Salon Amsterdam: Energizing Jewish Culture

Dafna Ruppin is project coordinator at the International Institute for Jewish and Israeli Culture. M.A. graduate of the Program in Cultural Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Writer and assistant editor for All About Jewish Theatre website, literary critic for the Haaretz book section, journalist and translator.

Up until recently, the synagogue and other formal community institutions offered the only means for young Dutch Jews to interact within the context of their Jewish heritage. Anyone unaffiliated with these official Jewish establishments would have found it difficult to express or explore their Jewish identity. However, a new initiative, Salon Amsterdam, aims to show young Dutch Jews and non-Jews alike that there is more to Jewish culture than just High Holidays, chicken soup and overbearing mothers. 

Salon Amsterdam offers engaging and dynamic cultural events with a contemporary Jewish twist. As part of the Jewish Salons international network, conceived and directed by Tel Aviv-based social worker/café owner Benny Bailey, it places an emphasis on the happy collisions that occur in the process of exchange between local and global cultures. 

Consider the make-up of the Salon Amsterdam launch event last month, on Passover eve, held in the theme of 'swapping' at the Bitterzoet club in the center of Amsterdam. It kicked off with American author Shalom Auslander's short story 'Plagued', providing an alternative version of the Exodus from Egypt saga, read out by young Dutch actor Oren Schrijver. It then continued with a special exhibition of photographers Shaxaf Haber and Myriam Moszkowicz, who were sent on a documented life-swapping expedition, each in the other's hometown - Tel Aviv and Amsterdam, respectively. The evening closed off with a live performance by Israeli band Boom Pam, which swept up the crowd with its Latin-Balkan-Middle-Eastern take on klezmer folk music. In-between there was a lot of schmoozing in the salon-like atmosphere. 

Lievnath Faber and Anja Waleson, the two young women behind this intoxicating cultural concoction, were beaming with joy as young Dutch Jews and Jewish-Israelis from Amsterdam and the region, and even some Israeli tourists who happened to be in town that day, filled up the venue. "Help me get rid of my chametz", cried out the waitress at the bar serving leavened bread and hummus. "Gay men love Yiddish", spelled out a board full of pieces of Magnetic Poetry, which were handed out to the crowd as an invitation to interact. "Moses sucks cock", Schrijver read out, carefully peering from Auslander's page with the hope that listeners did not just get up and leave. But nobody budged, not even the director of the Jewish Social Work fund (Joods Maatschappelijk Werk), one of the major sponsors of Salon Amsterdam. Everybody felt the momentum in the air: Jewish culture was alive and kicking that night in the heart of Amsterdam and, most extraordinarily, the young crowd loved it! 

A few weeks later I meet with the two coordinators of Salon Amsterdam to speak about their remarkable enterprise. We meet at the University of Amsterdam, where Faber and Waleson are graduate students, both focusing their research on Israeli cinema. They are also in the midst of preparations for the second Israeli film festival Film IsReal, to be held later this month (May 20-24, 2009) at Het Ketelhuis movie theatre in Amsterdam, another fruit of the collaborative nature of their friendship.

What is the existing cultural scene available to young Dutch Jews who want to explore their Jewish identity? 

Lievnath Faber: Currently there is a sort of gap in the Dutch Jewish community. There are activities for high school kids and then, when they go to university, there are very specific student groups, some of them more religious or stricter than others. These would be groups that are based around students, but after a few years there is nothing left to tie these people together, so it sort of disintegrates. Also, the events that they do are very much student activities - they go paintballing or they go to eat pizza together, etc. So they are important groups but they don't really have anything to do with Jewish culture. The most important thing is that you have a group to go to, that you know "your people", and that you find yourself a Jewish partner. But if you are 25 or 26 and already finished with university, or even if you're 30 or 40, and you then come to one of these groups, there is definitely a big gap. So whenever they get married and they have kids, they either disappear into the Jewish 'ghetto' and get involved in more institutionalized Jewish life like the synagogue, if they get involved at all, or they might find a partner who is not Jewish and then disappear off the radar because there is nothing there for them.

Anja Waleson: Many young people in their twenties and thirties feel that what is offered now is not relevant to their lives or they don't find it inspiring. They feel alienated from these activities because either they are not halachically Jewish, or they weren't raised with a really prominent Jewish tradition, or their partner or friends are mostly non-Jews, so they feel that they cannot connect to any of it. They would much rather do yoga or meet up with friends in the park. This is a shame because there are so many dynamic and interesting developments in Jewish culture on a global scale, and there is no access to the richness and diversity of it here in Holland. That has huge repercussions on this idea of what it means to be Jewish in Holland because it's not something you're proud of, it's not something that you like sharing. People have their Jewish identity and their Dutch identity. It is not something that is integrated. 

While Faber was born in a small town outside of Amsterdam, her knowledge of Jewish culture mostly coming from her half-Israeli mother, Waleson was born into the Amsterdam Jewish community and went to a Jewish high school. They consider themselves to be part of a growing group of "unaffiliated Jews", in other words, young Jews who no longer feel connected to the institutions that used to form the fabric of a vibrant Jewish community, like the synagogue. They find that the Dutch Jewish community is busy looking at the past, still very much preoccupied with a sense of victimization from the Holocaust, instead of opening up to global and current developments. This is reinforced by a sense of isolation created by the community's institutions. 

Faber: If you look at Buitenveldert, where a big chunk of the Amsterdam Jewish community lives and where the Jewish school is, it's a very tight family, which is very beautiful, but it also doesn't let anybody in and it doesn't really let anybody out; if you are out then you're out for good. It's a very isolating situation. The JCC, the Jewish Cultural Center, is far far out in the 'ghetto', and it's a grey building made out of concrete, highly secured, with no sign whatsoever saying that it has anything to do with Judaism or culture. 

Waleson: It's a sad situation. Seriously, nobody wants to go there. If there's an activity there, people say, "Why would I go there? It's in the middle of nowhere, it's uninspiring and I feel unwelcome". So basically that's what Jewish culture is here, in a nutshell. 

So this is where Salon Amsterdam comes in, to fill in this gap. 

Waleson: There is a huge gap, there is a huge thirst, and there is also a huge opportunity for Jewish culture to really be introduced here in a new way that is meaningful to many people who feel like they want to connect to their Judaism, or just cool culture which happens to be Jewish. You do not have to be apologetic anymore for Jewish culture, you can openly explore it. Until now the institutions have defined what Jewish culture is about, and you could go to a workshop on raising your children in a Jewish way, but this is no longer working. It's outdated and no longer inspiring. We are at an interesting crossroads in that many people are looking for other options, but they cannot find them in Holland. Now hopefully, with the Salon, we will be bringing these kinds of activities and creating a platform where people can actually explore, experience and express their Jewish identity in ways that are meaningful to them, and also exciting, fun and of high quality. We are opening up the questions: What does Judaism mean to you? How were you raised? What inspires you? What are you excited by? What is boring or what is claustrophobic about Jewish culture? 

Faber: It is a live culture. 

Waleson: Yes, it is a live and vibrant culture and it is asking questions instead of giving the answers.

How did you make the connection with the Jewish Salons network? 

Faber: Anja and I have been friends for quite a few years now, and together we started the Film IsReal festival, so we were already preoccupied with this kind of cultural debate. About a week before the first festival was to commence last year, I got a very short email from Benny Bailey. He mentioned something about non-institutional Jewish culture, a café/salon, and asked if I wanted to meet. Within two seconds I related to the project. I told Anja and of course she connected to it too. 

Waleson: Because these were the things that we have been talking about for years already. The way we approached the Israeli film festival was the same. It comes from the same place, that culture rather than religion has the ability to open up the horizons in a hip, creative way, and that's when people can connect. We are also broadening the vision of Israel, which is something that people are so frightened to deal with in any way. So that's why Benny's vision really resonated with us. 

Bailey came to meet the two in Amsterdam in April 2008, and after five minutes of conversation, they knew it was a perfect match. By mid-June they already managed to secure significant funding, based on Faber and Waleson's fast-growing reputation as the drawers of young people to Jewish-themed events. 

The turnout for the Salon's launch event certainly lived up to expectations, reflecting a range and diversity by attracting not only unaffiliated Dutch Jews like themselves, but also secular Jewish Israelis living in Amsterdam and the area, who would normally stay clear of anything labeled "Jewish". 

Waleson: The Salon became a meeting place for people who normally don't see each other. It's all these insulated pockets that are, successfully or unsuccessfully, each addressed in their own way, and we aim to become a meeting place. Many people remarked, "Finally, you don't see the same people, only the Amstelveen 'ghetto'". So people were relieved that there was no 'ghetto' feel to it anymore. That is also what's exciting about this. 

Faber: It's exciting and it's a challenge because we have no idea where these people are, so we're keeping our fingers crossed that whatever we find interesting and cool will attract others. This is how we start: "Do welike this?" 

Waleson: We stay very close to what it is that we enjoy doing, you can't accommodate all the things you think other people need, but as long as you stay true to your vision – I think that's the most important thing. 

You were actually trying out a host of different things that night: you had literature, you had photography, you had live music. 

Faber: This was the first event, so now we are evaluating and thinking of upcoming events. It's exciting because it's like a playground, we can try out stuff this year. And then we learn from it and get feedback from the people who come. This is also a chance for us to dive into Jewish culture. It's a lot of fun for us to explore what’s out there and what we like. 

Waleson: Ultimately, this Jewish Salons global network will hopefully start in different communities and then it will be all about cultural exchange. For instance, an interesting Jewish artist from Mexico City could come over to Amsterdam and have an exhibition here. That's why we started with the theme of 'swap'. The idea of exchange – exchanging inspiration, apartments, sunglasses, could be anything – is that this is part of our lives, regardless of being Jewish/non-Jewish. We are constantly swapping perspectives, ideas, thoughts, emotions, etc. But especially in Jewish culture, nowadays, we are talking about how Jews relate to Judaism, how do you relate to Israel, how do you relate to America? 

Faber: But if we're talking about exchanging Jewish culture, then it's of course also about getting to Jewish culture in Holland. There are a few groups of people who are doing really cool cultural work, but they would rather not emphasize the fact that they are Jewish. For instance, Oren Schrijver, who read Shalom Auslander's story, is a very successful actor. He appears in musicals, in theatre, on television – everywhere. This guy would never come to an event and perform in the Jewish community. He told us this is the first time ever that he felt comfortable and proud and happy and willing to do something really Jewish. So what happens usually is that there is lots of Jewish culture going on, but we don't know about it. So our ultimate goal is also to get to these people, to know where they are, and then ship them off to Mexico! 

Waleson: Basically, it's an untapped resource that we have to tap into. It's time because otherwise what is happening to the community is that it's going to completely disintegrate. That is the horror story behind this. On the one hand, there is a gap, but on the other hand, there is so much going on to fill in this gap. That's where the exciting meeting point is, and the potential for growth and openness within the community. There is a thirst to connect to what is happening around the world, and a sense that people want to break out of this isolation but don't know how. We both feel very strongly that by this way of culture you realize that you are not the only one, and there are people out there doing cool stuff to which you could bring your friends so they can check it out too. 

Faber: And also we know from our non-Jewish friends that they are extremely interested in Jewish culture. They come to us on holidays, or when we make a challa, etc., but apart from that, how can they walk into this closed community, for instance, as a Muslim Indonesian guy? Even I feel offended when I go to synagogue on Yom Kippur, and am asked in a very aggressive tone "Who are you? Why are you here? Are you Jewish?" You get scared and think "what is happening?" 

Waleson: There is no outlet for Jews who weren't brought up with any kind of Jewish identity who might be interested, and there is an even bigger barrier for people who are not Jewish. Where do you start? You need cool people who hopefully will hold your hand and show you around. These are the kinds of things that we are dealing with. 

The next Salon event planned for June is around the theme of animation? 

Waleson: Yes, we are not sure about the dates yet though, we are looking into it. We already had this plan to deal with animation and then we learned that David Polonsky, the animator for Waltz with Bashir is planning to be in Holland around that time. So we already have this plan of working with him as well as other Jewish animators from the US and also a local artist Jiek Weishut, but we're still trying to work out if that's feasible. 

In the meantime, Salon elements will feature strongly at the Film IsReal festival: artists in focus, Q&A, the lounge, food and exhibitions. 

Faber: The feedback that we got from the festival last year from random people was mostly about the atmosphere, and I think this has very much to do with the Salon-style. There is very interesting, high quality, challenging and inspiring stuff to see, to do, to hear, to talk about, but then that's why it's a salon, and not a pure cinema or theatre project. It is broader than that. It is a space where people mingle, which is almost as important as the content itself – the one facilitates the other.

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Film IsReal at Bioscoop het Ketelhuis, Amsterdam 
May 20-24, 2009 
Film IsReal presents the best of contemporary Israeli cinema, from fiction features and documentaries, to student shorts and cutting edge animation. Film IsReal opens with the premiere of Reshef Levy's heartwarming tragicomedy Lost Islands. The festival celebrates Tel Aviv's centennial with this year's festival theme of "Israeli Metropolis", hosting the work of Artist in Focus Ran Slavin. The program is filled with Q&A's, lectures as well as a special jury and audience award for best short. 
For more information: www.filmisreal.com