Negotiating Jewish Identity - Jewish Life in 21st Century Norway

Negotiating Jewish Identity – Jewish Life in 21st Century Norway Jews in Norway today are an invisible minority. Skin color, language, dress codes, and socioeconomic status do not distinguish them from the majority population. Furthermore, they are few in number: around 1,500. They can nevertheless be categorized as a minority in several ways, for instance religiously, nationally, culturally, and ethnically (the idea of ‘a people’). Jews in Norway therefore have clear minority-group status simultaneously as typical criteria for identifying them as such are absent. The research project’s primary aim has been to identify how Jewish identity is passed down and rejuvenated in a society where there are so few Jews. Jewish identity is actualized and (re)negotiated in different contexts: through encounters with the wider society, within Jewish milieus, vis-à-vis other minorities – and in Holocaust memory-culture. Being Jewish has different meanings in different contexts. The project consists of nine studies that are based on a large body of material derived through interviews and a questionnaire survey. Together, they reveal conditions for Jewish identity in the following contexts: Congregational life. Three studies show that participation in organized religion is seen as essential for maintaining Jewish life, and that the synagogues receive much support from the minority. The congregations (in Trondheim and Oslo) are nevertheless marked by internal tensions. These are linked particularly to gender segregation in the synagogue, rules for who can be buried in the Jewish cemetery, and friction between Jews with a long history in Norway and more recent migrants. The studies also map challenges the congregations face vis-à-vis the wider society, for instance the ban on ritual slaughter, opposition to male circumcision, and security routines due to anti-Semitism. The project also includes a study of worship services in Oslo. It inquires into the use of Hebrew and Aramaic and the reception of liturgy, and it shows that traditions are changing: children’s participation in worship services in recent years is interpreted as compensating for the strict gender division in Orthodox Jewish worship. Israel. Israel is an important dimension in Jewish identity, but also a difficult one. Norwegian Jews with an Israeli background find it easier to present themselves as Jewish rather than Israeli since the latter is more clearly politicized. When the conflict in the Middle East is an object of debate, fear of anti-Semitism increases. Sojourns in Israel are, however, described as positive. The cultural repertoire from Israel has also helped expand the boundaries for what can be Jewish in Norway. Experiences of “a different way of being Jewish” have expanded the criteria that, in Norway, are usually bound by Orthodox Jewish frames. Public debate. Public debate on male circumcision has affected Jewish parents: for many, it has become a difficult choice. The majority nevertheless maintain the ritual practice because it provides a clear marker of identity. Change has also occurred: some parents do not consider Jewish identity to depend on a surgical intervention. These informants were nevertheless glad for the law from 2015 that ensures the right to male circumcision, partly because it is very important to others in the group to which they belong. “The Muslims”. The minority-dimension of Jewish identity has changed character: it now has a more universal quality than it historically has had. A collection of public statements and speeches shows that Jews draw parallels to Muslims as a minority group at the same time as a Jewish identity emerges. The study also shows how the self-representation of Jewish identity – as one minority amongst several – has changed parallel to changes in how anti-Semitism as a phenomenon emerges in public life: as one of several related phenomena. The Holocaust. A PhD dissertation themed on how grandchildren of Holocaust survivors experience Holocaust memory-culture in diverse social contexts (family, school, everyday life) shows that certain duties are linked to the memory of the Holocaust, for instance participating in public memory-culture, making ‘correct’ life choices for oneself, taking responsibility in one’s own life, and perpetuating Jewish identity. For some, it is a duty to participate in anti-racist work. Another study analyses Jewish voices in debates on the deportation of Norwegian Jews. It shows increased pluralism in Jews’ participation in the constructions of a national memory-culture after the Holocaust. All the studies are represented in the book Jødisk. Identitet, praksis og minnekultur (Jewish: Identity, Practice and Memory Culture) (Universitetsforlaget, 2022). The research project held a concluding conference on October 31, 2022. Lecture (in Norwegian) outlining the main findings: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPpy0k5Kd6I

Ny kunnskap om den jødiske minoriteten er etablert og foreligger i form av lett tilgjengelige publikasjoner. De ulike studiene har bidratt med nye perspektiver på identitetskonstruksjoner innenfor en liten minoritetsgruppe, og med det har prosjektet bidratt til å fylle ut et hittill blankt felt innenfor den stadig voksende faglitteraturen om minorites-majoritetsrelasjoner. Tidligere studier har vært sentrert rundt deportasjonen av jødene under andre verdenskrig, med dette prosjektet foreligger den første omfattende samtidsstudien av den jødiske minoriteten. Prosjektet har også identifisert noen utfordringer den jødiske minoriteten har i lys av storsamfunnet, noe som kan bidra til å tydeliggjøre rettigheter den jødiske minoriteten har i kraft av status som nasjonal minoritet. Samlet viser studiene at jødisk identitet og praksis er mangefasetert og formidlingen av dette vil kunne bidra til å motarbeide stereotypiske bilder av den jødiske minoriteten.

This project aims to establish new empirical and theoretical knowledge on the cultural and social practices of Jewish life in Norway in the 21st century. It also explores how Jews articulate and negotiate their identities and the complexities of belonging to a minority in a multicultural society. The project builds on the theoretical assumption that 'Jewishness' - as any group identity - is always enlivened, reinterpreted and contested, both within the Jewish community and in relation to the Norwegian majority and other minorities. The project will also investigate how the conditions for being a Jew have been affected by societal and cultural changes in the last decades. More specifically, these changes relate to macro-level factors such as anti-Semitic incidents, increased migration and nationalism in Europe, Israeli politics and meso- or group-level factors like the role of Jewish institutions in a secularized and diverse Norway, divergent theological definitions of Jewish traditions as well as identity politics amongst Jews. The proposal highlights a contemporary approach to Jewish life, but the Holocaust is a powerful backdrop and the researchers will investigate on what terms the Holocaust is memorized, and to what extent this collective memory is a component of a Norwegian Jewish Identity. The specific Norwegian-Jewish history is also crucial for understanding how Norwegian-Jewish identities and culture have been and still are developed. The project is divided into two interconnected fields of inquiry, consisting of seven individual studies: first, the role of institutions surrounding Jewish life (organizations, cultural practices, rituals and collective memories), and secondly, being Jewish in a multicultural society (relational studies, individual experiences, anti-Semitism, mass-media). The project includes studies ranging from fieldwork, interviews to text-studies, discourse analysis and surveys on attitudes towards and between minorities.