Our experience in the Netherlands is that of a minority group within a dominant culture. Like other minority groups, we experience discrimination, ridicule, and silencing.
Some tell us that we are imagining this, while others promise to protect us as long as we play along. Neither stance provides us with safety in the end.
We are not special.
We are not unique.
Many minorities in the Netherlands have suffered from exclusion and oppression and even genocide.
Many minorities have been promised acceptance through assimilation only to experience otherwise. Many minorities have had their loyalties questioned, been categorized as troublemakers, and had their complex relationship to the Netherlands ignored.
We will not allow ourselves to be reduced to what is acceptable. We embrace our Jewishness in all its visible and invisible expressions and stand together with all other marginalized minorities in Dutch society that are struggling to be seen and accepted fully.
“I enjoy very much being a minority.
Indeed, it gives me a much sharper
view of society.”