Zuidland

Jews resided in Zuidland from the 18th century on. For most of the 19th century, the Jews of Zuidland officially belonged to the Jewish community at Heenvliet; however, the Zuidland community was recognized as an independent Jewish community in its own right late in the century. In 1887, a building on the Breedstraat was renovated to serve as the Zuidland community's synagogue; prior to then, local Jews had prayed in the home of one of their numbers. A Jewish cemetery, located on the Kerkweg, was established in 1888. A split in the community in 1911 led the more orthodox Jews of Zuidland to rejoin the community at Heenvliet; thereafter, religious services at Zuidland were held in a rented room.

The majority of the Jews at Zuidland worked in the textile trade, as livestock traders, and in the meat processing industry. Local Jews maintained two voluntary organizations: a youth organization and a women's society.

In October and November of 1942, under the World War II German occupation of the Netherlands, all the Jews of Zuidland were deported and later murdered. The Zuidland community was officially dissolved after the war and the locale was placed within the jurisdiction of the Jewish community at Rotterdam. The Jewish cemetery at Zuidland has been maintained by the local authorities since 1965 and was refurbished in 1991. Today, the names of several streets in Zuidland reflect connections to Israel and honoring of the vanished local Jewish community.