Netherlands Concert Honors Chief Rabbi’s 50 Years of Service

By COLlive reporter
Photos: Jan Penninkhof

On Sunday, September 14, 2025, as thousands of runners filled the streets of Arnhem, Netherlands, for an endurance race, another kind of endurance was being honored just steps away.

Inside the 170-year-old Arnhem Synagogue, members of the Dutch Jewish community gathered to celebrate Chief Rabbi Binyomin Jacobs’s 50 years of rabbinic service.

Rabbi Jacobs began his rabbinic work in 1975 under the late Chief Rabbi Eliezer Berlinger, serving communities in eleven of the twelve provinces. He would later succeed Rabbi Berlinger as Chief Rabbi of the Interprovincial Chief Rabbinate, becoming a tireless advocate for Jewish life and education, as well as a leading voice against antisemitism.

In his address, Rabbi Jacobs spoke with determination: “Antisemitism is no longer something we can describe as ‘on the rise.’ It has, sadly, become a reality. Yet we must not remain passive. We must respond with education, engagement, and by never giving up the fight.”

Looking to the future, he announced that vacancies in the rabbinate are now being filled, ensuring the next generation of Dutch Jewish leadership will continue to thrive.

Organized by David Simon, the event was both a tribute and a musical celebration.

The Amsterdam Synagogue Choir, conducted by Ilia Belianko and led by Cantor Sacha van Ravenswade, filled the sanctuary with Dutch-Jewish liturgical melodies appropriate for the approaching High Holidays.

Alongside community members, the audience included influential figures from Dutch society such as Israeli Ambassador Zvi Aviner, German Ambassador Nikolaus Meyer-Landrut, President of the Senate Mei Li Vos, politicians Pieter Omtzigt, Don Ceder, Gerdi Verbeet, Ullysse Elian, and former minister Eppo Bruins—as well as mayors and rabbis of the Dutch and European Jewish communities.

One of the most moving moments came when a father and his two sons sang Avinu Malkeinu—exactly as Rabbi Jacobs had taught them over the years. They began with the traditional Dutch melody and then transitioned into the Chabad tune, symbolically reflecting the rabbi’s personality: a blend of Dutch-Jewish yekkishness and quintessential Chassidic warmth.

In addition to thanking the many board members, rabbinical colleagues, and community leaders he had the privilege to work with over the years, Rabbi Jacobs credited his wife, Rebbetzin Blouma Jacobs-Raskin, for sharing in the mission.

“It is not only my jubilee,” he said. “It is ours—Blouma’s and mine together. Our mission has always been like a family company; we are in it together.”

With heartfelt words from historian Prof. Bart Wallet and Ellen van Praagh, President of the Central Comité of the Nederlands Israelitisch Kerkgenootschap (NIK), the event was not only a celebration of five decades of service but also a reassurance of a future built on the foundation Rabbi Jacobs has so faithfully laid.