Emancipation and poverty

Despite Dutch Jewish emancipation on the legal level, continuing discrimination against poor Jews, involving social and economic prejudice, perpetuated poverty and made it difficult to improve the status of the poor "uncultured" Ashkenazi Jews in Amsterdam. They were excluded from trades and crafts, given an unequal share of public relief, and restricted in entry to city schools, all of which impeded their socioeconomic progress. The poor Jews' situation contrasted with that of the Sephardim, who had been welcomed in the late 16th century for their contribution to the economy. The Dutch authorities' proclamation of emancipation failed to widen the Jews' occupational framework and give them upward social mobility. Destitute Jews were viewed as deviants, whose religious way of life needed to be reformed. In contrast to Germany, France, and Britain, in the Netherlands emancipation neither provided Jews with real legal and social equality, nor did it limit prejudice and restrictions. (From the Bibliography of the Vidal Sassoon International Center for the Study of Antisemitism - The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)