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, the National Holocaust Memorial and the National Holocaust Museum. Here visitors can find out all about Jewish culture, history and traditions  all with just one ticket.
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.
Jewish Historical Museum
Any trip to Amsterdam should include a visit to the Jewish Historical Museum. This 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.
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.
National Holocaust Memorial
During the Second World War, the occupying forces made Jews assemble in this former theatre. Tens of thousands of peoplewere 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 Holocaust in the Netherlands.
National Holocaust Museum
Through this former teacher training school hundreds of Jewish children, who were held captive in the cr□che next door, were smuggled to relatively safe places with the help of the resistance during the Second World War. At this historic site, in the National Holocaust Museum, the story of the Holocaust is told in changing exhibitions and events in an artistic form and based on personal accounts.