ABSTRACT
Several members of the Jewish community began to worry about the influence of the Algemeene Nederlandsche Diamantbewerkers-bond (ANDB). If all diamond workers were forced to join the ANDB, the social democratic movement would quickly acquire a broad Jewish support base. Betsalel was initiated by Rabbi A. S. Onderwijzer. His aim was to establish an 'association to promote the interests of the Jewish workers'. Such an association would endeavour to 'protect the material as well as the moral interests of the Jewish workers'. In 1895 the Jewish cigar makers went on strike. What had started as a small action over a worker dismissed from the Schumacher and Verhulst factory expanded into a general strike upon the vehement backlash from the employers. During the second half of the 1890s, increasing numbers of Jewish workers joined the general trade unions, which, according to the sources, tried to plan their activities around Jewish holidays wherever possible and to purge anti-Semitism from their trade.
