Following on from my last post about how Brits who wanted to convert to Judaism mid-19th century had to do so in Holland, On the Main Line has very kindly sent me an essay by scholar Elisheva Carlibach about the role Amsterdam played for converts even earlier, in the 17th and 18th centuries. Specifically, she writes that Amsterdam, with its relative religious freedom, became a haven for Jews across Europe (but particularly German Jews) who had converted to Christianity - and wished to convert back:
As the number of converts out of Judaism rose with more Jews seeking to disencumber themselves from the burdens of their Jewishness, the number of conversions back to Judaism rose quietly alongside them.
According to reports of both the converts and their missionaries, a significant number of the converts made their way to Amsterdam to return to Judaism. One Jew told [missionary] Heinrich Callenberg that he was wasting his time dealing with converts from Judaism “as there are currently in Amsterdam some two hundred Jews who had been baptised, and have returned to Judaism there."
Caspar Joseph Friedenheim, a former Jew who converted c. 1760, complained that the great freedom to practice their religion that some Christian princes bestowed as a misguided sign of piety constituted one of main obstacles to the mass conversion of Jews. He cited as a special example the freedom granted to Jews by the “Holländern,” the Dutch.
