The Illusion of Dutch Tolerance
The Netherlands loves to see itself as tolerant, open, and liberal. Amsterdam, in particular, is routinely romanticized as a global sanctuary of freedom and acceptance. But for the Jews who actually live here, that polished image is becoming impossible to recognize.
A recent, sobering investigation by the Dutch daily NRC laid this crisis bare. Based on conversations with eight Jewish citizens aged between 15 and 66, the feature asked a straightforward question: What is it like to be Jewish in the Netherlands today, in the wake of October 7 and the subsequent wave of targeted attacks on Jewish institutions?
The answers are deeply disturbing, revealing a daily existence defined by hyper-vigilance. People describe hiding visible symbols of their faith, feeling unsafe wearing a kippah in public, looking over their shoulders in the street, and worrying constantly about the security of their synagogues and schools.
This is not an abstract political debate; it is the erosion of basic safety. One story in the NRC report feels especially personal to me because it features my acquaintance, Daniël Kolbach. His testimony is shocking, yet tragically unexceptional. Daniël describes being spat at on two separate occasions and faces constant hostility simply for showing support for Israel. The fact that his experience represents the baseline—rather than the exception—among the interviewees is what makes this moment so perilous.
Throughout the testimonies, the psychological toll is palpable. A young girl admits she feels fundamentally unwanted in her own country. A mother confesses to the haunting fear that she has permanently damaged her children by passing down her own terror. Another woman explains that she now routinely hides her Hebrew name necklace.
Perhaps most insidious is the social pressure described by several interviewees: the unspoken requirement that a Jew must openly and performatively reject Israel before they are granted entry into certain social or professional circles. This has evolved into a modern loyalty test. No other minority in the Netherlands is forced to publicly apologize for or distance themselves from the actions of a foreign government just to be accepted as a human being.
The data strongly supports these fears. In 2025, Dutch police registered 867 antisemitic incidents. This represents more than a quarter of all discrimination cases recorded by the public prosecutor—an astronomical disproportion for a community that makes up less than 0.3 percent of the Dutch population.
Lately, the threat has escalated from hostile rhetoric to physical violence. This past spring, the danger moved into the realm of explosives: a detonation at a Jewish school in Amsterdam and an attempted arson at a Rotterdam synagogue, which investigators say was prevented only by police intervention. When a society forces a school to close its doors out of fear for its children’s lives, the boundary of legitimate protest has not just been crossed—it has been obliterated.
Of course, criticism of any government, including the Israeli government, is entirely legitimate. But something entirely different is happening when Dutch Jews are made personally responsible for the actions of a state thousands of miles away. Threatening places of worship is not political activism. Spitting in a stranger’s face is not foreign policy critique. Making children afraid to go to school is not solidarity with anyone. It is antisemitism, poorly disguised as geopolitical anger.
We must state unequivocally: Jews in the Netherlands are not ambassadors for a foreign power. They should not have to hide a kippah, a Star of David, or Hebrew letters to walk safely through the streets of Amsterdam.
A society that forces its Jewish citizens to make themselves invisible in order to coexist has already failed a fundamental moral test. Recognizing this institutional and cultural failure is not an attack on the Netherlands; it is the first necessary step toward reclaiming its humanity. If Dutch freedom now requires its Jews to disappear, then that freedom is already dead.
