At the eastern edge of Amsterdam's historic center, near the Amstel River, stands a tall, square-shouldered building of brownish-red brick that rises well above its neighbors, its walls pierced by two tiers of large round-arched windows. It has no bell tower, no statues, and no dome. A continuous ring of low single-story buildings encloses it on all sides like a protective wall, leaving a paved courtyard inside. Stepping through the portal into the main prayer hall, the first thing you notice is fine sand underfoot, spread evenly across the wooden floorboards. The second is that dozens of brass chandeliers hang overhead, each filled with candles, and not a single electric light bulb exists anywhere in the hall.
This is the Portuguese Synagogue, called the Esnoga by its congregation, the house of worship of Amsterdam's Sephardic Jews, whose ancestors came from Spain and Portugal. Inaugurated in 1675, it was the largest synagogue in the world at the time of its completion, and according to the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, its layout and furnishings have remained virtually unchanged since opening day. This is the first site of Judaism presented in the library.
IJudaism, the Synagogue, and the Sephardim
Because this is the library's first article on a Jewish site, a brief introduction is in order. Judaism is the religion of the Jewish people and one of the oldest surviving monotheistic faiths, professing belief in one God who established a covenant with the patriarch Abraham and gave the Law to Moses. That Law is written in the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, which Christians also hold as the Pentateuch at the opening of the Old Testament. Jewish worship uses no cult statues and makes no visual image of God, placing the reading, study, and observance of the Torah at the center of religious life.
A synagogue (a Greek word meaning house of assembly) is the building where a Jewish community gathers for prayer, the public reading of the Torah, and study. In strict Jewish usage, it is distinct from the Temple. In antiquity the Jewish people had only one Temple, in Jerusalem, where sacrifices were offered. Since the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in the year 70, sacrificial offerings have ceased, and synagogues throughout the diaspora have served as the focal points of communal worship. Consequently, a synagogue has no sacrificial altar and no priesthood offering sacrifice, instead, its two essential furnishings are the Torah Ark housing the handwritten parchment scrolls of the Law and the reading platform from which the scrolls are chanted aloud to the congregation.
Across centuries of diaspora, Jewish communities developed distinct regional traditions. Sephardic Jews are those whose ancestors lived in the Iberian Peninsula, namely Spain and Portugal, from Sepharad, the Hebrew name for that region. Ashkenazi Jews are those whose ancestors settled in Central and Eastern Europe. Both branches share the same faith and the same Torah, while differing in Hebrew pronunciation, liturgical melodies, certain festival customs, and even the names given to synagogue furnishings. Portuguese Sephardic Jews in Amsterdam call the Torah Ark the hekhal and the reading platform the tevah, whereas Ashkenazi Jews call them the aron kodesh and the bimah.
In 1492 the Spanish Crown ordered Jews either to convert to Catholicism or to leave the country, and in 1497 Jews in Portugal were subjected to forced conversion. Many families lived outwardly as Catholics while quietly preserving their ancestral faith in private. From the late sixteenth century onward, a number of these families made their way to Amsterdam, where they were able to return openly to Judaism. Because they spoke Portuguese and Spanish, their congregation became known as the Portuguese Jewish Community (Portugees-Israëlietische Gemeente), and their house of prayer was named the Portuguese Synagogue even though it stands in the Netherlands. The word Esnoga is the Old Portuguese and Ladino term for a synagogue (adapted into Dutch as Snoge), according to the Posen Library and Ons Amsterdam.
A first common misconception among Vietnamese readers is to translate every synagogue as a Jewish temple. In traditional Jewish understanding, there was only one Temple, in Jerusalem, whereas a synagogue is a house of prayer and Torah study. Although the architect of the Esnoga drew architectural inspiration from a scale model of Solomon's Temple constructed around 1640 by Rabbi Jacob Jehuda Leon, that inspiration concerned architectural proportion rather than any claim to replace the Jerusalem Temple.
A second point of clarity: the word Portuguese in the synagogue's name refers to the Iberian origin and language of the Jewish congregation that built it, not to the state of Portugal.
IIFrom Three Small Congregations to the Largest Synagogue in the World
Sephardic Jews arriving in Amsterdam initially formed three separate congregations, Bet Jacob, Neve Shalom, and Bet Israel, each meeting in its own small prayer house. According to joodsamsterdam, the 26 brass chandeliers hanging in the Esnoga today come in three distinct designs corresponding to those three founding congregations. In 1639 the three merged into a single community named Kahal Kadosh Talmud Torah, and as the congregation grew, the need for a spacious new synagogue became a shared priority championed by Chief Rabbi Isaac Aboab da Fonseca. Amsterdam was then at the height of its seventeenth-century Golden Age, the era that produced civic and religious landmarks such as the Westerkerk, and the new synagogue was built in the same restrained Dutch classicism.
- 1616Foundation of Ets HaimThe community founded the seminary and library of Ets Haim (originally called Academia y Yesiba Ets Haim). In 1889 the name Livraria Montezinos was added, and the library remains housed in the synagogue complex today.
- 1670Decision to buildAccording to the Posen Library and Ons Amsterdam, in December 1670 the congregation approved plans to purchase the site and erect a new synagogue.
- 1671Start of construction and foundation stonesConstruction began in March 1671 (Ons Amsterdam notes work started two weeks before 25 March, while another source lists 11 March) and the first four cornerstones were ceremonially laid on 17 April 1671 (6 Iyar 5431). The building rests on roughly 3,000 wooden piles driven 12 meters down to the sand layer, according to joodsamsterdam.
- 1672Portal inscriptionAbove the main entrance is carved a verse from Psalm 5:8 praying to enter God's house through His abundant mercy, incorporating the Hebrew year 5432 (1672), the originally intended completion date before construction was halted for two years.
- 1675InaugurationDedicated on 2 August 1675, corresponding to 10 Menachem Av 5435 on the Hebrew calendar. The inaugural festivities lasted eight days with a choir and orchestra, and artist Romeyn de Hooghe engraved a celebrated print of the ceremony.
- 1852 to 1854Window frames replacedThe original leaded-glass windows were replaced with cast-iron frames, according to joodsamsterdam, while the layout of the main prayer hall remained untouched.
Two points where sources differ are noted side by side by the library. Regarding the architect: the Posen Library, Ons Amsterdam magazine, and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed) credit the design to Elias Bouman, a non-Jewish master mason who had also built the Ashkenazi Great Synagogue (Grote Sjoel) across the street to the plans of city architect Daniel Stalpaert. The national monument register on monumenten.nl lists both Daniel Stalpaert and Elias Bouman together for the Esnoga.
Regarding construction cost: the Posen Library gives a figure of more than 186,000 florins, whereas Ons Amsterdam records 162,568.50 guilders including the dedication ceremony. Because florin and guilder were two names for the same Dutch currency, the difference lies in the accounting figure rather than the unit. Sources also give varying dates for the Torah Ark, so the library omits a specific year for it.
IIICandlelight, Sand Floors, and Twelve Stone Columns
The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands classifies the Esnoga as a work of seventeenth-century Dutch restrained classicism (strak classicisme), akin to contemporary Protestant churches of the Dutch Republic. The rectangular brick hall rises about 26 meters high and is divided inside into three aisles covered by wooden barrel vaults 19.5 meters above the floor: a wide central nave flanked by two narrower side aisles, separated by four massive Ionic sandstone columns supporting the roof while eight smaller stone columns carry the women's galleries, making twelve stone columns in all.
What sets the Esnoga apart from almost every other historic synagogue in Europe is its intact preservation. The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands emphasizes that the spatial arrangement and furniture remain those of 1675, making the entire hall a living document of a seventeenth-century Sephardic synagogue.
A monumental cabinet standing at the southeastern end of the hall opposite the entrance, housing the handwritten Torah scrolls, the oldest of which dates from 1602 according to joodsamsterdam. Donated by Moses Curiel (Jeronimo Nunes da Costa), the hekhal is veneered in Brazilian jacaranda wood laid in book-matched mirror symmetry and lined inside with gilded red leather.
A raised jacaranda-wood platform near the northwestern entrance end from which the Torah is chanted to the congregation. The hekhal and tevah face each other across a wide open central floor.
Wooden pews are arranged in parallel rows along the two sides facing the central axis rather than facing the hekhal, each seat fitted with a locker for prayer books so congregants do not have to carry books on Shabbat. Worshipers thus look across at one another and toward the reader.
In keeping with orthodox synagogue custom, men and women sit separately. The women's gallery runs along three sides of the hall, supported together with the main piers by twelve sandstone columns symbolizing the twelve tribes of Israel.
The prayer hall has neither electricity nor central heating. More than a thousand candles set in 26 brass chandeliers and wall sconces provide the sole illumination after dark.
The pine floorboards are sprinkled with a layer of fine sand in accordance with old Dutch custom, absorbing moisture, trapping dirt from shoes, and muffling footsteps.
| Feature | Figure | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Foundation piles | Approx. 3,000 wooden piles, 12 m deep | joodsamsterdam |
| Brass chandeliers | 26, in three distinct designs | joodsamsterdam |
| Candles | Over 1,000 | joodsamsterdam |
| Construction cost | Over 186,000 florins or 162,568.50 guilders | Posen Library, Ons Amsterdam |
| Ets Haim Library | 560 manuscripts and 30,000 printed books | esnoga.com |
The ring of low annex buildings enclosing the main hall serves practical communal needs rather than mere ornament. According to joodsamsterdam and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands, it houses the winter synagogue, administrative offices, archives, treasury chambers, the rabbinate, the ritual bath (mikveh), the residences of the caretaker and cantor, and the Ets Haim library. The congregation's website describes Ets Haim as the oldest continuously functioning Jewish library in the world, holding 560 manuscripts and 30,000 printed books.
IVLandform and Orientation
Readers familiar with traditional Vietnamese geomancy often ask how a historic building sits on its ground, so the library includes this comparative section. One principle must be stated clearly at the outset: Judaism does not practice feng shui. Synagogue orientation follows a single scriptural rule: worshipers face Jerusalem, where the ancient Temple stood, and the Torah Ark is placed against the wall closest to Jerusalem. According to temples.org, the hekhal of the Esnoga stands at the southeastern wall facing Jerusalem, while the tevah stands at the opposite end. What follows is the library's comparative reading through traditional Vietnamese geomancy, absent from the community's own records and unrelated to the builders' intentions.
First is the ground beneath the building. Amsterdam was built on marshy peat and clay below sea level, with the front of the synagogue originally facing the Muidergracht canal (later filled in to form Mr. Visserplein), so the structure had to be supported on roughly three thousand wooden piles driven twelve meters down to firm sand. In traditional Vietnamese geomancy, waterlogged ground is viewed as strong in Water and weak in Earth. Builders in Vietnam's Red River Delta similarly drove wooden stakes and raised earthen plinths for communal houses and pagodas on low-lying land, a practice called reinforcing the foundation. Here the underground forest of timber piles performs that exact structural role.
Second is the enclosing wall formation. The tall main hall rises in the center while a continuous ring of single-story buildings wraps around all four sides, framing an inner courtyard. Traditional Vietnamese geomancy reads this arrangement as high host and low guests, where the principal hall commands the center and the lower wings encircle it like an outer protective wall (la thành) shielding the inner court from the street.
Third is the interplay of water and fire. In a city of canals and rivers stands a great hall illuminated entirely by living candle flame. Classical East Asian texts speak of the hexagram Water and Fire in Harmony (Thủy Hỏa Ký Tế), where the two elements meet in balance. Meanwhile, the layer of fine sand spread across the floorboards belongs to the element Earth, absorbing dampness and keeping the timber dry, which in Five-Phase theory reads as Earth checking excess Water. Historically, of course, the Sephardic community spread sand in keeping with everyday Dutch housekeeping custom and burned candles because no other lighting existed in 1675.
Finally, there is orientation. Whereas traditional Vietnamese architecture reads a building's direction by its main entrance (here facing northwest), the sacred axis of the Esnoga points toward the hekhal in the southeast. Taking the hekhal as the focal direction, the hall faces the winter morning sun in the southeast, a direction also favored in traditional Vietnamese house siting. Two completely different traditions thus arrive at the same compass quarter for entirely different reasons.
VShabbat and the Festivals of the Hebrew Calendar
Services at the Esnoga follow the Hebrew calendar, a lunisolar calendar in which months follow the phases of the moon and leap months keep the year aligned with the solar seasons, much like the traditional Vietnamese lunar calendar. Because each day in the Hebrew calendar begins at sunset, every festival opens on the preceding evening. With no electric lighting in the hall, evening services take place entirely by candlelight. Only calendar dates are listed below.
| Observance | Calendar Date | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Shabbat (Sabbath) | Hebrew calendar, weekly from Friday sunset to Saturday nightfall | The holy day of rest, recalling God's rest on the seventh day of creation. The Saturday morning service centers on the public reading of the weekly Torah portion from the tevah. |
| Rosh Hashanah | Hebrew calendar, 1 and 2 Tishri | The Jewish New Year, opening the ten days of repentance, marked by the blowing of the ram's horn (shofar). |
| Yom Kippur | Hebrew calendar, 10 Tishri | The Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year, observed with a full day of fasting and continuous prayer in the synagogue from sunset to nightfall. |
| Sukkot | Hebrew calendar, beginning 15 Tishri | The seven-day Feast of Booths, commemorating the years the Israelites dwelt in temporary shelters in the wilderness. |
| Pesach (Passover) | Hebrew calendar, beginning 15 Nisan | The Feast of Unleavened Bread, commemorating the Exodus from Egypt and observed by eating matzah throughout the festival. |
| Shavuot | Hebrew calendar, 6 Sivan | The Feast of Weeks (Pentecost), commemorating the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. |
The synagogue's dedication date, 10 Menachem Av 5435, fell on the day immediately following the fast of 9 Av (Tisha B'Av), which mourns the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple. The library found no sources documenting activities by Vietnamese visitors or residents at this synagogue and therefore records none.
VILocation And How To Get There
- Address
- Mr. Visserplein 3, 1011 RD Amsterdam, Noord-Holland
- Getting there
- The synagogue stands at Mr. Visserplein 3, in the old Jewish quarter east of central Amsterdam near the Amstel River. It lies about two kilometers southeast of Amsterdam Centraal railway station, with tram line 14 and metro lines 51, 53, and 54 stopping nearby at Waterlooplein.
- Coordinates
- 52.3676, 4.9053
The Esnoga is the active synagogue of an observant Jewish community, and the congregation's customs must be respected. Men cover their heads when entering the main prayer hall, using a kippah provided at the entrance, and modest dress is expected of all visitors. During worship services men and women sit separately, with women seated in the upper gallery. On Shabbat and Jewish holidays, the synagogue is closed to tourists and the congregation abstains from photography and the use of electrical devices. Visitors should not touch the hekhal or the tevah.
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?Quick Questions
When was the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam built
Construction began in the spring of 1671 (with the first four foundation stones laid on 17 April 1671, and 11 March 1671 cited in another source) and the synagogue was inaugurated on 2 August 1675, corresponding to 10 Menachem Av 5435 on the Hebrew calendar. At its completion it was the largest synagogue in the world. The Posen Library and the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands name Elias Bouman as the architect, while monumenten.nl lists Daniel Stalpaert together with Elias Bouman.
How does a Jewish synagogue differ from the Temple
In Judaism there was only one Temple, located in Jerusalem, where sacrificial offerings were made. After the Jerusalem Temple was destroyed in the year 70, synagogues became the local houses of assembly where communities gather to pray, read, and study the Torah. A synagogue has no sacrificial altar, centering instead on the Torah Ark and the reading platform.
Who are Sephardic Jews
Sephardic Jews are Jews whose ancestors lived in Spain and Portugal, from Sepharad, the Hebrew name for the Iberian Peninsula. Following the expulsions and forced conversions of 1492 and 1497, many fled Iberia, and from the late sixteenth century onward a significant community settled in Amsterdam where they could practice Judaism openly. They differ from Ashkenazi Jews of Central and Eastern European origin in Hebrew pronunciation and certain liturgical customs.
Why does the Portuguese Synagogue have no electricity
The congregation has preserved the prayer hall in its original 1675 condition without installing electric wiring or central heating. More than a thousand candles set in 26 brass chandeliers provide the only light after dark, so evening services take place entirely by candlelight. The pine floor is also strewn with fine sand in the old Dutch manner to absorb moisture and soften footsteps.
What is the Ets Haim Library
Ets Haim is the Torah seminary and library founded by Amsterdam's Sephardic community in 1616, known since 1889 as Ets Haim, Livraria Montezinos and housed within the synagogue complex. The community's website describes it as the oldest continuously functioning Jewish library in the world, preserving 560 manuscripts and 30,000 printed books.