Chazzan Duque

Chazzan Simon van (son of) David Duque was named to his post after a heated election on 8 July 1923. He had a beautiful, forceful and musical voice which perfectly fitted the large esnoga. He was born in Amsterdam on 14 March 1897 and died in Dachau, Germany, on 19 January 1945. He refused a position in Ramsgate in 1938 in favour of the Snoge.

The unique recording of Hanerot halau was rehearsed many times, until it was timed to fill the whole available 3 minutes on the record.

The elections took place on 8 July 1923. From his daughter, Mrs. Aleng-Duque I got below pictures & flyers.

The last picture shows the Ma'amd, the boardroom of the community, where the election took place. Chazzan Duque stands right to the mirror.

The elections in the press:

Invitation (last picture): collection of the Jewish Historical Museum Amsterdam.

On Thursday, 7 July 2022, stumbling stones were laid at Jonas Daniël Meijerplein 11, the house from where family Duque was deported to be murdered.

Each chazzan used to maintain his own "eleven months register" containing the names of members who died the last eleven months. This register was used for the eleven months Hashcavah, which is a memorial prayer for the dead, recited a.o. on each shabbat. After the war we continued to use Duque's "eleven months register". See below a picture of the booklet and a picture of the last page, where he noted members of his family. Today we refer to the "eleven months register" as the "gele boekje" (yellow booklet) for obvious reasons.