Van Gogh in

Zion chapel

The chapel was founded in 1846 by the “British Society for promoting Christianity amongst the Jews”. The minister was August Carl Adler (1835–1907). Vincent wrote:

“he has a small but very respectable old church there. The school, though, was held in a small room where the light had to be lit even at that hour, i.e. in the middle of the day. There were perhaps some 20 children from that poor neighbourhood.” Read the complete letter

Vincent’s father disagreed with his decision to teach Sunday school. He presumably thought little of the community’s missionary zeal and believed teaching distracted Vincent too much from his chief duty: preparing for the theology course’s entrance exam.