Opportunity, Agency, and Choices of “Assimilation”: The Jewish Dutch Elite c.1870-1940

• In Event: Jews with Money: transatlantic perspectives on class, family, power and vulnerability

Abstract

This paper analyses how the position of Jews in Dutch society changed between the final decades of the nineteenth century and the German invasion, focusing on established and new members of the upper middle and upper classes. These Jews were noticeably successful in seizing novel opportunities for upward social mobility, and came to enjoy important positions in society. They acquired wealth, gained political or administrative power, or excelled in the arts, the liberal professions, or science. Concurrently, they lived through a period of decreasing attachment to religious practice and tradition.

In recent historiographical debates, a link has been made between upward social mobility and decreasing religious affiliation, whereby it is assumed those Jews who chose to live (more) secular lives had higher chances of social advancement. This paper studies this phenomenon in a more comprehensive way, by focusing on patterns of structural and sociocultural integration in the lives of Dutch Jews in six domains – occupations, education, places of residence, religious affiliations, marriages, and associations – and by differentiating between the sub-elites of a tiny Sephardic nobility, a larger group of Jewish haute bourgeoisie families, and growing numbers of Jewish newcomers to the elite and their descendants. Particularly in the twentieth century, the position of Jewish members of the Dutch financial, political, and cultural elites shifted as their lives became more interwoven with those of their non-Jewish counterparts. They constructed their Jewish identity and culture within the context of wider Dutch society, influenced by various Jewish and other cultural systems, and contributed to developments within general society, creating their own possibilities as well as enjoying new opportunities. Upward social mobility and integration then were very much processes determined by the majority cultural elements in specific spheres and by elements from minority cultures at the same time. Meanwhile, Jews had to redefine what their Jewish background still meant to them, consciously or unconsciously negotiating vested loyalties and expanding alliances.

Zooming out, we might tend to only observe a story of societal ‘success’ and of far-reaching integration, yet zooming in on the lives of individuals demonstrates how the narrative is more dynamic, layered, and complex. Building on research into the lives of more than seven hundred Jews, this paper focuses on several actors whose biographies illustrate the general conclusions of the author’s dissertation titled Novel Opportunities, Perpetual Barriers: Patterns of Social Mobility and Integration among the Jewish Dutch Elite, 1870-1940.

Author

• Sietske van der Veen, University of Amsterdam