Kleerekoper, Asser Benjamin
KLEEREKOPER ASSER BENJAMINKLEEREKOPER ASSER BENJAMIN (1880–1943) Dutch journalist and politician first a Zionist then a Socialist. He was a grandson of the well-known Rabbi Isaiah Kleerekoper of Amsterdam. Being one of the first Zionists and modern Hebraists in Holland he translated *"Ha-Tikvah" into Dutch and was an early editor of the Dutch Zionist periodical De Joodsche Wachter.
KLEEREKOPER, ASSER BENJAMINKLEEREKOPER, ASSER BENJAMIN (1880–1943), Dutch journalist and politician, first a Zionist, then a Socialist. He was a grandson of the well-known Rabbi Isaiah Kleerekoper of Amsterdam. Being one of the first Zionists and modern Hebraists in Holland, he translated *"Ha-Tikvah" into Dutch and was an early editor of the Dutch Zionist periodical De Joodsche Wachter. Source for information on Kleerekoper, Asser Benjamin: Encyclopaedia Judaica dictionary.
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KLEEREKOPER, ASSER BENJAMIN (1880–1943), Dutch journalist and politician, first a Zionist, then a Socialist. He was a grandson of the well-known Rabbi Isaiah Kleerekoper of Amsterdam. Being one of the first Zionists and modern Hebraists in Holland, he translated *"Ha-Tikvah" into Dutch and was an early editor of the Dutch Zionist periodical De Joodsche Wachter. In 1907 he delivered the welcoming speech at the Eighth Zionist World Congress in the Hague, and recorded his impressions of the congress in his Zionistisch Schetsboek. However, Kleerekoper became increasingly critical of social inequality and an advocate of the proletariat. This brought him into conflict with the Dutch Zionist establishment. In 1909 he exchanged his Zionist mantle for Socialist commitment and placed his highly developed oratorical and propagandistic talents in the service of the Sociaal-Democratische Arbeiders Partij (sdap), the Dutch Labor Party. Kleerekoper became a prominent Socialist, serving as a member of the Amsterdam municipal council and of the Second Chamber of Parliament, 1914–32. He never went back to the Zionists, but his Socialism was colored by Jewish solidarity. He spoke out in favor of a large-scale settlement in Palestine for the Jewish East European masses: "It is not a question of Capital looking for expansion, but of Labor looking for bread." In his "Oproerige Krabbels," a widely read column in the socialist daily Het Volk appearing almost daily between 1915 and 1940, he lambasted national-socialism and antisemitism as few others did. After a long period of illness Kleerekoper was buried in April 1943 in an Amsterdam from which most Jews had been already deported.

bibliography:

S. Bloemgarten, Henri Polak sociaal-democraat, 1868–1943 (1993); E. Gans, in: Dutch Jewish History, vol. 3 (1993), 321–39; idem, De kleine verschillen die het leven uitmaken. Een historische studie naar joodse sociaal-democraten en socialistisch-zionisten in Nederland (1999); L. Giebels, De zionistische beweging in Nederland 1899–1941 (1975); E.H. de Levita, in: Ons Amsterdam, 40:4 (1988), 106–10; idem, abk "oproerige krabbels." Hoekstukjes van A.B. Kleerekoper (1994); P. van Praag, in: Bulletin Nederlandse Arbeidersbeweging, 15 (1987), 44–54; idem, Biografisch Woordenboek van het Socialisme en de Arbeidersbeweging in Nederland, at: www.iisg.nl/bwsa/bios/kleerekoper.html.