The Rise of the Ideal Urban City Model: Amsterdam, Netherlands and the Evolution of Sephardic Jewish Urban Design in the Golden Age

This project examines the Portuguese Synagogue in Amsterdam, Netherlands as a case study for the impact and development of successful urban planning, and how certain cultural minorities such as Sephardic Jews within the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America shaped the city’s geography over time. This research project argues that the exchange between the architecture and materials in the colonies, as well as the Dutch Baroque style that will ultimately shape the Sephardic Jewish community’s central synagogue and Jewish Quarter into the ideal urban city model, ushered the Netherlands into a Golden Age. This research project is predominantly focused on social and architectural history, specifically within marginalized groups that are often brushed to the outskirts of historical records. The scope of this project falls between the Dutch Golden Age and the Colonial Period. This project uses historiography, geographical and architectural analysis, and a critique of urban development. This project intends to analyze urban planning and how design influences a city’s overall economic and social success on a transatlantic world stage, as well as to critique and decolonize former colonial spaces.