The sound of a conversation in Yiddish, Jewish shops in the Hausmann neighbourhood? a century ago, the Jewish minority was clearly visible in Oslo?s cityscape. When Norway was occupied in 1940, the Jews were deprived of their shops, small businesses, and flats, as a step in the process leading to their arrest and deportation. Today, there are no residential areas or occupational niches that make Jewish life visible. Neither are there any linguistic expressions or aesthetic features associated with a Jewish way of life in Norwegian society. Nevertheless, there is hardly any other minority that has as many categorial minority-labels as do the Jews: they are an ethnic minority, a religious minority, a cultural minority and a national minority. The Jewish minority in Norway thus has a clearly established status as a minority group at the same time as there are no typical sociological criteria for identifying persons as members of the minority. What does this combination of visibility and invisibility mean for preserving and shaping Jewish life and identity in the country today? This question serves as a unifying theme for this research project on the conditions for Jewish identity in Norway today.
The past. There are obligations tied to being a descendant of Holocaust survivors: to remember the dead through various practices of remembrance, to succeed in one?s schooling and occupation, and to work actively against anti-Semitism, prejudice, and discrimination in society. In other words, the Holocaust is a reference point in many contexts relating to life choices and identity. The study also shows that ?bystanders? ? the local population that contributed directly or indirectly to allowing the Holocaust to happen ? have a more prominent position in informants? memory discourses than do the German Nazis. It also shows that ?memory work? centres on questions about the Jews? affiliation to Norway.
?Memorial cobblestones?. Memorial cobblestones have gained a particularly Norwegian dimension. They have significance for how family history is articulated at family gatherings, and in the shaping of a Norwegian-Jewish story of identity.
The institutions. The majority of Jews in Norway have strong ties to their local congregation. They are loyal to it even when the religion (the orthodoxy) does not represent them. It contributes in important ways to raising children and maintaining traditions. This sentiment is also shared by non-members, but amongst this latter group, we also find clearer criticism of Jewish orthodoxy.
Traditions change parallel to demands made by the wider society and by the synagogue?s members. Due to pressure from within, the public speeches of girls at Bat Mitzva and Bat Chayil celebrations open a new space in which to negotiate identity within the rituals. Interviews with parents of young boys, regarding the circumcision ritual Brit Milah, show that the wider society?s debates on circumcision lead to negotiations about how the parents should meet their own and other people?s expectations regarding the circumcision of sons. The large majority see the practice as an important part of their Jewish identity.
Trønder Jews. Although the Jewish Community of Trondheim is a small congregation with only 140 members, it has managed to integrate Jews with an international background. Membership is described as a matter of course, even if one does not celebrate Jewish holidays. But there is tension regarding who can be a member and who can be buried in the Jewish section of the cemetery. The synagogue and Jewish graveyard are thus significant spaces for negotiating Jewish identity: on kinship, gender, and regional rootedness, and they are an important frame for negotiating Trønder-Jewish identity.
Transnationality. International gatherings and networks are important for a Norwegian-Jewish identity. Summer camps for Scandinavian Jews have established a vocabulary for identity, not least for the connection to Israel. Identity amongst young Norwegian Jews is not primarily formed by Jewish institutions in Norway, but through transnational networks.
One minority amongst several. ?Jews? and ?Muslims? are often referred to in emotionally charged and politicized ways in public debates: both groups are Europe?s Others. Both are internal enemies in right wing extremism while in society in general, they are often described as being in opposition to each other. Different empirical examples show that both proximity to Muslims, by virtue of their shared status as minorities, and distance, by virtue of the feared anti-Semitism amongst Muslims, figure into the discussion when Jews themselves talk about their identity. This duality comes to expression in some specific tensions within the Jewish minority. The study also shows that Norway?s increased religious diversity has made it easier to argue for rights relating to preserving Jewish traditions.
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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.
