This is an excerpt from the 1961 novel Jeruzalem van het Westen Jerusalem of the West by the Dutch Jewish writer Siegfried Emanuel van Praag (1899–2002). It shows one of the characters, a Jewish ‘Amsterdammer' who had made aliyah long before the Shoah, posthumously addressing the protagonist, Van Praag´s alter ego Ruben Joseph, on a visit to Israel in the 1950s: “I call you to witness, Ruben, you, who has lived your youth in our Jerusalem of the West.” Ik roep jou tot getuige Ruben, jij, die je jeugd in ons Jeruzalem van het Westen hebt geleefd. (S. 458). The command epitomizes Van Praag's motivation for writing the book, which is, in essence, a monument dedicated to pre-war Amsterdam Jewry. Before the Shoah, about ten percent of the population of Amsterdam was Jewish. Only a small number of them survived. The percentage of Jews from the Netherlands killed in the Shoahwas much higher than in other occupied countries in Western Europe. In these pages, the major themes of the novel come together: Zionism, which strongly defined Van Praag's Jewish identity and writing, the urban landscape of Amsterdam, the city of his youth, and, most importantly, the Jews who had inhabited it, in all their shades and colors. Van Praag finished the first version of Jeruzalem van het Westen in 1947. The manuscript was turned down by several publishers. Only ten years later and after being thoroughly rewritten, the Leopold publishing house in The Hague decided to publish what its director termed one of Van Praag's “most poignant books.” Letter from Kees Kingmans to Siegfried van Praag, 29 September 1960, Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana, UBA189 Archief Siegfried van Praag, uninventorised The initial manuscript, as well as the writer's personal diaries detailing his visits to Amsterdam after the war, are held at the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana in Amsterdam. Studied alongside the final novel, these documents offer an interesting insight into how Van Praag related to the Jewish urban landscapes of his native city.