Jewish school in Amsterdam closes again following threats

The Cheider Jewish school in Amsterdam has shut down after threats were made against the building, the second time this year the orthodox school has had to close over security concerns.

A police spokesperson told broadcaster NOS that officers had received a report but could not say what form the threat had taken or who had made it. No arrests have been made.

Cheider runs primary and secondary classes from a building in Amsterdam’s Buitenveldert district. In mid-March, an explosive went off overnight at its outer wall.

Mayor Femke Halsema called the blast a “cowardly act of aggression towards the Jewish community”. The school had also closed for a day before that explosion as a precaution after earlier threats, then reopened with stepped-up security.

Wider campaign of attacks

Dutch investigators believe the March attack on Cheider was one of four incidents at Jewish and pro-Israel sites in the Netherlands this spring coordinated by an Iraqi national accused by US prosecutors of acting on behalf of an Iranian-linked Shia militia.

The man was arrested in Turkey last week and extradited to the United States, where he will be tried.

The other attacks attributed to the same operation were an arson at a synagogue in Rotterdam in March, an explosion outside an Amsterdam office complex housing the Bank of New York Mellon several days later, and an attack on the Christians for Israel office in Nijkerk on Good Friday.

The indictment also links him to a synagogue blast in Liège, Belgium, and a knife attack on two Jewish men in London.

Amsterdam’s three Jewish schools have been under heightened security since October 2023, when they closed briefly after Hamas called for attacks on Jews worldwide following its assault on Israel.

Cheider’s leadership has not commented.