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SAS (Stichting Alkmaarse Synagoge) / Alkmaar Synagogue FoundationNEWSLETTER 1 January 2010 / 15 Tevet 5770 Dear friends of the Alkmaar Synagogue, You’ve been waiting for a long time to read our news – because important consultations were underway… that recently have yielded a wonderful result: On December 23 rd , 2009, the SAS has finally, after twelve years of often laborious striving, acquired the Alkmaar Synagogue! In the course of an impressive meeting in no less a setting than that of the Shul building itself, the latter was transferred to us, by virtue of a tripartite agreement between the Alkmaar Baptist Community, the SAS and Housing Corporation Van Alckmaer – and by virtue also, of substantial grants from several sources. It should be added that we had to compromise. The Housing Corporation, whose commitment made the joyous outcome possible, evidently has to build houses - it has to put part of the compound to such use. Therefore, although the former rabbi house and cheider will be restored, they will be converted into apartments. Much will be done in return, however. The Corporation will also restore the Shul, and it will build a ‘multifunctional space’ in the courtyard, to be let to the SAS. The mikvah will become visible under a glass plate, and there will be a small communal garden. As of the returning – after 67 years - of the Shul building into Jewish hands, new tasks await the SAS. The interior must be restored into that of a synagogue. In addition, the wider goal of the SAS – to provide for a regional Jewish cultural centre – has to be met. We expect to take up these challenges during the second half of 2010 – by then the Baptists will have moved to their new church, the Shul will have been restored, and the multifunctional space will have been completed. What do we presently have in mind? As for the synagogue: religious services, of course; a memorial for the murdered Alkmaar Jews; appropriate secular activities, e.g. concerts. As for the multifunctional space: educational use – Jewish studies in the widest sense, museum function, (multimedia)library, information on anti-Semitism and racism; a place for kiddush, Jewish holidays & meals; offering it for use to other, Jewish and non-Jewish initiatives of a social and/or cultural nature. We are hoping for many of you to participate in the shaping of these various activities. Already, we’d welcome your suggestions (info@alkmaarsesynagoge.nl). Thanking you for your material support, we may add: it remains very welcome too. Apart from the by now familiar possibility option of adopting Shul stones for € 25 apiece, this now also applies to a Shul chair for € 100 (IBAN: NL46ING0007778010 // BIC: INGBNL2A). And:if we do not have your email address yet, would you be willing to supply it, to save costs? With friendly greetings and best wishes for the new year of the common era, the first year in which we may have the pleasure of welcoming you to the regained synagogue, Alkmaar Synagogue Foundation Summary of and quotations from Loes Citroen’s speech on December 23 rd 2009 (translation from the Dutch) : ‘I am delighted that, after 67 years, the synagogue [building] regains its Jewish destination.’ On July, 2 nd , 1997, the Alkmaar Synagogue Foundation came into being… The beginning phase saw many consultations with the Baptists, to convince them that this house [in which they had their church] had been a Jewish house and should, eventually, once more become a Jewish house. (In a later phase, the problem of finding good substitute housing for the Baptists was predominant.) Acquiring notoriety, talking to provincial and local authorities, etc., etc…. Meeting again and again, ever keeping good hopes for a good outcome… ‘And finally it succeeded [..] – “he or she is no realist that does not believe in miracles”.’ Miracle: round about the very days of past Hanukah [the holiday commemorating… another renewal - that of the Second Temple at Jerusalem – and the miracle of those days: that a tiny bit of oil, the dose for one day, kept the Menorah burning for eight days] we were able to sign for the purchase of the Shul building… ‘But let me also take you back, for a moment, to March 4 th , 1942. The last meeting of the Jewish Alkmaarders in this synagogue. After the service they go home for the last time. And that same night Rabbi De Wolff tries to bring his Jewish books into safety. He puts the Books of Prayer, the Talmud, the Tenachs and the Thora scrolls in his wheelbarrow and deposits them somewhere in this neighbourhood. Where they have got to we do not know, that remains a mystery. But what we do know, and only too well, is that on the very next day the entire Jewish population of Alkmaar was deported [to Amsterdam, from there to Westerbork, and eventually] to the annihilation camps. And I want to give the people who didn’t return a commemoration site in this Shul [..]. For as long as we commemorate them, they will live on. We ought to never forget them’. Hereafter Loes outlined the intentions regarding the renewed synagogue and the “multifunctional space”. She thanked the (former) members of the SAS board of directors for their efforts. In particular, she mentioned SAS advisor Robert Israël and Luuk Hageman, vice president of Housing Corporation Van Alckmaer. She expressed her gratitude to the providers of grants. And she didn’t forget the friends of the SAS. ‘Finally, let me express the wish that it will become a fine Jewish house of learning, from generation to generation, Omeyn.’
Celebration 400 years free establishment Jewish community in Alkmaar. On
Sunday May 9 2004, Alkmaar remembered the fact that the Jewish community
could establish themselves for 400 years now in the cheese city of Alkmaar,
Netherlands. Meetings in the old sjoel at the Hofstraat and at the town
hall of Alkmaar with a lot of participants like for example: Mayor of
Alkmaar Van Rossen, Ms Belinfante, Head Rabbi Jacobs and ambassador
of Israel Margalit. Click here for a short photographic impression of this day...
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