A Hanukkah concert organized by Amsterdam’s Jewish community was canceled this week by a local concert hall due to the participation of Lt. Col. Shai Abramson, the IDF's chief cantor, sparking outrage among Dutch Jews and criticism from officials in Israel.
The cancellation drew immediate condemnation from Israel’s ambassador to the Netherlands, Zvi Aviner-Vapni, who called the decision “shameful and appalling.” He added, “In Israel, military service is a duty shared by all as we need to defend our democracy and people. By excluding an artist for his service, they betray their own stated mission to unite through music. This hypocrisy and discrimination are not culture. It looks more like caving in to some hateful crowd.”
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Pro-Palestinian demonstration in Amsterdam, Netherlands
(Photo: Ramon van Flymen / ANP / AFP)
Dutch-Jewish lawyer Oscar Hammerstein further inflamed the debate by revealing that the grandfather of the concert hall’s director had personally signed the 1940 order under Nazi occupation expelling Jews from public positions in the Netherlands.
Israel’s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli sharply criticized the venue in a post that went viral in the Netherlands. “Seventy-five percent of Dutch Jewry was murdered in the Holocaust,” Chikli wrote. “Out of 140,000 Jews, 102,000 were killed, most of them in Auschwitz, Bergen-Belsen, and Sobibor. And yet, human nature does not change — and perhaps the character of that place has not changed either.”
Chikli added that today’s Dutch Jewish community, numbering around 35,000, continues to struggle to live openly and without fear. “Just last year, Maccabi Tel Aviv fans were violently attacked by jihadist mobs who took control of the streets of Amsterdam. Yesterday, the main concert hall in Amsterdam canceled the annual Hanukkah concert, using as an excuse the participation of Cantor Shai Abramson, who serves as the Chief Cantor of the IDF.”
Posing as a Jewish journalist in the Netherlands
(Video: POWNED Network)
The minister also referenced the recent national elections in the Netherlands, held in late October. “The Netherlands voted, and it chose clearly left-wing parties, many of which adopt a deeply hostile stance toward the State of Israel led by the extreme left party,” Chikli wrote. “The Netherlands is now moving rapidly in the footsteps of Belgium, becoming a place where Jews are no longer safe and where they are increasingly forced to hide their identity in public. With pain, I say to the Jews of the Netherlands: Consider carefully your future in a country that shows little intention of protecting your lives, your rights, and your identity.”
His statement reached hundreds of thousands of views and over a thousand shares, including by Dutch MP Claudia van Zanten. She added: “Minister Chikli is calling on Jews to think about their future in a country that shows little intent to protect them. In April 2024, the sister of one of my closest friends left Amsterdam for Israel with her family because she saw no future for Jews in the Netherlands. She told me, ‘It’s only getting worse, and I’m not going to wait.’ Sadly, she was right. I completely understand Chikli’s statement. The Netherlands has learned nothing and is once again abandoning the Jews.”
Doron Sanders, president of the Mizrachi movement in the Netherlands, warned that the situation is becoming reminiscent of Europe in the 1930s. “More and more venues are refusing to host events involving Israelis because of their connection to a state they claim is committing genocide,” he said. “The atmosphere right now is very difficult, and it’s unclear what the future holds. Despite the ceasefire, things don’t seem to be improving here.”