For the first time in the Netherlands' history, fewer Dutch are religious than those who aren't, Statistics Netherlands reported on Monday. Last year 49 percent of Dutch aged 15 or older indicated they belonged to a religious group, 51 percent are not religious.
In 2016 the Dutch population was evenly split - 50 percent religious, 50 percent not religious. In 2012, 54 percent of Dutch belonged to a religious group.
Vandalism at an Apeldoorn apartment left resident Fatiha Chams Eddine (52) too afraid to sleep at home. On Liberation Day the Jewish woman discovered that someone scratched a Star of David and spray-painted the word 'whore' on her basement box in the apartment building where she lives, De Gelderlander reports.
A meeting will be held in Amstelveen next week between city councilors and members from the Jewish- and Muslim communities in the city. The goal is to discuss the important issues for both groups in the run up to the parliamentary elections in March, Het Parool reports.
The meeting is organized by the Jewish Muslim Platform Amstelland, the Jewish-Islamic organization Mo&Moos and the Jewish Bendigamos. Amstelveen councilors of the VVD, PvdA, D66, SP, ChristenUnie, CDA and GroenLinks will attend.
Amstelveen mayor Mirjam van 't Veld says she refuses to back down from plans to receive asylum seekers in the Amsterdam suburb despite a specific death threat made against her. She would not comment on the context of the threat in an interview with newspaper Het Parool, but she said it was typed on half of an A4-sized sheet of paper and addressed to her personally.
An FC Groningen fan was arrested on Sunday after flashing a Nazi salute at a fan of a visiting football club. The 21-year-old man was taken into by officers in Groningen who witnessed the incident, police there announced later in the day.
In a year that saw several crimes related to anti-Semitism occur in the Netherlands and a vicious assault on a kosher supermarket in Paris, about 85 Jewish people emigrated out of the Netherlands for Israel, an increase from about 61 a year earlier. The violence prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to call for Jews living in Europe to flee for Israel.
An investigation into a fireworks attack on a Jewish family in Amsterdam’s Rivierenbuurt neighbourhood led to the arrest of three teens, Amsterdam mayor Eberhart van der Laan said on Thursday. The family involved said the three shouted anti-Semitic phrases while trying to kick the door of the house in on New Year’s Eve.
Eindhoven mayor Rob Gijzel is blocking seven controversial Islamic imams from speaking at a religious conference in the Noord-Brabant city later this week. Gijzel was informed by the national counterterrorism office that the imams have used their pulpits to speak out against Jews and the LGBT community, according to NOS.
Young Muslims in the Netherlands do not have much against Jewish people themselves. But they are emphatically against Zionism.
An Amsterdam delegation, including Mayor Eberhard van der Laan and alderperson Kajsa Ollongren, is currently on a visit to Tel Aviv and Ramallah. The purpose of this visit is to investigate the possibilities and desirability of cooperation between Amsterdam and the two cities and to answer the question on how Amsterdam can relate to these different communities at a municipal level.
Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher called for an end to the derogatory use of the word “Jew” with regard to fans of Amsterdam football club Ajax. Many of the team’s fans often refer to themselves as “The Jews,” even though the club has no historical association with Jewish organizations or Jewish athletes.
Visual artist Kurt Löb passed away at the age of 89 in his hometown of Amsterdam on Monday after being ill for some time.
The Royal Dutch Football Association's (KNVB) in-house prosecutor specialized in professional football has given FC Utrecht a settlement proposal for the anti-Semitic chants heard during the match between FC Utrecht and AFC Ajax on April 5th. The proposal consists of a 10,000 euro fine and an empty hardcore supporter section, nicknamed the "Bunnikside," during the next home match against Ajax, KNVB stated in a press release on Tuesday.
The Work Group for Missing Persons in World War II has identified three unidentified war victims based on extensive historical research and DNA relationship testing, the police announced.
Police were notified this week of an online advertisement for the sale of soap produced during World War II, possibly made from human remains collected at concentration camps. After consulting the Public Prosecutor, officers opened an investigation into the sale, police said on Friday.
Dutch King, Willem-Alexander, his wife, Queen Máxima and the Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte are taking part of the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day at the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in Poland.
Artist Ralph Prins died at the age of 88 yesterday. One of his best known works is the design for National Monument Kamp Westerbork, which was unveiled by Queen Juliana in 1970.
Civic leaders in the Netherlands met in Amsterdam Sunday to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps. An estimated 1.1 million people died at the site in Poland, ground which the Red Army took control of on January 27, 1945.
It would be better if the State of Israel would be moved from the Middle East to the United States, says the former Minister of Economic Affairs, Herman Heinsbroek to Quote.
"Then we might finally see peace in the world."
A group of both Jewish and Muslim people will come together tomorrow in Cafe Belcampo in Amsterdam West to remember and discuss the terror acts in Paris earlier this month. Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher will be speaking during the "Solidarity Night; Jews and Muslims Solidarity with Paris" and Mayor Eberhard van der Laan will be attending the event as well.
The Orthodox Jewish school Cheider in Amsterdam will reopen today. The chairman of the school board, Herman Loonstein, made this announcement on Sunday.
Orthodox Jewish school Cheider kept their doors shut on Friday following similar decisions made by Jewish schools in Brussels and Antwerp. The terrorist threat level in Belgium was raised as a precaution on Thursday.
Marcel De Graaff says he quickly regretted retweeting the words "Death to Muslims" on Wednesday. The PVV Member of European Parliament quickly removed his own message after seeing what he had posted.
Several companies put animal ingredients in their foods, without stating this on the label. Food watchdog Foodwatch is sounding the alarm, because vegetarians, Islamic and Jewish communities in The Netherlands are being duped, unable to properly follow the guidelines of their beliefs, De Volkskrant reports.
