Thousands of people from across the Netherlands gathered on Wednesday night for a Chanukah celebration at Dam Square in Amsterdam. Most participants were Christians expressing solidarity with the Jewish community.
Hundreds came in buses that Op de Bres voor Israel, a workgroup whose name means “Working wholeheartedly for Israel,” organized to facilitate attendance from outside the capital.
Christians for Israel (CvI), an organization founded by the late Christian Zionist activist Karel van Oordt in 1979, helped organize the event. CvI defined it as a rally against antisemitism and in support of Israel.
Among the speakers was Chris Stoffer, leader of the Reformed Political Party, a conservative movement with many devout Protestant voters.
“Global intifada is being implemented,” Stoffer said in his speech, referencing the Dec. 14 Bondi Beach massacre. “We must never accept this as normal. Not in Sydney, not in Amsterdam, not anywhere.” The event was planned long before the slaughter in Australia.
On Wednesday, prosecutors in Sydney indicted a 24-year-old man, Naveed Akram, for 16 murders, among other offenses. He and his father, Sajid, fired on participants of a Chanukah celebration attended by hundreds of people, according to the indictment and video footage. Sajid Akram was killed in an exchange of fire during the incident. His son was seriously wounded.
In Amsterdam, Dutch Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs thanks the crowd. “That you came in such numbers means a lot to us. We always feel so alone as a community,” he said of Dutch Jews. “It’s heartwarming that you are all here.”
Jacobs told JNS that the event “showed that, even during these difficult times, we have friends.”
Paris, which is home to most of France’s Jewish community of about 400,000 members, also held a candle lighting event on Dec. 14. In London, where most of the British Jewish minority of 313,000 live, an event with several thousand participants took place on Wednesday. In Paris and London, local Jewish media reported that most participants were Jewish.
The fact that a similarly-sized event was organized in the Netherlands, which has about 35,000 Jews, is “absolutely because of the Christian mobilization, without a doubt,” Jacobs said.
An Israeli flag with a surface area of 6,400 square feet, or 600 square meters, was unfurled and flown at the event. The crowd sang Chanukah songs, including “Maoz Tzur,” as well as “Am Yisrael Chai” and “Jerusalem of Gold.”
“We stand here today with Dutch Jews,” Stoffer said, prompting applause. “This is a moment that requires us to be visible, now that antisemitism is rearing its head on the street, in schools and universities worldwide.” The terrorist attack in Sydney “is having a deep emotional impact on us,” he said.
‘We saw the 5%’
Dam Square is a central area of Amsterdam that features a monument to the casualties of World War II, including Jews. In recent years, it has been the gathering point for many anti-Israel rallies.
The Center for Information and Documentation on Israel (CIDI) recorded 421 antisemitic incidents in 2024—a record high, up 11% from the previous all-time peak in 2023.
In the interview with JNS, Jacobs recalled a historian who had asserted that during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, society was split into 5% collaborators, another 5% who resisted the Nazis, and 90% who remained uninvolved or silent.
The population is similarly split today when it comes to opposing antisemitism, said Jacobs, whose parents survived the Holocaust in the Netherlands. “On Wednesday, we saw the 5% who would have stuck their necks out for us,” he said.
Police at the event arrested four people for setting off a smoke grenade near the gathering, De Telegraaf reported. Jacobs said the incident was brief and failed to disrupt the program or event.
Asked if he feels encouraged by the attendance, Jacobs said: “I feel grateful.”
Jacobs noted that many Jewish participants at the many Chanukah events he attends nationwide are afraid of being targeted. “The ones who are very scared, stay away, but they are a small number. Most members attend despite the fear,” he said.
