On July 28 this year it is exactly 100 years ago that the First World War started. The Great War will be commemorated everywhere, especially in Belgium and the North of France. The Dutch were neutral at the time and never took part in the… Read More

The German first public TV program ARD Weltspiegel re-broadcasts a more extensive reportage about Jewish people in Antwerp using genetic tests to fight the chance of diseases that are widespread in the Jewish community. Since orthodox Jews only marry and reproduce in their own community,… Read More

The Government of Japan has donated €13.25 million to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Trust Fund to support the organisation’s operations related to the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons program. It is the single largest donation received to date into this… Read More

It turns out that hundreds of copies of the famous diary of Anne Frank have been vandalized in libraries in Japan. More than 300 copies of the diary of Anne Frank and other books related to Anne Frank were found in public libraries in and… Read More

The international jury of the 57th annual World Press Photo Contest has selected an image by American photographer John Stanmeyer of the VII Photo Agency as the World Press Photo of the Year 2013. The picture shows African migrants on the shore of Djibouti city… Read More

Only the father of Dutch documentary maker Frans Bromet was Jewish, but he felt a feeling of home coming when he was filming in Israel in 1990. He decided to make a one hour documentary about Jewish people that returned or will return to Israel…. Read More

Christmas is boom-time for manufacturers and retailers as consumers engage in an annual shopping frenzy that sends profits soaring and can give a much-needed boost to ailing economies. But it’s not just the makers and sellers of the perfumes, handbags and watches we buy who… Read More

The Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention has its Eighteenth Session in the first week of December 2013 at the World Forum in The Hague, next to the OPCW Headquarters. As requested by The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons… Read More

Each November Saint Sinterklaas arrives by steamboat in the Netherlands. In Amsterdam alone, hundreds of thousands turn out along to greet the tall, bearded saint and his helpers, jolly types called Zwarte Pieten (Black Petes). After riding off on a white horse, Sinterklaas is said… Read More

Presentation destruction plan chemical weapons Syria On November 15, the The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Executive Council approves a detailed plan of destruction to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile. In the plan, Syrian chemical weapons will be transported for destruction outside… Read More

Marine Le Pen, leader of the French extreme right party Front national (FN), visits The Hague to meet Dutch politician Geert Wilders, in an effort to build a powerful far-right political movement during the 2014 EU elections. Receiving Le Pen in The Hague, Wilders said… Read More

Since orthodox Jews only marry and reproduce in their own community, genetic diseases like Tay-Sachs occur relatively often. In the 1980ties Rabbi Joseph Ekstein, based in Brooklyn New York, started an organisation with the name Dor Yeshorim (‘upright generation’), to fight genetic diseases to appear… Read More