{"id":102316,"date":"2026-06-08T04:50:17","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T04:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/102316\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T04:50:17","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T04:50:17","slug":"non-jewish-woman-tells-post-how-antisemitism-forced-her-to-flee-netherlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/102316\/","title":{"rendered":"Non-Jewish woman tells ‘Post’ how antisemitism forced her to flee Netherlands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Much of the discussion around rising antisemitism<\/a> in Europe has focused, understandably, on the experiences of Jewish communities. Yet some of those reporting hostility, threats, and intimidation are not Jewish at all, but people who have publicly identified with Israel or expressed solidarity with Jewish friends and colleagues.<\/p>\n

Among them is Sarah Hildering van Lith, an Amsterdam-born non-Jewish music industry<\/a> executive who told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that a series of incidents convinced her that she could no longer safely remain in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n

Hildering\u2019s father was born in Indonesia and survived being in a camp there during World War II before moving to the Netherlands<\/a>. Hildering\u2019s staunchly Zionist mother studied and worked in Israel before starting a family.<\/p>\n

Despite having a doctorate in psychology, Hildering has spent her whole career in the music industry. By October 7<\/a>, 2023, Hildering had worked her way up to being an executive at Universal Music Group, the biggest music company in the world.<\/p>\n

Specifically, Hildering was working as a director in electronic music. Throughout her career, she had spent many years volunteering with music NGOs such as Dance4Life, which fights sexual violence against girls in third-world countries.<\/p>\n

\"AA general view shows the historic Westerkerk church tower dominating the skyline of central Amsterdam. (credit: Fadel Dawod\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Hildering also initiated and authored a leading code of conduct on gender discrimination for the Association for Electronic Music to protect women and other gender-based minorities from harassment at festivals, clubs, and in the music industry.<\/p>\n

Subsequently, endorsed by leading music companies, the code of conduct was premiered in a video interview with BBC Newsroom.<\/p>\n

Music industry ignored Jews after Oct. 7<\/p>\n

Hildering said she saw her industry stand up in support of women during the #metoo movement, and for black people during Black Lives Matter. But after October 7 \u2013 the largest massacre of Jews since the Holocaust\u00a0 – she told the Post the overwhelming response of the music industry was silence.<\/p>\n

Although the Hamas massacre took place at an electronic music festival, very few of the music companies or organizations that Hildering worked with spoke up about the sexual violence used as a war crime, and neither did any of those organizations with which she had collaborated specifically on sexual violence in the music industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe response was an overwhelming deafening silence, and very soon after, that energy just shifted to hate and to an overwhelming avalanche of social media violence where people completely endorsed the brand of Palestine and its terror regime,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In an attempt to counter the narrative, Hildering tried to bring the Nova exhibition to music spaces in the Netherlands, but said no one was interested.<\/p>\n

She also started sharing her personal story, hoping that a more human point of view would encourage people to relate to the suffering of Jews and Israelis.<\/p>\n

Exactly 19 years before the Hamas attacks, on October 7 2004, Palestinian terrorists bombed two tourist hotels in Sinai: the Taba Hilton and Ras a-Satan, both popular with Israelis. 34 people were killed, and 171 were wounded. Hildering, who was 17 at the time and staying at the Hilton, was one of the wounded. She lost 60% hearing in one ear as a result.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can speak about terror, at least,\u201d she told the Post. \u201cI tried to bring my personal story into private conversations and tell them the importance of bringing October 7 survivors to panels and to stages, and suggesting we start a dialogue before it\u2019s too late.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause that\u2019s how you bridge the gap, not only by a proper information strategy, but also by making it human, by looking in somebody\u2019s eyes. Listening to their story.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I found that all the doors were closed. Nobody was interested. Nobody cared to have a dialogue with the survivors, to platform Nova or the wider story around October 7. There simply was no room for dialogue in the music industry, to hear the other side.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the same time, she was seeing increasing radicalism and antisemitism within the music industry. She cited artists like Bob Dylan and Kneecap who have made anti-Israel activism part of their brand. The band Primal Scream projected the image of a Star of David entwined with a swastika during a show.<\/p>\n

It was in March 2024, however, when antisemitism became a real threat to Hildering\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

On March 26, Hildering was unlocking the front door of her house in Amsterdam in the middle of the day when she said a Moroccan Muslim man approached her. He shouted at her in Dutch, \u201cCancer Jew w**re, I\u2019m going to r*pe you in your c***.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI froze,\u201d she told the Post. \u201cThe moment he said that, from the other side of the street, one other Muslim man, and from the tram stop some 20 meters away, a third Muslim man, started walking my way. First I was in an altercation, defending myself from one man, and it turned into three men within 10 seconds when the word \u2018Jew\u2019 was shouted, in the middle of the street in Amsterdam.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hildering was, as she always does, wearing her Star of David necklace, and believes this was the only thing the man used to identify her.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hit me very, very hard that this is what globalized intifada looks like,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The police filed a hate crime report, but ultimately closed the case.<\/p>\n

About an hour after Hildering returned from the police station, she said she received a call from Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just spoke, woman to woman. She called me with empathy and a listening ear, wanting to hear what had happened in her city,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Interfaith meeting takes a turn<\/p>\n

Halsema told Hildering of an interfaith dialogue group run under the previous mayor, and suggested it be restarted with Hildering as one of the cultural leaders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI took this opportunity, with two hands, and I thought, we can save the city of Amsterdam. I was very enthusiastic and decided I would put a lot of energy and work into it, and truly seek active connection with the Muslim cultural leaders in particular,\u201d said Hildering.<\/p>\n

During the third interfaith meeting, however, things took a turn.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was speaking from personal experience about being spat in the face. At the time, I was living in a Muslim-heavy neighborhood. I loved their Turkish mud coffee, and it made me feel like I was in Tel Aviv. I practically lived next to a mosque. It was not a problem for me until I started to experience direct threats,\u201d Hildering shared.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke of one experience of when I was in a coffee shop, ordering, and a Muslim woman walks past, and she just spits in my face, just flat out on my cheek, and she shouts \u2018free Palestine\u2019 in my ear.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I shared that story, and said that I am so afraid of the neighborhood, and it\u2019s becoming more and more jihadist, because I had counted 43 Palestinian flags and two Hamas flags in my street after Hanukkah, when I proudly put my menorah in the window.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I said I\u2019m afraid to go outside. One Muslim leader in the group, a cultural leader of a theater in Amsterdam, said, \u2018You can\u2019t say jihad like it\u2019s something bad; it\u2019s just a synonym for the caliphate.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the mayor was just nodding her head in agreement, and everybody was nodding their head in agreement, and I looked around and I felt placed in a selected anti-Zionist group where there was no real space for factual dialogue around Zionism, and I simply didn\u2019t feel safe in that group anymore after what I had experienced and was continuing to experience and when I realized that I wouldn\u2019t be able to move one inch, I stepped out of the group.\u201d<\/p>\n

About a year later, Hildering experienced a second antisemitic attack.<\/p>\n

On May 30 2025, while driving her car on the highway of Amsterdam, she realized a car in the lane next to her was shadowing her and matching her speed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked to the right, and I saw a Muslim man make eye contact and signal his finger over the neck [a throat-slitting gesture], and then he hit the gas, and I think he must have driven like 180 km. per hour because he cut me off in front of me as he hit the brakes. I was driving a Tesla at that time, and the Tesla actually went into emergency brake. It was almost a deadly car crash,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n

She saw on the back of the man\u2019s car a sticker of the geographic outline of Israel as Palestine with the Arabic words \u201cAllahu akbar\u201d over it, as well as the Hamas flag.<\/p>\n

Hildering called the police, but after consultation with the police chief, no charges were filed formally for personal safety risk, as her safety could not be guaranteed. She recalls the police chief assuring her that the car would be monitored, but she never received a further update.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was the first attack that felt very personal,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

After this incident, Hildering moved out of her house and into a new one, in a Jewish neighborhood. She said for the first time she felt a sense of safety. However, it was in this house that the third attack took place in November 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI came home one afternoon, and I walked in my door, and I didn\u2019t notice anything at first because I wasn\u2019t paying attention. But then I walked to the bathroom, and I could see all my makeup on the floor, and all of my beloved toiletries were gone,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n

On the wall, Hildering had had a plaque given to her by the IDF for volunteer work done with Golani. The plaque had been moved, and the state of Israel necklace that was draped over it was gone.<\/p>\n

\u201cI looked around, and I saw that everything was gone, all my handbags, all my shoes, all my glasses, sunglasses, gold, jewelry box, and inherited heirlooms, but also silver chandeliers, just everything that you could sell for more than a hundred bucks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw that they had gone through my underwear and it was just incredibly personal. They can come back, I thought. I figured that if they know I live here, this is only the beginning,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The police report she filed estimates the losses amounted to \u20ac30,000\u2013\u20ac40,000.<\/p>\n

Hildering\u2019s next-door neighbors had 24\/7 cameras pointing onto the street. According to her, CCTV footage showed that the same white van had been surveilling her for five days in a row. Every time she left the house, the van followed her, and when she came home, the van appeared.<\/p>\n

The Post has seen the statements of two of Hildering\u2019s neighbors who confirmed seeing the burglar entering and leaving the house, and also seeing the white van.<\/p>\n

\u201cI immediately pressed charges. The forensics team came to my house four days later. I had to wait four days with glass cups over the prints and over the floor, dirt where they left shoe marks, etc. That\u2019s how low of a priority it was,\u201d Hildering shared.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had thrown all my savings into selling and buying a new home in order to feel safe again, and then I lived there for about four months, and after four months the attack and the break-in happened, and I just thought I\u2019m not doing this anymore, and then I booked a ticket to Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

She came on a one-way ticket in November 2025, and decided to stay and do volunteer work in Israel.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to start building towards a future here. To build a life to live, and to live with the people I share the same values and truth with,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the lack of support in Amsterdam, Hildering told the Post that she never thought she would no longer feel safe in the city in which she was born and raised.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was not only not being protected, but I was also not being taken seriously even when raising factual accounts of transgressions and safety risks that were actually required of follow-up,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not only the attacks that I experienced. If I would have experienced an overwhelming response of support and empathy and this being taken seriously on an institutional level of the city that I loved, perhaps I would not have decided to leave.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city of Amsterdam has been failing the Jewish community since October 7, including the mayor of Amsterdam. She has been failing the Jewish community since October 7,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was born in Amsterdam. It\u2019s always been my city. I never saw myself leaving, or living anywhere else. I thought I would grow old, and die in Amsterdam. I never imagined myself, in my whole life, fleeing my birth town, for my safety, and for security reasons,\u201d she shared.<\/p>\n

Now, in Israel, Hildering said she is starting to heal. She has also begun the process of formally converting to Judaism.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been noticing an improvement. In Israel, I\u2019m living a life, going outside after dark, and going to a restaurant and wearing a Star of David without being afraid,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can say for sure: Zionism must exist,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Much of the discussion around rising antisemitism in Europe has focused, understandably, on the experiences of Jewish communities.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":102317,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[101],"tags":[199,9930,71,5702,200,28307],"class_list":["post-102316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-amsterdam","tag-amsterdam","tag-antisemitism","tag-europe","tag-interview","tag-netherlands","tag-the-october-7-massacre"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116712690570283791","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}