In some ways, the post-war histories of the Rue des Ecouffes, a street of the Pletzl, perceived as a Jewish neighbourhood from the 1930s, and the Rapenburgerstraat, in what had been the Jewish quarter of Amsterdam for centuries, ran completely opposite. Seventy-five per cent of French Jews survived the Shoah and built a life again in the city, while an equal percentage of Dutch Jews were murdered. In Paris, survivors returned to a cityscape which, on the surface, had remained almost intact, while Jews in Amsterdam were faced with a district heavily impacted by wartime destruction. While the Pletzl retained a Jewish character, a large part of Amsterdam’s Jewish quarter fell prey to urban renewal. Nevertheless, as relatively smaller streets in Jewish neighbourhoods with a diverse and lively pre-war Jewish life, both the Rue des Ecouffes and the Rapenburgerstraat allow for an in-depth analysis to answer questions such as: What actually makes a street – or a neighbourhood – Jewish? And how can streets, as microcosms, offer suitable lenses on the (re)building of Jewish life in the post-war period?  

Bart Wallet will introduce the concept of the “Jewish street,” after which Sarah Gensburger and Eric Le Bourhis will give a lecture on the Rue des Ecouffes, and Sietske van der Veen will highlight the Rapenburgerstraat in her lecture.