The faith of the fathers, the future of the youth

Authors

• Vibeke Kieding Banik

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30674/scripta.66573

Keywords:

Judaism, Jews -- Norway, Group identity, Social integration, Emigration and immigration, Zionism

Abstract

The article aims to analyse the various descriptions of crises among Norwegian Jewry as they were expressed in Jewish magazines and organizations in the interwar period. By analysing social, organizational and religious work I ask how Jews emigrating from Eastern Europe handled the transition from the Jewish shtetl life to the homogeneity of the Scandinavian societies. Further, I discuss the various solutions to these crises. I suggest that by utilizing fixed ideas of Jewishness, such as ‘traditions’ and ‘Zionism’, the Norwegian Jews in fact created a versatile Jewishness that they labelled ‘national work’. This paved the way to becoming ‘Jewish Norwegians’.