The Jewish community of Maassluis

1688-1942

At the end of the 17th century Maassluis is one of the few communities of the province of South Holland where it was allowed for Jews to settle. The eldest known inhabitant of Maassluis is the tobacco salesman Levij Jacobs. At April 27, 1688, he owns a house at the Westside of the Hoogstraat at Maassluis. Soon Jacobs goes to the city Dordrecht where he established a synagogue.

After 1750 the Jewish communnity in Maassluis increases rapidly. In 1769 the local government approves the establishing of a synagogue. In most nearby towns and cities like Schiedam and Delft, the Jews are not welcome until 1786. Also during the 19th century, the extent of the Jewish community remains relatively high in Maassluis.

While in the first half of the 19th century the Jewish communities throughout the Netherlands is growing because of the emancipation and the drift from the city to the country, the total amount of the Jews in Maassluis fluctuate around ninety. Apparently not more Jews than this can earn a living. The trading possibilities in a small town are limited.

In Maassluis the Jewish community has its own synagogue for their religious duties; a teacher, a singer and a ritual butcher. The (most common Jewish) professions are salesman, (street) trader, and butcher. The community has its own social live and charity. The Jewish economical positions are very vulnerable. Their way of living in the country finds its boundary due to the industrial revolution. The infrastructure improves, so the trading areas are easier to reach for several kinds of tradesmen. The competition is simply too much for the small Jewish tradesman in the villages.

The Jewish community shows the above-mentioned economical problems. The amount of Jews in Maassluis declines between 1892 and 1930 from 92 to 8. An important cause of this decline is the building of a railway in 1881 between Maassluis and Rotterdam. The majority of the Jewish traders move to cities like Rotterdam, The Hague and Amsterdam.

In the last decade of the 19th century, these municipalities shows a steady growing Jewish population. The integration in Maassluis ends brutally during the 2nd World war. The family Colton and the married couple Van Gelderen with their daughter are deported in 1942 and all died in Auschwitz.

Already before the war, the Jewish community in Maassluis is to small to maintain the synagogue and other facilities in a reasonable condition. The building was too expensive in maintenance and falls into disrepair.
During the war the Maassluis municipality enact a bill for buying the synagogue and its surroundings. Finally the local government of Maassluis buys the synagogue complex in 1949 from the Jewish community of Rotterdam, who is the heir of the Jewish social community of Maassluis. They demolish the complex in 1960. The location, nowadays consists of a parking lot and an electricity house.

In 1937 the last funeral took place at the Jewish cemetery. The local government of Maassluis buys in1948 the area from the Jewish community of Rotterdam. They bury the mortal remains and replace the 23 gravestones in 1950 at the public cemetery of Maassluis.