ABSTRACT
The newly established Jewish community searched for land suitable for a cemetery. Jewish graves must never be cleared, so there was a pressing need for a specifically Jewish place of burial. In 1614 Amsterdam’s Portuguese Jews obtained a plot of land in Ouderkerk aan de Amstel, despite fierce protests by local residents, and it still serves as a final resting place for the city’s Portuguese Jewish community. Some 27,000 people are buried there.
