Salomon Kok

Sallie or Salomon Kok, was an Antwerp diamond dealer from the 20th century, of Jewish-Dutch descent, who played a role in the Flemish Movement.

Politically, he was rather to the left. Kok became an important investor to the Flemish activists. Activist publications were financed by him.^[1][2] Not only he supported Leo Picard’s Vlaamsche Post, spokesman for the radical activists, but in 1917 he was also one of the sponsors of a delegation of socialist activists to the international socialist peace conference in Stockholm. Like Marten Rudelsheim, he was involved in the Antwerp section of Volksopbeuring (popular relief, 1915), which supported impoverished Flemings.^[3] Kok fought for Flanders as well as for a Jewish state.

References

1. Paul Beliën, Een mythe doorprikt: Vlaanderen als bakermat van racisme en antisemitisme (A Myth renounced. Flanders as the cradle of racism and anti-Semitism), in Secessie, Kwartaalblad voor de Studie van Separatisme en Directe Democratie (Secession, quarterly for the Study of Separatism and Direct Democracy), April–May–June 2002, p. 28
2. Paul Beliën, A Throne in Brussels. Britain, the Saxe-Coburgs and the Belgianisation of Europe, imprint-academic.com, 2005, p. 158
3. Lieven Saerens , Vreemdelingen in een wereldstad: een geschiedenis van Antwerpen en zijn joodse bevolking (1880-1944) (Strangers in a metropolis: a history of Antwerp and its Jewish population (1880-1944)), Ed. Lannoo, 2000, ISBN 90-209-4109-7, ISBN 978-90-209-4109-8, p. 88