On December 12, 1670, the Sephardic Jewish community of Amsterdam acquired the site to build a synagogue. On August 2, 1675, the Esnoga was finished. The inscription above the entrance is from Psalm 5:8: "In the abundance of Thy lovingkindness will I come into Thy house". The building rests on wooden poles and the foundation vaults can be viewed by boat from the water underneath the synagogue. Around the main edifice a row of low buildings house the winter synagogue, offices and archives, homes of various officials, the rabbinate, a mortuary and famous Etz Hayim library. During the 1955-1959 renovation, the former Etz Hayim seminary auditorium was redesigned as a winter synagogue with central heating and electric lighting. The floor is covered with fine sand, in the old Dutch tradition, to absorb dust, moisture and dirt from shoes and to muffle the noise.
Video is getting more and more an important means of communication. With a normal/simple camcorder/mobile-phone everybody can make interesting video's. Making a better video is a complete different story. Not because of technical difficulties, lack of experience or expensive devices, it is mere the creative idea or the ideal story, basic technics and a perfect finishing. I am a Dutch amateurfilmer and homevideo enthusiast. The majority of thesefilms on this site are samples of my short videos, editedwith iMovie and compressed with Quicktime. Play-QUALITY and Speed can be obtained by choosing and using Quicktime. Unfortunately, flash is not always playable, or in a much smaller size and sometimes does't produce sound. During downloading or watching you can read the corresponding texts and movie-related tips and techniques. One can think of digital storytelling as the modern extension of the ancient art of storytelling, now interwoven with digitized still and moving images and sound. Thanks to new media and digital technologies, individuals can approach storytelling from unique perspectives. Many people use elaborate non-traditional story forms, such as non-linear. Any use of copyrighted images, music or texts on this website is accidental, and any such material will be promptly removed upon notification from the copyright holder. This show is frequently changing, so checkback for updates. Enjoy