inaugurated in 1892, a hevra synagogue built in the Dutch neo-Renaissance style.