The history of the Jews in the Netherlands largely dates to the late 16th century and 17th century, when Sephardic Jews from Portugal and Spain began to settle in Amsterdam and a few other Dutch cities, because the Netherlands at that time was a rare center of religious tolerance. Since Portuguese Jews had not lived under rabbinic authority for decades, the first generation of those embracing their ancestral religion had to be formally instructed in Jewish belief and practice. This contrasts with Ashkenazi Jews from central Europe, who, although persecuted, lived in organized communities. Seventeenth-century Amsterdam was referred to as the "Dutch Jerusalem" for its importance as a center of Jewish life. In the mid 17th century, Ashkenazi Jews from central and eastern Europe migrated. Both groups migrated for reasons of religious liberty, to escape persecution, now able to live openly as Jews in separate organized, autonomous Jewish communities under rabbinic authority. They were also drawn by the economic opportunities in the Netherlands, a major hub in world trade.
The Netherlands was once part of the Spanish Empire, as part of the Burgundian inheritance of Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor. In 1581, the Northern Dutch provinces declared independence from Catholic Spain, touching off an extended conflict with the Spanish. A principal motive was to practice Protestant Christianity, then forbidden under Spanish rule. Religious tolerance, "freedom of conscience", was an essential principle of the newly independent state. Portuguese Jews, "Hebrews of the Portuguese Nation", strongly identified ethnically as Portuguese and viewed Ashkenazi Jews with ambivalence in the early modern period. The fortunes and size of the Portuguese Jewish community declined after Dutch trade was undermined by wars with the English in the late 17th century. Simultaneously the Ashkenazi population rapidly grew and has remained dominant in numbers ever since.
