Honest Reporting • Torah-True • Kosher and Fat-Free
TheJewishStar.com
Hidden in a plain wrapper, a Jewish paper speaks Reach the Star: Editor@TheJewishStar.com • 516-622-7461 x291
May 16-22, 2025 • Emor • 18 Nisan 5785 • Vol. 24, No. 17
Fear in the mail fails to silence 160-yearold Dutch outlet
By Canaan Lidor, JNS AMSTERDAM — In addition to its investigative journalism, the main Jewish publication in the Netherlands stands out for its spectacular covers. Eye-catching graphics sets the weekly NIW apart from other communal papers. A recent edition of the Nieuw Israelietisch Weekblad (New Israelite Weekly) — which was established 160 years ago and is the world’s second-oldest still-running Jewish publication — boasted a photo of a mesmerizing Moorish-style ceiling of a train station designed by a Jewish architect. Another was monochromatic, featuring only a graduate cap against the reticulated pattern of a keffiyeh — a jarring reference to intimidation on Dutch campuses. Recently, however, NIW began concealing its vaunted covers. Shortly after the surge of antisemitism that followed Oct. 7, 2023, the weekly began reaching subscribers sandwiched between blank sheets of paper, for security reasons. Likely the only Dutch publication receiving this treatment, the NIW’s concealment encapsulates the reality of its intended readership: Members of a proud and prosperous minority that is gradually being stripped of its voice and confidence by the resurgence of antisemitism after the Holocaust. “I’ve always opposed this move whenever it came up in internal discussions because it’s symbolic: We’re proud Dutch Jews and we don’t want to hide,” Esther Voet, the paper’s longtime editor-in-chief, told JNS in a recent interview in her canal-side home in Amsterdam. But after Oct. 7, “readers were afraid. They told us: ‘I don’t want my neighbors to know that I’m Jewish at this time’.” Some subscribers to the NIW worried not only about their neighbors, but also the postal carriers, many of whom are Muslim. “That’s the reality we live in, and the cover concealment is the least of it,” Voet said. See Dutch paper hides on page 2
The cover of the NIW weekly in March 2025.
Experiencing Jewish prayer on Temple Mount ALEX STERNBERG
I
have wanted to visit Har Habayit — the Temple Mount — for some time. While Jews were not permitted to do so for many
years, they are increasingly visiting the site where the Holy Temples once stood. During a recent trip to Israel, I finally got the chance to see it for myself. The Temple Mount defines the Jewish nation and our claim to the Land of Israel. For this reason, Arabs attempt to prevent Jews from exercising ownership and deny our right to pray there. Unfortunately, the Israeli government continues to adhere to a policy enact-
ed shortly after the Six-Day War in June 1967 that ceded control of the mount to the Arabs. On the second day of Chol Hamoed Pesach, my son, Yonatan, and I immersed in the mikvah of the Gur Hassidim, then joined about 25 other pilgrims by the Mughrabi Gate at the Kotel, the only permitted entrance to Temple Mount for non-Muslims. We were greeted on the wooden ramp by a unit from Israel’s Temple Mount police, who guided us on our journey.
On the mount, we were instructed by the police to walk quickly and not linger at any one spot. Soon, the majestic Dome of the Rock was in front of us. Seeing the shrine, built over the ruins of the ancient Jewish Temple, saddened me. I was surprised to see a minyan formed opposite the Dome, since I thought Jews were not allowed to pray there. Still, I answered with a See Temple Mount on page 2