De Joodse Raad - Season 1

De Joodse Raad (The Jewish Council) is about a piece of charged Dutch history. A piece of history that is impressively depicted in this series on a large and small scale. A film or series is regularly released that focuses on an aspect of the Second World War. This series focuses on the Jewish Council (as the official spelling was), an organization that was created during the occupation. The Council had to take care of the governance of Jews in Amsterdam (and subsequently throughout the Netherlands). The occupier could pass on orders to the Jewish population and its leaders through the Jewish Council.



We see that this Council is established and that David Cohen (Pierre Bokma, Jos) and Bram Asscher (Jack Wouterse, Hotel Beau Séjour) both become chairman of the Council. There are immediate doubts about this, including within Cohen's family, which also consists of his wife Cornelia (Monic Hendrickx, Penoza), daughters Virrie (Claire Bender, Cast) and Mirjam (Ellie de Lange, Arcadia) and 'aunt' Sophie (Els Dottermans, De Luizen Moeder (BE)) with whom David has been having an affair for years. The doubts are mainly focused on whether this is the right way to deal with the occupier.

And not only are there doubts within the family, the Council and its employees are also often asked whether it is wise to cooperate with the Germans in this way. Gertrude van Tijn (Malou Gorter, Oogappels), in particular, increasingly has the idea that the Council is being abused. However, the chairmen continue to keep their goal in mind. In their experience, it cannot take long before the Allies liberate the Netherlands, which should end the war (for the Netherlands). Their goal is to guide the Jewish community through the occupation so that reconstruction can start immediately after the war.

The story within the story of the war, the internal struggle within the Cohen family, makes this series so impressive and that can largely be attributed to the game by Pierre Bokma and Claire Bender. Actually see w

As the war progresses, however, it appears not to be over as quickly as hoped and the occupying forces go further and further in what they demand from the Council. In the beginning, this mainly concerns orders to keep the Jewish community as calm as possible and to prevent riots and resistance, but this is systematically expanded to include wearing the Star of David so that it is clear who is Jewish and ultimately the structured conduct of the deportation of the Jews. The resistance from Jewish society and also among Raad's employees increases as the war progresses.

Cohen realizes that everything is going from bad to worse, but maintains that the end must be in sight. He therefore does not agree with the allegations that the Council lets the occupier do its thing too much and that the Council's motives sometimes seem to serve its own interests rather than the general interest. This leads to a lot of tension within the community, the Council, but also certainly within his family. And there is a clash in particular with daughter Virrie, who has become involved in the resistance. It leads to many heated discussions and causes father and daughter to become at odds for a long time.

After the Netherlands was liberated and the war ended, the atrocities that took place in the Netherlands and in Europe became increasingly public. Something in which the actions of the Jewish Council will also come under a magnifying glass and Cohen and Asscher will have to answer for their actions and learn to live with the choices they have made.



The Jewish Council has become an impressive series. It focuses on the story of the Jewish community in the Netherlands during the Second World War and dares to tell it on both a large scale (the suffering of the Jews in general) and a small scale (the story of the Cohen family). The atrocities that took place during the war are generally not actually depicted. But, especially with the knowledge we already have of the Second World War, it is sufficiently clear what is going on.

The story within the story of the war, the internal struggle within the Cohen family, makes this series so impressive and that can largely be attributed to the game by Pierre Bokma and Claire Bender. In fact, we see that the struggle within the family, especially between father and daughter, and the discussions that take place, are being conducted again on a larger scale after the war, but then with regard to the actions of the entire Council and that is beautifully depicted. . But no matter how good a story is, it still has to be presented well. And that is done here. From Virrie's changing feelings towards her father to the impressive argument that David delivers after the war when he is challenged about his actions, there are plenty of moments when you watch their game with goosebumps.

The series will not be completely truthful (there is plenty of information about that online), but it is definitely impressive. The atmosphere, the sets and - as already mentioned - the acting are worth admiring. I do think it is a shame that the series does not make it clearer how great the isolation the Jews found themselves in from the start of the occupation. It focuses on the actions of the Council and also on the heroic actions of the resistance, but at times it seems as if the majority of the Dutch population has tried to help the Jewish community and that is not the case. Without wishing to pass a value judgment on the actions of the Jewish Council during the Second World War, this isolation could have been emphasized more emphatically from the first episode, because this would undoubtedly have influenced the actions of the Council.