Chabad Lubavitch of Netherlands

Chabad-Lubavitch in the Netherlands: the mission of Yitzchak Vorst from 1964, Binyomin Jacobs and the Inter-Provincial Chief Rabbinate, two competing accounts of who leads Chabad Nederland, the national foundation Stichting Chabad Holland, and the 2018 dispute over Jacobs's role in abuse cases

Chabad Lubavitch of Netherlands
Logo
Type	Jewish religious organisation (Chabad-Lubavitch)
Founded	1964
Founder(s)	Yitzchak Vorst and Dobbe Vorst
Headquarters	Amsterdam region
Area served	Netherlands
Services	Outreach centres, Jewish education, youth and student programmes, community services
Key people	Binyomin Jacobs (named as head emissary by chabad.nl); Shmuel Katzman (named as Vorst's successor by chabadnederland.nl); Akiva Camissar, Shimon Evers and Shmuel Katzman (Chabad Centrale)
Website	https://www.chabadnederland.nl
Remarks	Main foundation: Stichting Agoedas Chassidei Chabad Holland (Stichting Chabad Holland), with ANBI status

Chabad Lubavitch of Netherlands (Chabad Nederland) is the Chabad-Lubavitch network in the Netherlands. It dates from 1964, when Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, sent Rabbi Yitzchak Vorst (Ies Vorst) and his wife Dobbe to the country. Chabad Nederland says it has more than twenty emissaries (sjeloechiem) in thirteen cities, and Chabad's world headquarters lists 17 Chabad institutions in the Netherlands. Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs, the Inter-Provincial Chief Rabbi, is a Chabad emissary. In 2003 the journalist Sue Fishkoff wrote that "almost all" pulpit rabbis in Holland were Lubavitchers.

History

Chabad Nederland says that Vorst was sent to the Netherlands in 1964 and played a large part in rebuilding Jewish life, especially around Amsterdam. He was involved with the Jewish community of Amstelveen, the Nederlands-Israëlietische Hoofdsynagoge (NIHS) in Amsterdam, the Cheider school and the youth group Tikwatenoe, and wrote books, translated prayers and wrote Jewish songs in Dutch. He died in 2023. In the early years his team included Chassidim already living in the Netherlands at the Rebbe's request, Professor L. D. Meijers and S. Spiero, and later Binyomin Jacobs. Chabad.org says that "around 1964 Rabbi Yitzchak Vorst founded Lubavitch of the Netherlands", and that the Chabad Chassid Mendel Futerfas had earlier visited the country with a directive from the Rebbe to strengthen Jewish education, meeting Uri Cohen, who went on to found the Jewish religious school in Amsterdam.

Binyomin Jacobs

Lubavitch.com says that Jacobs was born in Amsterdam in 1949, studied at Chabad yeshivas in France and Israel, and has been a Chabad representative in Amersfoort since 1975. According to Chabad.org he studied at the Chabad yeshiva in Brunoy, France, became rabbi in Amersfoort in 1975 by a three-to-two board vote, also served as rabbi of the Sinai psychiatric hospital there, and was later asked by Chief Rabbi Eliezer Berlinger to be his assistant. Together with Vorst he founded the marriage bureau "Mazel Tov" and the cultural organisation "Jad Achat".

On the chief rabbinate, the two Chabad sources differ. Lubavitch.com reported in February 2009 that Jacobs had "earlier this week" been formally installed as Inter-Provincial Chief Rabbi, covering 11 of the 12 provinces, "the first time in 22 years since the passing in 1985" of Berlinger; it said that Jacobs had been acting chief rabbi and that a committee had approved the title the previous November. Chabad.org wrote in 2026 that "For 23 years, he served as acting chief rabbi before the bureaucratic process was completed in 2008". Chabad.org also says Jacobs serves in the leadership of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe and works closely with the European Jewish Association.

Leadership

Two Chabad websites give different accounts of who leads Chabad in the Netherlands.

• The ANBI page of chabad.nl says: "De leiding van Chabad Nederland ligt bij de hoofdsjaliach, in de persoon van Opperrabbijn B. Jacobs" (the leadership of Chabad Nederland lies with the head emissary, Chief Rabbi B. Jacobs). It says that all Chabad representatives and foundations using the Chabad name in the Netherlands report regularly to this leadership. Chabad.org calls Jacobs "regional director of Chabad-Lubavitch activities in the country".
• Chabadnederland.nl calls Vorst the "eerste sjaliach en hoofd-sjaliach" (first emissary and head emissary), says that before his death he named Rabbi Shmuel Katzman as his successor, and says the executive committee, the Chabad Centrale, consists of Rabbis Akiva Camissar, Shimon Evers and Shmuel Katzman. It lists Jacobs among those who later joined Vorst's team.

Legal bodies

According to chabad.nl, the main foundation of Chabad in the Netherlands is Stichting Agoedas Chassidei Chabad Holland, or Stichting Chabad Holland, which has ANBI (public benefit) status and publishes annual accounts and activity reports, the latest for 2024. Other foundations using the Chabad name have their own boards.

Allegations

2018 dispute over Jacobs's role in abuse cases

In March 2018 the board of the Orthodox Jewish community of Amsterdam (NIHS), led by David Brilleslijper, suspended contact with Jacobs after he did not reply to three invitations to discuss two abuse cases in which he had been involved as an administrator.

• Cheider, Amsterdam: a former teacher at the Cheider, the Orthodox Jewish school in Amsterdam, was being prosecuted on suspicion of serious abuse, including rape, of several pupils. Trouw reported that parents of the victims had said for years that Jacobs, vice-chair of the school board, discouraged them from reporting the abuse to the police, and that "Dit heeft Jacobs altijd ontkend" (Jacobs has always denied this). It also reported that court documents seen by NRC Handelsblad showed the school board reported the matter to police only months later, after pressure from the education minister of the time, Marja van Bijsterveldt. RTV Utrecht reported that Jacobs maintained he had followed the education inspectorate's protocol.
• Nijmegen: Trouw reported two complaints of abuse against a rabbi in Nijmegen, one of which was known when Jacobs hired him. It said Jacobs himself had proposed an external inquiry into his conduct in both cases.

Jacobs's spokesman, the journalist Hans Knoop, said the tone of the community's letter had been so improper that Jacobs had chosen not to respond, and that "De opperrabbijn hoeft zich door niemand op het matje te laten roepen" (the chief rabbi does not have to answer to anyone). The Reformatorisch Dagblad reported Knoop as saying Jacobs would not discuss the case because it was before the courts, and that the chairs of the Rotterdam, The Hague and Inter-Provincial bodies called the Amsterdam letter "zeer ongepast" (highly inappropriate). Trouw reported that Amsterdam's Orthodox rabbis could no longer work with Jacobs in the Dutch college for rabbinical affairs, which he chaired. No later resolution of the dispute, and no outcome of the criminal case, is reported in the sources consulted.

Israel connections

Chabad.org says that Jacobs founded "Toda Raba", a programme to honour people who support Jewish life, under which he has taken award recipients to Israel. It also says that since 7 October 2023 he has spoken often before government officials against antisemitism.

See also

• Chabad-Lubavitch movement
• Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to the Netherlands
• Chabad Lubavitch of France
• Chabad Lubavitch of Germany