Masorti Conservative kehilla Almere-Weesp

Masorti Netherlands was founded in 2004, in the city of Almere. Almere is the largest newest city in the Netherlands. Its first housing was built in 1976. Today (2021), it is made up of over 190,000 inhabitants. It is found in the province of Flevoland, new land reclaimed from the Zuiderzee (Southern Sea) some 40 years ago. The city was built as an alternative place of residence for people from the greater Amsterdam area, as housing possibilities became scarcer.

After the founding of local Chabad-led Orthodox and Liberal Jewish congregations, a Masorti congregation was started. The first activities took place in a community center. Contacts were sought with the British Masorti Movement (Assembly of Masorti Synagogues). Rabbis Chaim Weiner and Jonathan Wittenberg understood the importance and potential of a Masorti Movement in the Netherlands, where it fills the growing gap between Liberal and Orthodox Judaism. In 2005, the famous Dutch economist and politician, Prof. Dr. Arnold Heertje, established contacts between the still homeless congregation and the organization in the nearby city of Weesp, just across the water on the shores of the ‘old land,’ that manages the synagogue built in 1840 in Weesp.