Former synagogue returned to Amsterdam Jews

Renovation planned for building opened in 1766 and used after WWII as storage space

THE HAGUE (JTA) — An ancient synagogue in Amsterdam that was sold after World War II was returned to the Dutch Jewish community.

The city of Amsterdam signed over the Uilenburger Synagogue in the eastern part of the city center to a registered association set up by the Jewish community, according to a report last week in the Dutch Jewish weekly Nieuw Israelietisch Weekblad.

The institutions of Holland’s decimated post-Holocaust Jewish community sold the synagogue, which opened in 1766, to the city in 1954 due to lack of use. The building stood vacant for many years before it was rented out as a storage place, NIW reported.

The Uilenburger Shul Foundation, which officially owns the building, has a budget of up to $2.5 million for renovations. Plans call for a simple but large rectangular structure with a tall gable and three large windows in its facade.

Approximately 75 percent of the 140,000 Jews who lived in the Netherlands in 1941 died in the Holocaust.

Maurits Jan Vink, the chairman of the Uilenburger Shul Foundation, told NIW that he was very happy to see “such a pretty building returning after such a long time to function as a Jewish institution.”