Les Juifs d'Anvers

Antwerp, a great commercial port, welcomed as early as the sixteenth century merchants of Iberian origin, then became above all, from the end of the nineteenth century onward, a major center of Jewish immigration from Eastern Europe and of the global diamond trade. The community, a significant portion of which is Hassidic and ultra-Orthodox, developed a dense network of synagogues, schools, and institutions, making Antwerp a singular Jewish center in Western Europe. During the Second World War, it was struck by deportation, but reconstituted itself after the war. It remains today one of the most vibrant and visible Jewish communities in Western Europe.

Sources & resources

• Encyclopaedia Judaica — 2e éd., Keter/Macmillan
• Jewish Virtual Library ↗