"I Never Lived More Beautifully": The Country Houses of the Jewish Dutch Elite, 1870–1940.
Saved in:
| Title: | "I Never Lived More Beautifully": The Country Houses of the Jewish Dutch Elite, 1870–1940. |
|---|---|
| Authors: | van der Veen, Sietske (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | Jewish Social Studies. Fall2025, Vol. 30 Issue 2, p64-98. 35p. |
| Subjects: | Country homes, Elite (Social sciences), Cities & towns, Businesspeople, Nineteenth century |
| Geographic Terms: | Netherlands |
| Abstract: | From the late nineteenth century until the German occupation of the Netherlands, Jewish members of the Dutch financial, political, and cultural elites increasingly established or settled in homes in suburban and rural areas. In this article I demonstrate, on the one hand, how Dutch Jewish country house owners resembled their counterparts in other European countries regarding their primary settlement near main cities, their familial and their artistic lives, their philanthropy, politics, collecting, and entertaining, and, ultimately, their pursuit of belonging. On the other hand, I show how in the Netherlands, a highly bourgeois country, Jews followed general elite practices of enclaving, many houses were permanent residences rather than seasonal homes, and several entrepreneurs were unique innovators in the modern repurposing of their estates. In a country where Jewish landownership was already visible before the modern period, Jews were, although a minority, an integral part of the country house landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of Jewish Social Studies is the property of Indiana University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection |
|
Full text is not displayed to guests.
Login for full access.
|
|
| Abstract: | From the late nineteenth century until the German occupation of the Netherlands, Jewish members of the Dutch financial, political, and cultural elites increasingly established or settled in homes in suburban and rural areas. In this article I demonstrate, on the one hand, how Dutch Jewish country house owners resembled their counterparts in other European countries regarding their primary settlement near main cities, their familial and their artistic lives, their philanthropy, politics, collecting, and entertaining, and, ultimately, their pursuit of belonging. On the other hand, I show how in the Netherlands, a highly bourgeois country, Jews followed general elite practices of enclaving, many houses were permanent residences rather than seasonal homes, and several entrepreneurs were unique innovators in the modern repurposing of their estates. In a country where Jewish landownership was already visible before the modern period, Jews were, although a minority, an integral part of the country house landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 00216704 |
| DOI: | 10.2979/jss.00029 |
