Mr. Monday and other tales of Jewish Amsterdam

65 Air. Monday and Other Tales of Jewish Amsterdam

critical remarks about the embroidery. Diffidently they trod on the soft carpet. And from their faces you could read that they were thinking "I'm going to make a tablecloth like that too."

With the Union building as an example, a new and handsome style of interior decorating penetrated the living rooms of simple folks. They threw the common oak portrait frames into the fire and they gave the cheap gilt-work from the bazaar to the garbage collector. Instead, they bought reproductions of Da Vinci, which they put behind glass with a simple linen sticker to keep it in place. The place of honour in the living room was reserved for "The Sunflowers" ofVincentVan Gogh. On birthdays they gave each other vases for a present. No living room was complete without an oak panelling. No oak panelling without a row of glazed vases. The women started dressing themselves in terra cotta frocks and black velvet blouses, with a large stoneware brooch as the only decoration.Young men gave their fiancees ornaments of precious metal and wore extra fine silk neckties themselves.

The stream not only gripped the adults, it also carried youngsters towards beauty and renewal. When the doors of the Elementary School closed for good behind them, the youth movement was already waiting outside. There youngsters learned about nature, about flower pistils and stamen, about the birds and the bees. They formed their botany clubs and rambled along the river Amstel to spy on bugs and water beetles in the ditches.

And then a camp was organised.. .The first camp the youngsters from the Jewish district had ever heard of. A camp with real tents and straw mattresses. Such a thing they