The Jewish Cultural Quarter

What is the Jewish Cultural Quarter in Amsterdam?

A group of four Jewish heritage sites in the old Jewish Quarter, all within one square kilometre: the Jewish Museum, the Portuguese Synagogue, the National Holocaust Museum and the Hollandsche Schouwburg.

Each place tells a different part of the story. The synagogue and the Jewish Museum show centuries of Jewish life, faith and culture in the city. The National Holocaust Museum and the Hollandsche Schouwburg, across the road from each other on the Plantage Middenlaan, are about the persecution during the occupation and how it is remembered.

All four buildings have lifts, and free audio guides come in Dutch, English, German and Hebrew, with more languages at the Jewish Museum and the synagogue.

Sources: Jewish Cultural Quarter (jck.nl, Plan your visit and location pages; holidays and Jewish festivals change the hours).

How much are Jewish Cultural Quarter tickets in 2026?

The Combiticket for all four locations costs EUR 30 for adults online; the Duoticket (Jewish Museum and Portuguese Synagogue) and the National Holocaust Museum ticket cost EUR 20 each.

Prices below are the online rates on the Jewish Cultural Quarter website in 2026. Tickets bought at the desk cost EUR 2.00 more, payment is by card only, and you can cancel up to 24 hours ahead. The Hollandsche Schouwburg is free and needs no ticket.

Holders of the Museumkaart, the I amsterdam City Card, the Amsterdam Pass and the Stadspas get a free ticket at the desk.

You can also book through GetYourGuide. The Portuguese Synagogue and Jewish Museum ticket gives you a month to use it, with an audio guide, from $22. The National Holocaust Museum ticket includes the Hollandsche Schouwburg memorial, from $22. And the Anne Frank walk with Jewish Museum tickets puts a guided Anne Frank walking tour and the quarter's tickets in one booking.

Sources: Jewish Cultural Quarter (jck.nl, Plan your visit and Tickets pages; students EUR 10, under 6 free).

The 17th-century Portuguese Synagogue and the Jewish Museum on one ticket, with an audio guide and a month to visit.

★ 4.4 · Valid one month · from $22

Explore the Portuguese Synagogue and Jewish Museum ticket → Tour details

What is there to see in the Portuguese Synagogue?

A 17th-century synagogue still in use today, lit by hundreds of candles instead of electric light, with treasure chambers below the surrounding buildings.

The Portuguese Synagogue was inaugurated on 2 August 1675 and was the largest synagogue in the world when it was built. Inside are brass chandeliers and a floor covered in sand. The congregation still worships here.

Under the low buildings around the courtyard are the treasure chambers, with books, silver and the textiles and objects used in services; you can visit them when no service is under way. The Ets Haim library, founded in 1616, is part of the same complex.

Brigitte (Oct 2026) put it simply: "A magnificent monument. Seeing it lit by candles must be very moving." Visit Sunday to Thursday from 11:00; Friday hours are shorter, and the synagogue is closed to visitors on Saturday and may change its hours for festivals.

Sources: Jewish Cultural Quarter (jck.nl, Portuguese Synagogue page); Wikipedia (inauguration date, sand floor, Ets Haim).

What is in the Jewish Museum and JM junior?

The Jewish Museum, housed in the Great Synagogue, covers Jewish religion, history and culture. JM junior, for ages 6 to 12, is set up as a family home.

The permanent exhibitions explain Jewish customs, rituals and festivals and how families keep traditions alive today. One object stands where it always has: the Rintel chanukiah, given to the Great Synagogue in 1753, still stands in the place it has held for more than two hundred years.

JM junior is the children's part, laid out as the home of the Hollander family. Children can bake a challah, learn to write their name in Hebrew and listen to Jewish music in the attic. The wheelchair entrance is at Nieuwe Amstelstraat 3 to 5, and wheelchairs can be borrowed if you reserve one by email.

David (May 2025) "Spent 2 hours going through the museum viewing each of the exhibits." That is a fair time to plan.

What is the National Holocaust Museum, and what is the Hollandsche Schouwburg?

The National Holocaust Museum, opened in March 2024, tells the story of the persecution of Jews in the Netherlands. The Hollandsche Schouwburg opposite is a memorial in a former theatre, free to enter.

King Willem-Alexander opened the National Holocaust Museum on 10 March 2024 in a former teacher training college, with about 2,500 objects. The exhibition starts with daily Jewish life before the war, then follows the persecution and murder of Jews, liberation as Jewish survivors experienced it, and the way the Netherlands remembers the Holocaust today. The museum is for adults and children aged 10 and up.

The building has its own history. The Nazis used the kindergarten next door as a deportation site for Jewish children, and its director, Henriëtte Pimentel, helped hundreds of them escape, often through the college.

Across the road, the Hollandsche Schouwburg was a theatre until the occupation. From July 1942, Jews ordered to report for deportation were held there. Today it is a memorial to all victims of the Holocaust, with an introductory film and the passage to the former theatre hall. Carolin (Aug 2026) described the museum as "designed with a lot of sensitivity and dignity", and Nicola (Oct 2026) "Ended up spending 3 hrs there!!"

Sources: Jewish Cultural Quarter (jck.nl, National Holocaust Museum and Hollandsche Schouwburg pages; press release, 26 February 2024).

The National Holocaust Museum and the Hollandsche Schouwburg memorial, on one ticket for the day you choose.

★ 4.7 · Day ticket · from $22

Explore the National Holocaust Museum ticket → Tour details

Where is the National Holocaust Names Memorial?

On the Weesperstraat, about 300 m from the Jewish Museum. It carries the names of about 102,000 Jewish victims from the Netherlands, plus 220 Roma and Sinti.

The memorial was unveiled on 19 September 2021 by the King, with Jacques Grishaver of the Dutch Auschwitz Committee. Daniel Libeskind designed it as brick corridors you walk through, each brick carrying one name, a date of birth and an age. Seen from above, four steel sections form Hebrew letters that spell "In memory of".

Peter (Apr 2025), on the walk with Jewish Museum tickets, wrote that "The memorial of names to the more than 102,000 killed by the Nazis visually gives the viewer a sense of the overwhelming losses of [...] actual families."

Sources: National Holocaust Names Memorial (holocaustnamenmonument.nl); Wikipedia (unveiling, design, number of names).

How long do you need for the Jewish Cultural Quarter, and in what order?

A full day for all four sites, or two half days. The Combiticket is valid for a week, so you can split it.

Distances are short: the Portuguese Synagogue to the National Holocaust Museum is about 300 m, the Jewish Museum to the Names Memorial about 300 m. The constraint is the clock. Most sites close at 17:00, the synagogue opens at 11:00 and keeps short hours on Friday.

Our order: start at the National Holocaust Museum and the Hollandsche Schouwburg at 10:00, cross to the Portuguese Synagogue when it opens, then spend the afternoon in the Jewish Museum. The Names Memorial is open air and fits in at any point. Pick a day from Sunday to Thursday so the synagogue is open all afternoon.

How do you get to the Jewish Cultural Quarter from the Anne Frank House?

Walk east across the centre in roughly 25 to 30 minutes, or take the metro (lines 51, 53 and 54) to Waterlooplein. A guided walk links the two parts of the story.

The Anne Frank House is about 1.7 km from the Portuguese Synagogue as the crow flies. On foot you cross the canal belt, Dam Square and the old centre. The Waterlooplein metro stop is a few minutes from the Jewish Museum and the synagogue.

This walk is where a guide earns their place. The Anne Frank and Jewish Quarter tour meets at Amstel 51C and covers the Portuguese Synagogue, the former Jewish Council headquarters, the Dokwerker statue and the Auschwitz Monument in two hours. The guided walk from the Westerkerk starts at the Anne Frank monument at the Westermarkt and ends in the Jewish Quarter. And the Anne Frank canal cruise tells the story from an open boat through the Jewish Quarter. Lucy (Sep 2026) on the Jewish Quarter tour: "Saw things I would have missed if I had just walked around unguided."

For the Anne Frank House itself, reserve your timed ticket on annefrank.org; a slot about two hours after your walk starts makes a full day of it.

Two hours through the old Jewish Quarter and Amsterdam in the war years, with a local guide who answers every question.

★ 4.7 · 2 hours · from $25

Explore the Anne Frank and Jewish Quarter tour → Tour details

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