In Amsterdam, a Jewish paper chronicles a reality full of fear

The editorial team at the Nieuw Israelietisch Weekblad (NIW), which is the world’s second-oldest still-running Jewish publication, uses creativity to obtain eye-catching graphics that set the weekly apart from other communal papers with limited budgets.

A recent edition boasted a photo of a mesmerising Moorish-style ceiling of a train station designed by a Jewish architect. Another was monochromatic, featuring only a graduate cap against the reticulated pattern of a keffiyeh – a jarring reference to intimidation on Dutch campuses.

The cover of the NIW weekly in March 2025[Missing Credit]

 

Recently, however, NIW – translating to New Israelite Weekly – began concealing its vaunted covers. Shortly after the surge of antisemitism that followed October 7, 2023, the weekly title started reaching its subscribers sandwiched between blank sheets of paper for security reasons.

Likely the only Dutch publication receiving this treatment, the NIW’s concealment encapsulates the reality of its intended readership: Members of a proud and prosperous minority that is gradually being stripped of its voice and confidence by the resurgence of antisemitism.

“I’ve always opposed this move whenever it came up in internal discussions because it’s symbolic: We’re proud Dutch Jews and we don’t want to hide,” Esther Voet, the paper’s longtime editor-in-chief, told JNS in a recent interview in her canal-side home in Amsterdam.

But after October 7, “readers were afraid. They told us: ‘I don't want my neighbours to know that I'm Jewish at this time’,” she added.

Some subscribers to the NIW worried not only about their neighbours, but also the postal carriers.

“That’s the reality we live in, and the cover concealment is the least of it,” Voet said.

For years, the NIW news team worked out of an unmarked office, the paper’s name absent from the intercom panel and mailboxes. Security costs added up, eventually tipping the scales in favour of remote work.

The switch ended decades of a newsroom environment at NIW – The last time it didn’t have an office was after the Holocaust, which two of the antebellum directors of the NIW survived. They printed the first edition after the Holocaust 12 days after liberation.

In September last year, NIW broke a news story that made headlines nationally and internationally, and prompted concern not only about postmen but also police officers. The report claimed that officers were opting out of protecting Jewish events and venues citing “moral objections,” likely in reference to Israel. No disciplinary action was taken.

Two months later, on November 7, 2024, dozens of men assaulted Israeli soccer fans returning from a Maccabi Tel Aviv match in Amsterdam, in what NIW and others termed the first antisemitic pogrom in the Netherlands since the Second World War.

The police made no arrests during the riots and fewer than 12 people have since been indicted for the violence. Perpetrators coordinated in advance and real-time on instant messaging platforms that were rife with antisemitic language.

Esther Voet interviews a member of the defence team of kibbutz Malkya near Israel’s border with Lebanon (Image: Bart Schut)[Missing Credit]

On the night of the violence, Voet opened up her centrally located home and turned it into a safehouse for Israelis who were looking for sanctuary. Jewish community volunteers brought them to Voet or directed them to her via WhatsApp messages. Bart Schut, the newspaper’s deputy editor in chief, also brought Israelis in need to Voet’s home.

Not far from her home, which is in the same neighbourhood as the Anne Frank House, anti-Israel gangs patrolled the streets, some of them pushing victims into the icy canal waters and conducting passport checks that ended in savage beatings of anyone deemed to be Israeli.

“You know, I was always aware that a time like this could come. Any Dutch Jew with any historical awareness must be,” Voet told JNS, referencing how, during the war, the Nazis and their collaborators murdered at least 75 per cent of Dutch Jewry.

“But to actually see the fear in the eyes of Jews hiding in my home, nothing prepares you for that,” she said.

This, and other experiences with antisemitism, has made Voet “very pessimistic about the future of Jews in Europe. Because, clearly, the silent majority has expressed itself: It has chosen to remain silent”.

She has devoted much of her life to her work. “This makes it easier for me to stay here and carry on the duty, which I believe NIW is carrying out. But I understand those who leave,” she added.

In addition to its income from subscriptions, the NIW has independent funding from a board that distributes Holocaust restitution funds. This means it is independent to pursue Jewish community controversies, including on the kashrut business and the conduct of its leaders.

The NIW’s pro-Israel stance, however, limits its attractiveness to many journalists, including Jews, Voet acknowledged. “With a few exceptions, the Dutch media speaks with one negative voice about Israel. The NIW stands almost alone. It inspires us and our readers with a sense of mission, but many journalists would rather stay away.”

Bart Schut leans against a post near the Israeli-Lebanese border in kibbutz Malkya, Israel (Image:Esther Voet)[Missing Credit]

Schut regards NIW as “the end station” of his career, he told JNS. A Middle East analyst who is not Jewish, he assumes that after speaking out in Israel’s favour, he would be unemployable for most Dutch highbrow media.

At NIW, Schut covered violent anti-Israel protests on the ground, exposing the antisemitism on display there, and even how intimidation of Jews is devolving into intimidation of police. He has also covered the war in Israel for NIW alongside Voet, including amid rocket attacks in the Galilee.

However, the pair both agree there is some cause for hope.

A frequent guest on talk shows where she defends Israel and the Jewish community, Voet is often stopped by strangers on the street who express their support.

And, following October 7, NIW saw one of the largest increases in subscriptions in recent years. Hundreds of readers signed on at a cost of about $10 a month. Voet says they were mostly non-Jews, many of them doing so to show their solidarity.

“Dutch Jewry, Dutch society, will survive. The only question is in what form,” Schut said.

Voet added: “Yes, and right now the common form is submission. There’s a lot of subjugation, appeasement of intolerant forces.”

Then again, Dutch society “also has a strong tradition of resistance in defence of liberty,” she noted. “We’re following the story as it unfolds.”