Jewish Cultural Quarter Self-Guided Tour
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Rating: 
Trip Type: Museum Tickets & Passes
Duration: 2 hours
Beautiful synagogues, striking buildings and impressive monuments colour the streets of Amsterdam’s Jewish Cultural Quarter. Stroll through this historic area and visit the Jewish Historical Museum, a leading Dutch cultural institution with an engaging Children's Museum, the remarkable Portuguese Synagogue and moving National Holocaust Memorial (Hollandsche Schouwburg). Four cultural institutions accessible with a single ticket.
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Beautiful synagogues, striking buildings and impressive monuments colour the streets of Amsterdam’s Jewish Cultural Quarter. Stroll through this historic area and visit the Jewish Historical Museum, a leading Dutch cultural institution with an engaging Children's Museum, the remarkable Portuguese Synagogue and moving National Holocaust Memorial (Hollandsche Schouwburg). Four cultural institutions accessible with a single ticket.
Discover the Jewish Cultural Quarter in the heart of Amsterdam.
Stunning synagogues, striking buildings and impressive memorials grace the streets of Amsterdam’s old Jewish quarter. In the heart of the neighbourhood, an area of less than one square kilometre, is the Jewish Cultural Quarter, which includes the Jewish Historical Museum with the engaging JHM Children’s Museum, the stately Portuguese Synagogue and the National Holocaust Memorial, a place of remembrance. Here visitors can find out all about Jewish culture, history and traditions – all with just one ticket.
Jewish Historical Museum
Any trip to Amsterdam should include a visit to the Jewish Historical Museum. This modern, trend-setting museum, housed in four monumental synagogues, offers a unique look at Jewish life in the Netherlands past and present in all its complexity. The museum has a large multimedia collection ranging from paintings to films and from everyday objects to 3D presentations and always offers one or two temporary exhibitions. For young visitors there is also an exciting children’s museum.
JHM Children's Museum
Inside the Jewish Historical Museum is another museum, just for children! It is set up as a Jewish family home with six rooms, where children aged 6 to 12 can play games that will teach them about Jewish culture – sometimes seriously and sometimes with humour. Children can bake rolls in the kosher kitchen, learn Hebrew in the study or make music together in the music room.
Every week the JHM Children’s Museum hosts special activities. Check our website to find out what we have planned.
Portuguese Synagogue
In the centre of the Jewish Cultural Quarter stands the magnificent Portuguese Synagogue. The building is still used as a house of worship, but it is also open to the public, and concerts are held there regularly. The 17th-century interior is still fully intact and illuminated by hundreds of candles.
The other buildings in the complex include treasure chambers where visitors can admire a unique collection of ceremonial objects made of silver, gold, silk and brocade. The complex also includes the oldest functioning Jewish library in the world, Ets Haim Livraria Montezinos, which is included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.
National Holocaust Memorial
During the Second World War, the occupying forces made Jews assemble in this former theatre. Tens of thousands of men, women and children were held here, not knowing what fate awaited them, until they were deported to concentration and extermination camps. The Hollandsche Schouwburg is now a memorial site with a wall of names commemorating the Jewish victims. It also holds an exhibition about the Shoah (Holocaust) in the Netherlands.
Discover the Jewish Cultural Quarter in the heart of Amsterdam.
Stunning synagogues, striking buildings and impressive memorials grace the streets of Amsterdam’s old Jewish quarter. In the heart of the neighbourhood, an area of less than one square kilometre, is the Jewish Cultural Quarter, which includes the Jewish Historical Museum with the engaging JHM Children’s Museum, the stately Portuguese Synagogue and the National Holocaust Memorial, a place of remembrance. Here visitors can find out all about Jewish culture, history and traditions – all with just one ticket.
Jewish Historical Museum
Any trip to Amsterdam should include a visit to the Jewish Historical Museum. This modern, trend-setting museum, housed in four monumental synagogues, offers a unique look at Jewish life in the Netherlands past and present in all its complexity. The museum has a large multimedia collection ranging from paintings to films and from everyday objects to 3D presentations and always offers one or two temporary exhibitions. For young visitors there is also an exciting children’s museum.
JHM Children's Museum
Inside the Jewish Historical Museum is another museum, just for children! It is set up as a Jewish family home with six rooms, where children aged 6 to 12 can play games that will teach them about Jewish culture – sometimes seriously and sometimes with humour. Children can bake rolls in the kosher kitchen, learn Hebrew in the study or make music together in the music room.
Every week the JHM Children’s Museum hosts special activities. Check our website to find out what we have planned.
Portuguese Synagogue
In the centre of the Jewish Cultural Quarter stands the magnificent Portuguese Synagogue. The building is still used as a house of worship, but it is also open to the public, and concerts are held there regularly. The 17th-century interior is still fully intact and illuminated by hundreds of candles.
The other buildings in the complex include treasure chambers where visitors can admire a unique collection of ceremonial objects made of silver, gold, silk and brocade. The complex also includes the oldest functioning Jewish library in the world, Ets Haim Livraria Montezinos, which is included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register.
National Holocaust Memorial
During the Second World War, the occupying forces made Jews assemble in this former theatre. Tens of thousands of men, women and children were held here, not knowing what fate awaited them, until they were deported to concentration and extermination camps. The Hollandsche Schouwburg is now a memorial site with a wall of names commemorating the Jewish victims. It also holds an exhibition about the Shoah (Holocaust) in the Netherlands.
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