ABSTRACT
It was not deliberate policy, nor was it wholly by chance: after the war Amsterdam had one Jewish mayor after another. Ivo Samkalden was the first of them, an experienced civil servant and lawyer who became mayor of Amsterdam in 1967 after a job as justice minister. It was a difficult time, with protests, riots and in 1969 a student occupation of the Maagdenhuis, the headquarters of the city’s university. Samkalden ruled with an iron hand. He banned young people from sleeping rough on Dam Square, as had become common, and ordered the police to end the occupation of the Maagdenhuis. It won him respect, although he faced plenty of criticism from his own PvdA (Labour Party) supporters. Samkalden did not say much about his Jewish identity, but neither did he shrink from involving himself in fundraising for Israel, despite protests from Arab countries.
