Nederlands Israëlitisch Kerkgenootschap
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The Nederlands Israëlitisch Kerkgenootschap (Dutch Israelite Religious Community) (NIK) is the umbrella organisation for most Jewish communities in the Netherlands, and is Orthodox in nature. The Chief Rabbi of the NIK is Rabbi Raphael Evers. On total, the NIK has some twenty rabbis actively working in thirty-six congegrations throughout the country, serving some 5,000 Jews.
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[edit] History
The NIK was founded in 1814 under the reign of Willem I, although the first steps towards a central organisation of Jewish communities in the Netherlands (which was the initial purpose of the NIK) were already taken in 1808, under command of Napoleon. Both the Ashkenazi as well as the Sephardic communities were included. The newly-found umbrella organisation had a clear hierarchical design: the Jewish communities were governed on a local level by twelve so-called large "hoofdsynagogen" (lit.: head synagogues), which had the power over the medium-sized synagogues (communities), which themselves had power over the smallest synagogues (called "bijkerken", like small Jewish communities on the Dutch countryside). Of the twelve "hoofdsynagogen", two were located in Amsterdam (Ashkenazi and Sephardic), two in The Hague (Ashkenazi and Sephardic), and one each in Rotterdam, Amersfoort, Middelburg, Den Bosch, Nijmegen, Zwolle, Leeuwarden and Groningen (all Ashkenazi, at that time called "Hoogduits", lit. "High German"). Two years later, another two were included: one in Maastricht, and one in Brussels (at that time Belgium was part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands).
This form of structuring the Jewish community in the Netherlands gave a lot of power to the (chief) rabbis, as they were given the power to govern the entire community. With the new constitution in 1848 however, things changed. In its first step to a fully secular state, the government decided towards a separation of Church and State. This banned rabbis from any administrative role whatsoever.
1871 saw new regulations for the organisation. The Sephardic communities left the NIK, gaining full independence within the Jewish community again like they had had in the centuries preceding the NIK. The NIK became thus fully Askhenazi.
The NIK saw its height in 1877, when it administered over some 176 Jewish communities throughout the Netherlands. The following decades however saw a steady decline, administrating 139 communities at the eve of World War II. The Holocaust destroyed most of the congregations, as some 100,000 on a total of 140,000 Dutch Jews were killed by the Nazis between 1940 and 1945.
[edit] Today
The NIK has some twenty rabbis, governing some thirty-six Jewish communities or some 5,000 Jews. This makes them the largest Jewish religious organisation in the Netherlands. The NIK follows the rules of Orthodox Judaism, meaning among other things a separation between men and women during religious services and only accepting members who are halakhically Jewish. Despite the fact that the NIK follows the rules of Orthodox Judaism, most members do not consider themselves to be Orthodox Jews.
Media Rabbi is rabbi Raphael Evers, who is also the face of the organisation in the media.
Along with the larger Jewish communities, the NIK is responsible for supervising whether the rules for kashrut are followed, as well as the mikvaot (ritual baths), the upkeep of some two-hundred Jewish cemeteries in the Netherlands (on a national total of two-hundred-and-fifty) and (Orthodox) conversions to Judaism by non-Jews.
[edit] Congregations
Congregations exist in the following places:
- Aalten. The once lively Jewish community of the small town of Aalten numbered more than 100 Jews around 1840. In the following decades, the number of Jews declined to some 70 at the eve of World War II. Around half of the Jewish community perished during the Holocaust. After the war, some 46 Jews returned to the small town, but eventually, many emigrated, either to the larger Jewish communities still functioning in the Netherlands (like Amsterdam), or to countries like the United States of America and Israel. Although the community still exists, the Jewish community in Aalten has only some ten members at the moment and thus has a hard time getting enough men to hold services (ten Jewish men required). An article concerning the synagogue in Aalten. (Dutch)
- Alkmaar. The Jewish community in Alkmaar numbers some 70 people, down from some 200 in the 1930s. It celebrated its 400th-year anniversary on May 9th 2004.
- Almere. The NIK Almere was founded on January 5th 1997, making it one of the youngest Jewish community in the country. Rabbi for the community is rabbi Moshe Stiefel, who also has plans to start a community in Lelystad, the capital of Flevoland province. Because of its proximity to Amsterdam, with more than 15,000 Jews the center of Jewish life in the Netherlands, Jewish Almere is steadily growing. A Jewish cemetery for the community was inaugurated in January 2004.
- Amersfoort
- Amsterdam
- Breda
- Bussum
- Den Bosch
- Deventer
- Doetinchem
- Eindhoven. See for more information the article concerning Jewish Eindhoven.
- Emmen
- Enschede
- Groningen
- Haarlem
- Hilversum
- Leeuwarden. Jewish life in Leeuwarden flourished in the second part of the 19th century, when the community numbered some 1,200 persons. This declined to 750 in the 1930s. The Holocaust saw the destruction of the once vibrant community. In 1951 the community had some 139 members; nowadays some 50 people are part of the congregation. In 1980 a new synagogue was inaugurated, after the pre-war synagogue proved to be too big for the declining community.
- Leiden
- Maastricht
- Middelburg. The NIK congregation in Middelburg is part of a congregation which compromises the entire province of Zeeland. It numbers some 40 active members, most of them concentrated around Middelburg and Vlissingen. The Holocaust saw the destruction of the old Jewish community of Middelburg, but eventually, after 50 years, a new synagogue was inaugurated in November 1994. On June 30th 2004, a Jewish marriage held place at the synagogue, the first one in Middelburg since the start of WW II in 1940. More information on NIK Zeeland.
- Nijmegen
- Oss
- Rotterdam
- The Hague
- Tilburg
- Utrecht
- Winterswijk. Although the Jewish community in Winterswijk suffered severely during the Second World War, community life was re-established in 1951 with the re-inauguration of the synagogue present in this small town in the eastern part of the Netherlands. At that time, the community numbered no more than 30 people. In the years following however, the community stayed relatively stable, numbering approximately 22 members in 1998. Services are held only on an incidental basis though.
- Zaandam
- Zutphen
- Zwolle
