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The positive Jewish experience

The State of Israel turns 70 in May, and in that connection, Ny Tid has put the spotlight on the values ​​and thinking of the Norwegian Jewish minority. We have met five Norwegians with a Jewish background. What do they perceive as positive about having a Jewish identity? 




(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)

What is your jdeserte indentity?

The Janne Michal Jaffe Hesstvedt (Sales and Marketing Director), it has a big place: "It's me, after all. My mother's family was Jewish and most were killed during the war. The Jaffe family was a large family that came from Vilna (Vilnius). That many got lost, it's always hard to talk about, and it's always hard to think about. The older I get – the more sensitive it gets. "

Author and singer, Øystein Wingaard Wolf, tells that he became aware of his Jewish identity when he was ten years old. "It happened the day my mother and I visited the Auschwitz monument on the eastern cemetery in Oslo. My grandfather was killed in Auschwitz. He had been part of the communist party of the Mensheviks, who were the more moderate, and knew both Martin Tranmæl and Leo Trotsky. I found my Jewish identity through writing. I had no rabbi, so I had to do it myself. I have written six, seven books on Judaism – there I have gone into the Jewish scriptures and tried to twist and twist them. Little was written in Norwegian at that time, and it was exciting to grasp what was now my new experience. Now I have found something new to grab, and will be adding three novels to my 60 Anniversary in April. ”

JANNE MICHAL JAFFE HERSVEDT

«My identity is to a small extent related to Jewish, "he says Theo Koritzinsky – former politician for SV. He is now retired, but mentor and teach social studies. “Dad was from a Jewish family. He married a mother, who was not Jewish, and he probably would never have done that if his parents had lived. The marriage between him and his mother was boycotted by most of Dad's family
- you should marry someone who was Jewish. Dad was very active in writing against all forms of racism and discrimination during the 1930 years, and was probably for that reason quite oblivious from a number of media and critics who had sympathies towards racial thinking. It was perhaps one of the reasons why he was arrested early. He was sent to Falstad in December 1941 by Norwegian police – then he was the director at Trondheim Hospital. I was a month old then. He died in 1942 while still in prison. "

Psychologist Berit Reisel says that her background is largely influenced by the war: “My background is very much influenced by the war. My family was one of those deported and killed in Auschwitz. When I was growing up, the most important people in my life were dead people. Jewish culture is a culture of remembrance. If you look at the entire Jewish year, historical events and religious events that have a historical foundation are marked. The family stories and the personal stories become part of the big story, even in fact when we 26. November marked the deportation on the quay at Akershus. Then we read the 773 names of all the deportees, and I read mine. "

"In Judaism, it is almost impossible to distinguish what we call 'holiness' with what we call 'everyday'."
- Melchior

For rabbis Joab Melchior at the Mosaic Faith Society in Oslo, his Jewish identity is central: “I am Jewish. It means a lot to my everyday life; for my affiliation, what I choose to do, what I believe in. "

What Jewish values ​​and traditions are important to you?

Melchior: "This being part of a community, which is very, very close, that cares for each other – both in the Jewish congregation here in Oslo, but which is also part of a much larger community – is very strong. This I am glad when I was born into it. For example, we have clear rules when someone is in mourning. Then people come home to the survivors for the first seven days to cook and visit them. There is a balance between being in mourning and putting it in a frame. You know that you are taken care of in the most difficult time. We have almost a duty to visit and help those in mourning. It may be my best friend, or a neighbor I don't have much to do with. ”

- That's the practical, what about the psychological, the spiritual? 

“It comes together; we do not divorce. In Judaism, it is almost impossible to separate what we call "holiness" with what we call "the everyday" – we are trying to sanctify our days. "

JOAV MELCHIOR

Hesstvedt: “I want to say traditions, unity and togetherness. I can go to any country and contact a Jewish church or other Chabad [a branch of Judaism] and say that now I am in Zurich, can anyone welcome me on Shabat? Or if it's on a Jewish holiday, and I know I'm being welcomed by someone and have a place to go. Otherwise, there is always someone who knows someone. ”

Koritzinsky: “I grew up in a family where my mother was the sole parent, and where the memory of my mother's father was very strong. As his mother portrayed him, he was more of a human ethicist. Dad was completely open to avoid being circumcised, I was then the youngest of five Koritzin clouds. Neither should we be baptized until we were mature enough to decide for ourselves. Dad was brave and very outspoken, and he wrote well. I was very proud when I read about him in a book about the Kristiansund Lakes. Many of Dad's writings were reproduced, and there I read things about Dad that I didn't know beforehand. "

Wolf: "The Jewish Easter Celebration, Pesach, I have also celebrated many times. It is the greatest culinary meal to be found – with good food, insanely good atmosphere, there can be both Christians and Muslims around the table. At home, I have one menorah – a seven-armed Jewish candlestick. "

- Has Jewishness become more important over the years?

"It's like a tidal wave; it comes and goes. When the Jews are blamed for everything, and other times it is Jewish geniuses who delight the world. I have experienced that Jews and Palestinians are very good friends here in Oslo. But this is not so easy to see for people in Norway, who move on the surface and do not enter the world of single-minded people. ”

Reisel: “We had a traditional Jewish home where we marked Jewish holidays, and when the kids were young we were in the synagogue a lot on Saturdays. The children also live their Jewish lives; I have a son in London who is married to the daughter of a rabbi, and my son-in-law is an Israeli. "

"I think you as a woman would never have killed my children, and I would never have killed yours."
- Hesstvedt  

Are there benefits to being a minority?

Wolf: "Clearly. One novel that comes now is about a Jew and a gypsy boy, the other about an Indian minority in Rio de Janeiro. ”

- Why write about minorities?

"Writing about majorities doesn't interest me. The driving force for writing comes from the underground – from the lava, so to speak. Nobody wants to write about someone passive sitting in a hook […] being a Jew is often best as a minority, when you get in the majority, you become weak and stupid; you get to defend yourself and then things get worse. "

Melchior: “The Jews in Israel are in a difficult situation right now. From being a minority for two thousand years to becoming a majority who understands what responsibility they have in their own country. ”

- Do Jews Have a Greater Condition to Understand Other Minorities?

“I think Jews can make a good contribution in Europe with what it means to be a minority. Jews have always been good at learning languages, and learning the most important things in a community to participate in it – and to be a part of it. They have a long tradition of being a minority and can be an inspiration to other minorities on how to retain their identity in the larger community. ”

- Do Jews have a special responsibility?

“Everyone has a responsibility, but Jews have a tradition of being saved, and also because Muslims have a tradition of taking great anti-Jewish stance, which is documented in many Muslim or Arab countries. Then we have a responsibility to show who we are and what it means to be a refugee. As well as providing support to minority groups in the world – where we are too concerned with ourselves – in my opinion. We are active, but I expect more from us, and from myself. ”

Hesstvedt: "I believe that by being a minority you get an increased level of knowledge in many, many areas. You get more empathy, and you become a little more 'flexible'. "

THEO KORITZINSKY

Koritzinsky: "Just as in ecological thinking related to nature and the environment, there are advantages within religion and a broader cultural life that one has diversity. And that one by all means does not swallow 'become like us' attitudes from various majorities in Norway. "

Reisel: "There are great advantages, so I've never considered moving to Israel, for example. Because my minority identity is precious – a great value to me. That means I have a double perspective, I always have two angles. Fundamentalism is irrelevant, because it is not a truth that overpowers another truth. I always have a Jewish and a non-Jewish perspective in everything I experience. "

Where do you get strength and inspiration?

Koritzinsky: “I am curious about people and their ideas – rooted in socialist liberal and pacifist values. I get a lot of inspiration from music and literature. The older I get, the more sense I get for traditions and learning from experiences. I consider myself a radical, but it is not by definition very good to be neither radical nor conservative. After all, it must depend on the content. By definition, cultivating the new should be so much better than what we already have. In a dynamic society that fosters innovation and constant reorganization, we have benefited from some ethical and political elements that are conservative. ”

Melchior: "When you are down, you find comfort in several places: You can find it in history and compare it to other Jews who have been in worse situations and have been through it, or you can find it in your great desire one has for a Jewish life for their children and grandchildren, and then you just have to stand on. Giving up will have major consequences. One can find strength in the family, or in the community of others. In the shootings in Denmark [in 2015], we gained strength from the larger community – a symbolic effect that society wants us and wants us to be as we are. ”

I am a member of the Palestine Committee in Norway.
- Koritzinsky

- Are there any thinkers that matter to you apart from the scriptures?

“All the scriptures are thinking. "

- Anything other than purely religious?

“I learn from everyone, I learn from the rabbis who worked during the Jewish Golden Age in Spain between 850-1100. Jews had very close contact with their Muslim and Christian neighbors under Muslim leadership. Jews were ministers, which was not common in Jewish history. I find inspiration in rabbis who live an ethical life one can only dream of. I can also get inspiration from Einstein, who was not religious, but who had a very strong Jewish identity, who took it very far both when it came to science, but also in the ethics of being almost a pacifist. ”

Hesstvedt: “With my rabbi or the rabbi's wife, in the Torah text of the week, in the synagogue and during the shabat meal. But I think being married to an Israeli has given me strength. He is strong, he has experienced war, he is solid and he is Israeli; he has a land. If something happens, I have a country to go to. Although Norway is my country, I am emotionally attached to Israel. It is also my country. ”

Wolf: "I find it in writers like Primo Levi and Natalia Ginzburg. Or in the artists Shuly Natan and Chawa Alberstein. Alberstein is an opposition in Israel. She is the fourth best-known person in the country, and has been jailed by the regime for defending Palestinians. She's taken to grace again now. "

BERIT REISEL

Reisel: “Elie Wiesel meant a lot to me when he was teaching. Daniel Mendelsohn, Isaac B. Singer, all in the literary tradition. "

- Could it be more interesting to read these than Norwegian authors?

"There is another kind of recognizability – like Leonard Cohen's lyrics – that also feels nice. He has many Jewish quotes in the songs. After all, the world is full of Jewish entertainers and professionals. ”

- Why do you think so?

“It has something to do with how we have lived; Jews have not been able to own land. We have been locked into practical professions and forced to run banking, and had to move constantly. Then it is wise to have occupations where you can bring your head with you. But it is clear that the Jewish intellectual tradition is very conducive. In an old adage it says you can't read and write when you are four, something is wrong with you. Many Jews traveled from Europe to the United States and brought with them their Jewish identity and tradition, and humor, self-pity. Humor is extremely important. ”

- Tell.

"It is a must to survive both historically and in fact. That so many traveled and entered the entertainment industry – and to the film – is not surprising. Woody Allen has such a Jewish sense of humor. And the next great migration of intellectuals took place in the 30s. Then we have all the philosophical and psychological experts – the whole humanities tradition, who moved to the USA and England. In Europe it was numerus clausus; it was limited how many Jews were allowed to live where and to go to school, so they started their own schools. "

What can the larger community learn from the Jewish experience?

Hesstvedt: "Unity, traditions, charity, which is not only Jewish, but which was Norwegian many years ago. In modern times, a lot of things get lost, and different. And one of the reasons why there are Jews on earth is necessarily that we have disputed our Jewish traditions. ”

- What kind of charity are you thinking about?

“It can be anything, such as giving one meal to poor families for Passover (Easter), money, clothing – the most important thing is to give and help where needed. Up to 40 percent of children in Israel live below the poverty line. WIZO – Women's International Zionist Organization – enters and provides a hot meal to 80 000 children each month. »

"Jewish culture is a culture of remembrance."
Reisel 

Koritzinsky: "The Jews may have had a critical diversity and varying national cultures around them even more than in other monotheistic religions. This has probably helped them to be over-represented in art and science. I have been very pleased that the Mosaic Faith Society in Oslo has warned strongly against general anti-Muslim attitudes. The elite contact in the Cooperation Council for religious and life leaders has been important, they have had several common statements, including related to life education and religious education in the school. They have stood together and shown solidarity with other faiths. "

Wolf: "All change comes from below."

- But are all changes good?

"No, they are not, but that is only discovered many years later."

- Does a writer need to see things from a distance?

"A writer must stand outside the community. A writer must be impeccable. "

Melchior: “There is a great change in the way Norwegian Jews are accepted. As a minority, we would like to make our contribution to the wider community. We have changed, and the large community has changed. What we see is that our culture has something to contribute. ”

Reisel: «Both society at large and minorities can learn that there is a difference between a majority identity and a minority identity. Those who come here from other countries come with a majority identity and do not understand that they have to go over to identify themselves as (a) minority. These are, for example, traits that are embedded in our personality formation over two thousand yearsNor does Norwegian society understand how to deal with those who are minorities. In Norway, the majority are afraid of minorities because they are afraid of being eaten up by the minority. It is not going to happen. It's about being right in yourself and knowing: How confident are you in your identity? That conversation, I think, had been exciting, more exciting than if there were any Muslims in the burqa in Greenland. ”

- How are we going to have that conversation?

"What is problematic is that we have no language for the challenge of being part of a mixed culture. Because the moment you say it is challenging that there are so many 'foreign cultures' in the country, you end up in the racist pit, and if you say that this is just exciting, you fall into the other ditch.

- Maybe Norwegian culture has not practiced a thinking or reflection on this?

"No, and I don't think the European has either. Nobody has it, this is new to us. "

Do you feel that you, as a Jew, are obliged to think something about the policy that is being conducted in Israel?

- Do you often have to respond to Israeli politics?

Wolf: "Yes, often."

- What do you think about that?

"I'm not responding to that."

Melchior: “An engaged person has to think about what you have to do with it. I think it's fine, but complicated. ”

- What can you say that is positive about Israel and its politics?

ØYSTEIN WINGAARD ​​WOLF

"A country as small and young as Israel has contributed in so many ways: in inventions and medicine that create peace around the world. You learn to cultivate land with minimal use of water. The world has so many it must saturate. Politics is difficult because it is a difficult situation, it is a struggle for existence. Should one go right or left? These are important questions, but the fact that there is something malicious in Israel's policy is a dangerous gossip. That is my opinion. One can understand why some choose Red and others FrP, it comes from values. But here I want to draw inspiration from the Talmud, which says that one should try to see the value in everything. Still, when we talk about Israel, which is celebrating 70 years this year, we are going to celebrate. In an impossible way – under impossible circumstances – Israel has managed to develop an economy and a society of values ​​that are democratic, open and that contribute to the world in many different ways. And then you can strongly disagree with what is happening in politics, but you have to see the whole picture. "

Reisel: "Yes, and no. I am expected to be committed and it is provocative. Why should I be obliged to think anything about it? On the other hand, I am obliged to think something about it because it is an extremely important part of the Jewish world. And I am incredibly worried and desperate about the situation. I have been and have been engaged in Israeli-critical tradition since the 60 century, and have been preoccupied with the two-state solution and despair that it has not been introduced until it may be too late. Time is our worst enemy, as I see it. I'm afraid it will become so problematic as the Israel I love doesn't exist. It may be physical, but I can't really see how that conflict can be resolved when we are where we are now. ”

- Is there nothing you see in Israeli politics that is uplifting?

"No. On the contrary. Not at all uplifting. "

Koritzinsky: "No, not committed because of Jewish family background. But politically committed because Israel's policy is so unwise and unnecessarily discriminatory and aggressive towards the Palestinians. I am a member of the Palestine Committee in Norway. As a young man, I had great empathy and sympathy for the formation of the State of Israel. Leon Uri's Zionist-friendly book, Exodus [1958], probably affected me a lot. But I felt early on that the establishment of the State of Israel had to happen on the UN premise, from the decision in 1947, a two-state solution. ”

"I have experienced that Jews and Palestinians are very good friends here in Oslo."
- Wolf

Hesstvedt: "As a woman, I think there should have been many more female leaders – on both sides. You, the woman, would never have killed my children, and I would never have killed yours. The Arab countries are not democratic at all, and women have little value! In Israel there is a democracy, but it is not so easy for women to escape in Israel either. As a woman, I believe in a softer path, simply. "

- Do you think it's going to happen?

"I hope so, but not in my time, I think."

- You have engaged in women's perspective?

“I was a period manager for WIZO. The unique thing about WIZO is that it is run by women for women and children, across all: for Jewish, Christian and Arab children. The State of Israel has been dependent on WIZO from the beginning. "

See also case Looking to Israel

Kaisa Ytterhaug
Kaisa Ytterhaug
Ytterhaug is a freelancer in Ny Tid.

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