A bomb threat emptied a meeting hall here of some 800 people, mainly non-Jews, who gathered Saturday night to protest the recent upsurge of anti-Semitism in Holland.
The anonymous telephone warning was received near the end of the meeting. No bomb was found, but the threat seemed to underscore the reason for the gathering.
It was sponsored by all of Holland’s political parties, many trade unions, artists organizations and the Netherlands Council of Churches. It was held in Moses House in Amsterdam’s historic old Jewish Quarter.
Speakers warned against complacency in the face of the anti-Semitic backlash that followed a successful campaign last month by the Jewish community and many non-Jewish allies to prevent the performance in Holland of a reputedly anti-Semitic play by Rainer Werner Fassbinder.
Dick Dolman, chairman of the Second Chamber of Parliament, was the principal speaker at the gathering. He referred to crude manifestations of anti-Semitism such as anonymous telephone threats to Jews and the brief kidnapping by young Dutch fascists of a Jewish actor, Jules Croiset, who was active in the campaign against the play, “Garbage, the City and Death.”
He also referred to prominent figures in Dutch society and respected journalists who accused Jews of cultural censorship. “The rats are coming out of their holes again. But what causes concern are not, in the first place, these rats, but the wise men who take the view that the Jews should not always be so hypersensitive,” Dolman said.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
