Norway and the Jews

After the Breivik murders, David Katznelson, an Israeli teacher living in Norway, told the Jewish Telegraph Agency: “Norway is not known as a particularly hospitable place for Jews.” He added that a swastika was spray-painted on his mailbox and that Jewish students of his have been afraid to publicly disclose their faith. Katznelson also observed that when Jews are not present, nasty remarks can be made about them, but certainly not in their presence.

 Jews in Norway have differing experiences. Those with school age children often wonder how to react to the frequent anti-Semitic harassment in schools or elsewhere. Should one publicize these problems, or will that lead to even more harassment? Other Norwegian Jews claim that they have never encountered open anti-Semitism.

 The situation of the Jewish community is different from that of Jewish individuals. The community survives thanks to the support of the Norwegian government, which provides physical security to Jewish institutions. Two members of the Norwegian Jewish community, who in the beginning of this decade tried to attract attention to anti-Semitism, received envelopes in the mail containing live bullets. The community then decided to lower its profile.

During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, the synagogue was shot at; a man of Pakistani origin, Arfan Batthi, was later convicted. The community’s cantor was beaten up, the Oslo cemetery was desecrated and there were several anti-Semitic threats by phone and email.

 Yet within a few weeks the Norwegian government will have to deal with the major anti-Semitism in schools. It has been partly inflamed by the anti-Israelism of the government and members of the cultural elite. The Minister in charge of Education, Kristin Halvorsen, is a prominent anti-Israeli hate monger. Can this arsonist also be a fireman at the same time?

However, the anti-Israeli hate by the Norwegian government and cultural elite is frequently so far-going that Jews cannot always remain silent. In autumn 2010, the Norwegian government sponsored an anti-Israeli exhibition of artist Hakon Gullvag in Damascus. The daily Aftenposten published one of his “works.” Oslo’s rabbi, Yoav Melchior reacted in the paper writing that he hid Aftenposten from his son, as the paper carried a picture of a bloodstained Israeli flag with the Star of David, faceless soldiers and suffering Palestinian victims on the front page of the culture section. He then contrasted the silence of the Norwegian cultural elite on this anti-Jewish hate act with the vocal reactions to the Danish Mohammed cartoons.

The current mood in Norway after the horrible murders is one of confusion. Can society continue in the long term with the fact that the “murderer was one of us Norwegians,” or will it look for an outside villain to blame? Promoting the image of Breivik as pro-Israeli might be tempting to some as a fertile infrastructure for the anti-Israelism that has been built up in the country for some years. Several Norwegian Jews believe that it may now become even more difficult to be pro-Israeli in Norway. Some non-Jews that I have spoken with share this opinion.

Yet within a few weeks the Norwegian government will have to deal with the major anti-Semitism in schools. It has been partly inflamed by the anti-Israelism of the government and members of the cultural elite. The Minister in charge of Education, Kristin Halvorsen, is a prominent anti-Israeli hate monger. Can this arsonist also be a fireman at the same time?