Jews from all parts of the Netherlands came together in Amstelveen last month to honor Rabbi Yitzchak Vorst, a Chabad-Lubavitch emissary who served in the country for more than 60 years. It was at the behest of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, that shortly after getting married in 1963, Vorst moved to Amstelveen, a suburb of Amsterdam, to serve the Jewish community there.
Born and raised in pre-Holocaust Rotterdam, Vorst had a tumultuous early childhood, being rounded up with his family and sent first to the Westerbork transit camp, then Bergen-Belsen at the tender age of 5.
Rabbi Vorst, who passed away in September of last year at the age of 85, established Chabad in the Netherlands in 1964, becoming a driving force in rebuilding Judaism in a community decimated by the Holocaust.
In an evening of tribute held in Amstelveen in July, hundreds of those impacted by his life’s work gathered to see the synagogue where he served for so many years renamed in his honor.
The Mayor of Amstelveen, Tjapko Poppens, was on hand to help unveil the plaque with the synagogue's new name.
