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May 5, 2006
Find Jewish life in Amsterdam
Charming city offers Anne Frank House and numerous other attractions
for travellers.
SORIYA DANIELS
Here's a geographical riddle that might just send you packing:
What is one of Europe's most energetic cities, its terrain marked
by 17th-century canals and floating houseboats, home to a relatively
small percentage of Jews despite its rich Jewish history and lastly,
a city where culture abounds and permissiveness pervades?
Here is one last hint, and it's a dead giveaway: this city is home
to the Anne Frank House.
By now, you have probably correctly guessed that the answer is the
Dutch capital of Amsterdam.
Before planning a visit to what the Dutch refer to as Anne Frankhuis,
you'll need to decide upon a mode of transportation. There are numerous
options: on foot, by bicycle, canal boat (there are many to choose
from), tram or a combination of the above. Bicycles are by far the
most popular choice for tourists and residents alike, adding another
element of charm to an already charmed city. Amsterdam offers bike
lanes so that pedestrians, vehicles and bicycles don't accidentally
mingle, although unacquainted tourists can be spotted meandering
along the bike lane, oblivious to the sounds of ringing bicycle
bells.
If peddling is not your thing, information, maps and tickets for
canal travel or trams can be obtained at Centraal Station, which
is a short train ride from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport. Centraal
Station is the hub of the canals that define the heart of Amsterdam
and there are two tourist offices at the station, one on platform
2 and the other in a wooden shack opposite the main station entrance.
While there are many organized cruises and canal buses to choose
from, Canal Bus (Tel. 020-623-9886, www.canal.nl)
offers low cost and high convenience. With 14 stops, visitors can
hop on and off all day long and even until noon the next day for
only 16 euros. Packages are also available that include museum passes.
Pick up the Canal Bus at Centraal Station and enjoy stops at many
sites of interest, such as Rembrandt House, Anne Frank House, the
Van Gogh Museum and the Waterlooplein, which is just a short walk
from the Jewish Historical Museum (Joods Historisch Museum), at
the heart of the former Jewish Quarter of Amsterdam.
The museum, open daily from 11 a.m-5 p.m., includes a permanent
collection displaying the religion, culture and history of Jews
in The Netherlands. Admission is 6.50 euros, and the museum is easily
accessible by tram and boat. The complex of buildings comprises
four synagogues, which were painstakingly reconstructed following
their destruction during the Second World War. Once there, visit
the Great Synagogue, which is the earliest recognizable synagogue
in Western Europe. The museum serves as a cultural centre for Jews
now living in Amsterdam, which is only a small fraction of the 120,000
pre-Holocaust Jewish population. Opposite the museum is the 17th-century
Portuguese Synagogue, which is still in use despite its lack of
electricity. Shabbat services are held by candlelight.
Many Israelis can be spotted in this neighborhood and emanating
from the corridors of the museum are the pleasant sounds of Dutch
families singing Hebrew songs to the tune of a guitar, with little
Jewish children frolicking around. The museum also offers a bookshop,
tours of the adjacent Jewish Quarter and a kosher café, which
can be accessed separately, without paying the entrance fee for
the museum. There is also a glatt kosher, Israeli-style meat restaurant
around the corner from the museum and, nearby, a bustling flea market
at Waterlooplein, the site where the Jewish community once thrived.
While in the vicinity, check out Rembrandt House, a red-shuttered
house located at 4-7 Jodenbreestraat, which is now a museum. While
there are no Rembrandt paintings at the house, approximately 250
of his etchings are on show. Though the artist himself was not Jewish,
he often painted portraits of his prominent Jewish friends and neighbors.
The Van Gogh Museum is also accessible by Canal Bus. It boasts the
world's largest collection of the artist's work. Linger in the wide
open galleries and peruse 200 paintings and another 500 drawings.
While travelling from site to site, beware of the pick-pockets,
who are notorious in Amsterdam for preying on tourists and the elderly.
In fact, a pick-pocket detection stand is situated just outside
Anne Frank House, since many people have had their wallets swiped
while waiting in the long line to enter Amsterdam's most popular
and visited site.
Anne Frank House (Tel. 020-556-7100) is a 10-minute walk from Centraal
Station on Prinsengracht in the western portion of the Canal Ring.
The museum tells the sad story of the Frank family's daily life
while hiding from the Nazis in an Amsterdam attic apartment. In
her now-famous diary, Anne Frank wrote about living in the attic
annexed to the main part of the house. She detailed her fears, the
isolation and the distractions of this hardship. This house can
only be visited by those with the ability to climb steep steps,
as it is not wheelchair-accessible.
Visit firsthand the moveable bookcase that conceals the entrance
to the annex and climb the stairs used by the helpers to bring food
up to the hiding place. See Anne Frank's room, preserved as it was,
with her film-star collection and picture postcards pasted to the
wall. A walk through the house transports the visitor back to the
late 1930s and if you peer out of the window, you can witness the
spot on the street where Jewish people were rounded up and deported
to concentration camps.
Be sure to read the poignant letters Anne's father, Otto Frank,
wrote to his relatives in Switzerland after the war as he details
his search for his two daughters and, eventually, the pain of finding
out that they both had passed away. It was then that Anne's diary
was presented to him by one of the righteous gentiles who helped
hide the family and discovered the diary on the floor after the
Nazis raided the annex.
To lighten up the day a bit, take in a view of the city from the
tower of the old stock exchange, the Beurs van Berlage at Beursplein
(www.beursvanberlage.nl).
It opens daily from 11 a.m-5 p.m, except on Monday. On one hand,
you see a medieval city, replete with Old World architecture, surrounded
by the semi-circles of canals comprising the Canal Ring. On the
other hand, you see a modern, active society riding bicycles throughout
the city, happily oblivious to the chilly wind and rain.
Despite its turbulent Jewish history, today's Amsterdam offers the
Jewish traveller an exciting modern-day visit to a vibrant, beautiful
city, while also paying homage to a difficult past.
Soriya Daniels is a Florida-based freelance writer.
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