| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Small Jewish enclave endures near Dutch 'Sharia triangle' |
| 2013-06-09 |
| A dozen Jewish households remain in the little-known Jewish enclave known as the Van Ostade Housing Project. The gated community of 200 units built in the 1880s to house poor Jews is surrounded by the Schilderswijk neighborhood. 91% of Schilderswijk residents are foreign-born, half of them Moroccan or Turkish. Earlier this month, Schilderswijk became national news after a Dutch newspaper reported that part of the neighborhood had become a "Sharia triangle" that police do not dare enter. The report prompted a high-profile visit from Geert Wilders, whose party called this month for a government study of anti-Semitism among Muslim immigrants. During his visit, Wilders said, "It is unacceptable that women in skirts should be harassed here. This is Holland. Sharia does not apply here." Dutch police deny that Schilderswijk has become lawless and insist they have security under control. But what Wilders fears is already a reality for some Jews of Van Ostade. Iris Tzur said it's not comfortable for a blonde woman in a dress to walk the streets of Schilderswijk. "You get a lot of stares and comments," she said. Pinchas Moelker, an Orthodox Jewish resident, says he hides his yarmulke under a hat and always tucks in the knitted fringes of his prayer shawl. He also installed a low-profile mezuzah that blends into the door frame. Others here have installed mezuzahs inside their doors. Such concerns aside, the remaining Jews of Van Ostade do not plan to leave, saying they share a sense of togetherness that richer, less immigrant-heavy neighborhoods lack. Moelker hosts weekly Shabbat dinners for his neighbors, "who get so drunk that they zigzag all the way back home." Avi Genosar, who served in an elite Israeli army unit before coming to Holland to study, says the area's high crime levels don't bother him. He said, "Here I can get fresh, cheap vegetables, tahini, olive oil and the other Middle Eastern foods I'm used to." Earlier this month, De Telegraaf reported that a local school that had been a Jewish institution before the Holocaust shelved plans to install a commemorative plaque, afraid it would upset Muslims. Separately, a sign advertising an exhibition about the school's Jewish history was placed inside lest it upset the locals, a co-organizer of the event told De Telegraaf. |
| Posted by:ryuge |