Weesp
Jews residing in Weesp established a synagogue in a private home on the Korte Middenstraat in 1774. By 1840, the building was on the point of collapse and the Jewish population of Weesp had grown. As a result, the community decided to construct a new synagogue. A fund-raising campaign enabled the community to purchase a site at the corner of the Nieuwstraat and Hanensteeg. The new synagogue built at the site was consecrated in 1840. The Weesp community buried its dead at the cemetery of the Amsterdam Ashkenazic community in Muiderberg.
Synagogue of Weesp, ca. 1930
The Jewish community at Weesp was governed by a council consisting of five members. Two of the members were responsible for aid to the poor and one for raising and dispersing funds in support of the Jewish community in Eretz Israel. Voluntary organizations within the Weesp community included a burial society, a society for the upkeep of the synagogue, and a number of cultural and youth organizations. The Weesp community also maintained a Jewish school, located on the Nieuwstraat near the Groteplein. Several community members were active in local affairs; a few rose to serve on the town council.
In February 1941, during the World War II German occupation of the Netherlands, members of the general population of Weesp participated in the nationwide strike protesting the deportation of Jews. By the end of 1941, all Jews had been expelled from Weesp. The majority were murdered in Nazi death camps. Although the synagogue was plundered during the war its Holy Ark survived the war undamaged.
The Jewish community at Weesp was administratively dissolved in 1947 and the locale was placed under the jurisdiction of the Jewish community at Bussum. During the postwar years, the former synagogue was used as a garage. In 1984, a plaque in memory of the vanished Jewish community of Weesp was affixed to the exterior of the building. The building was restored in 1986 and afterward housed the offices of the local employment bureau. An adjacent building contains the offices of the local chapter of the Dutch Overlegorgaan Joden en Christenen (Council of Christians and Jews).
Muiden
Several Jewish families settled in nearby Muiden during the last decades of the 18th century. Over the course of the 19th and early-20th centuries, the Jewish population of Muiden remained small. The Jews of Muiden were deported and murdered during the Second World War.
The Jewish population of Amersfoort and surroundings:
The size of the Jewish community over time
1809
141
1840
153
1869
186
1899
101
1930
49
