JEWISH STUDENTS IN HOLLAND FACE INCREASING THREATS
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Amsterdam: Jewish students face increasing threats
Translated from Het Parool, Saturday, October 31, 2009 (h/t NRP):
Students, parents and teachers of Cheider, the only orthodox-Jewish school in the Netherlands, increasingly have to deal with violence. That makes their already small world even smaller. The school as a threatened fortress.
“Mendel, Nethanel? You’re coming?” Young boys hurry across the schoolyard of the orthodox Jewish Cheider school towards a parked Volkswagen bus. Father, long beard, severe look, has no time to talk. “Who did you say that you are? No, sorry, I must go to Amersfoort. I hope to get there before the traffic jam.”
It’s Wednesday afternoon around 4pm, as the school empties out. Girls with skirts lean against the fence bored, parents park their cars as close as possible to the entrance. There’s no time for a talk. The glances betray suspicion and distrust.
“The press? No, that only makes it worse,” says one of the parents from behind the wheel. Two daughter sit nervously in the back. “In the five minutes that you’re now trying to talk to people, four people already asked me who you are really and if you can be trusted,” says parent Wim van Dijk (41) from behind the fence.
Welcome to the Cheider in Buitenveldert, where every evening a police jeep does its round, where fencing and cameras give the impression that this is Johannesburg, and where guards keep watch on the situation on eight TV screen while they eat a herring sandwich.
The orthodox school has been in the building in Buitenveldert, where about 10% of the residents are Jewish, for 16 years. The school had about 250 students fifteen years ago, now only 180. That’s connected to the departure of Jews to foreign lands. Many of them go for the US, UK, Israel and Antwerp, where people think the Jewish communities are safer.
There were always threats, but they’ve increased in recent years, says the administration. It varies from juveniles who call up the school and shout ‘Al Qaida’ to curses, throwing stones, stabbings and spitting. “then they scream: ‘Jews, Jews’, or ‘Nazis’ Sometimes they they snatch away my kippa and throw it on the street. Then it becomes dirty,” says Nethanel (7). We are ‘they’? “It’s always Muslims,” says Van Dijk.
He hides his kippa, just like other teachers, under a blue beret when he leaves the grounds. While accompanying his daughter home, he says he avoids certain areas in the city. “The Amstel park for example. Last [time] a boy came up to me. While he stood before me he pulled the flat of his hand across his neck. “Kill Jews,” the boy said. His parents stood by and laughed. Recently they asked me what I was doing in the Netherlands. That is ridiculous, yes? My family has been living here for six hundred years.”
Behind the fence, hidden behind mirrors, the guard/gatekeeper Joop keeps a file of all the incidents around the Cheider. It’s becoming a thick folder. According to him the number of threats increased ‘enormously’ the past three years. He says it’s not Muslims in general. It’s only the Moroccans who cause the problems, he says.
“When something happens in Israel, we notice that here. Now and then the threat level is so high that we even accompany to the bus stop. When groups of youth go somewhere, somebody always goes along. they are because of their kippas or hats more identifiable.”
Next to him his colleagues tracks the images with concentration. when a BMW doesn’t drive through fast enough, he temporarily interrupts finishing off his sandwich.
He’s not the only one who keeps on eye on the area around the school. Every evening a police car parks in front of the building. Sometimes a van, but just as often the police are there with a bulletproof jeep. “We do that due to standard security considerations,” explains one of the agents. “now it’s calm, but a couple of months ago we were here 24 hours a day. Why is that necessary? I’m afraid that I can’t say anything about it,” he says before he drives away towards Rosj Pina, the other (non-orthodox) Jewish school in Buitenveldert. Besides Maimonides, also in Buitenveldert, there are no other Jewish schools in the Netherlands.
The threats lead to an interesting discussion in the teachers’ room. Subject: Geert Wilders. “His popularity didn’t fall out of the sky,” says Van Dijk. “I’ll vote for him, and I can guarantee that I’m not alone. He was the only one, I repeat, the only one, who said something when SP (Socialist) parliament member Harry van Bommel joined in an anti-Israeli demonstration in January during the Gaza conflict and there peacefully preached ‘Intifada’. Wilders got a lot of goodwill from the Jewish community there.”
School principal André Pels (57) disagrees with it. He chooses his words more carefully. “Wilders is right on certain points. It’s not the neighborhood youth who throw stones.” Rabbi/deputy-principal Hans Groenewoudt (47) thinks differently. “We naturally have an historical consciousness here. Soon Wilders will get to power and will try to get what he says now. In Germany they also had to deal with that.”
From his study-room on the first floor of the school, the rabbi constantly looks out below. Jewish scholars on black-and-white photos on the wall also seem to keep an eye out. “You’re a type of sitting duck here. Because you’re concentrated in one place, you’re an easy target,” declares Groenewoudt.
An evacuation several months ago shows that the issue is serious. The reason was a car which was parked for a long time in front of the school. As to whether the evacuation was right, the school leaves undecided.
Groenewoudt does have an explanation for the behavior of the culprits, which he also thinks are young Muslims. “It has to do with that many of the third generation Muslims turn away from the religion. That’s at the expense of their identity. The parents therefore try to create an image of the enemy.”
He says that it’s incorrect that that’s Israel and the Jews. “Go to Morocco. Then you could go in the street as a Jew very well. In Turkey too. Those are friendly states to Israel.”
De rabbi says that he avoids the center of Amsterdam, where he once studied. “In the past it was my area. Now I avoid most places. I have no wish to be spitted on. If it’s possible, I’ll stay here, in Buitenveldert. Your world is becoming a bit smaller.”
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