Enkhuizen

Jews resided in Enkhuizen as early as the seventeenth century. During the eighteenth century, the Enkhuizen community flourished.

In 1734, the Jews of Enkhuizen were granted the right to hold religious services at the home of one of their members. Four years later, they were granted ground for a cemetery on the Bolwerk near the Koepoort in return for an annual sum. During the same decade, the community hired a teacher to provide religious lessons. In the 1780s, a conflict temporarily divided the community in two. Nevertheless, in 1791, the community consecrated a synagogue on the Zuiderhavendijk near the harbor of Enkuizen. The economic decline of Enkuizen during Napoleonic rule (1795-1813) marked a sudden reversal in the lot and size of the local Jewish population.

During World War II, the Jews of Enkhuizen fared better than Jews elsewhere. The mayor of Enkhuizen refused to cooperate in the expulsion of Jewish children from public schools. In 1943, faced with deportation to Amsterdam, most Enkuizen Jews fled into hiding, enabling many to survive the war.

After the war, only a few Jews continued to reside in Enkhuizen. In 1964, the community was merged into that of the city of Alkmaar. Although the synagogue came through the German occupation unharmed, it now houses a church. The Holy Ark of the former synagogue is now in the collection of the Jewish Historical Museum in Amsterdam. Enkuizen's Jewish cemetery and its roughly 130 graves are maintained by the local authorities.

The Jewish population of Enkhuizen and surroundings:

The size of the Jewish community over time

1795

105

1805

58

1809

50

1840

50

1869

74

1899

50

1930

25

1951

23