Museum Amersfoort cancels exhibition on city's Jewish life

Museum Amersfoort, the city's museum, has cancelled an exhibition on 300 years of Jewish life in Amersfoort. The show was centred on the city's 300-year-old synagogue. The museum gives the polarisation in the Netherlands around Israel and Gaza as its reason.

The exhibition would have told the history of Jewish residents of Amersfoort across three centuries. With the cancellation, it will not go ahead at the city museum.

The museum explained its decision in writing. "The situation in the Middle East also has an effect on Dutch society," it said. It added that the public debate on the subject "can be fierce and at times lacking in nuance". That, the museum said, is why it dropped the exhibition.

The decision has stirred strong feeling. In Amersfoort's small Jewish community, anger, disappointment and sadness are all felt. Emotions are also running high beyond the community over the cancellation of the exhibition about the synagogue.