Jacob Zwarts was born in Utrecht on 16 October 1899. A passionate historian of Jewish life in the Netherlands, he began publishing at a young age and later studied art history at Utrecht University. In 1935 he completed his doctorate in Amsterdam on the seven-branched menorah in the Roman diaspora. Zwarts worked as a teacher, cantor, ritual slaughterer, writer and antiquarian at Ambachtsstraat 2 in Utrecht. During the Nazi occupation he was sent to forced labour, deported via Westerbork and died on 30 April 1943 in the Sakrau forced labour camp
