The Oslo Jewish Museum shares its long-held enthusiasm year after year at events held in the Norwegian capital, including its famous Klezmer Night. Meet Ingrid Vonen, Head of communication and Museum educator, who talks to us about the well-known and lesser-known places in Norway’s Jewish cultural heritage.
Have you perceived an evolution in the interest related to Norwegian Jewish culture?
Ingrid Vonen: The Oslo Jewish Museum has organized the Night of Klezmer concert for 16 years now, and is experiencing the fact that more people are opening their eyes and ears to the music genre. Over many years, we have had a steady influx of people coming to our events, both from the Jewish community in and around the city and from the general public. Our events are not the most visited or most talked about events in Oslo, but our contributions on the cinematic, theater and lecture scenes are important in a diverse city with a varied offer in many sub-genres.
Which site related to Norway’s Jewish heritage should be better known?
Here is a list of some of the Jewish Heritage sites in the country:
- The old Jewish Cemetery
- The new cemetery, also with a large memorial to Jews that died during the war.
- The synagogue in Bergstien, Oslo (1920) and the synagogue in Trondheim (1925). There was also an additional synagogue in Oslo, in Calmeyers gate. That building is now the Oslo Jewish Museum (the link is to an article about the story of the building).
- The grave of Henrik Wergeland at the cemetery Vår Frelsers Gravlund, Oslo. Erected in 1849 by Danish and Swedish Jews before the paragraph in the Constitution prohibiting Jews from entering the country was removed in 1851.
- The Trondheim Jewish Museum has created the web page Jewish Footprints in the North, with places marked in a map. Some pinpoints are biographies and information about traditions etc., and some are physical places (buildings and memorials) that you can visit.
Are there also monuments related to the war?
- Stolpersteine in Norway (snublestein.no)
- A place for remembrance by Antony Gormley (Deportation Memorial at Akershusstranda, Oslo).
- “This is a Nice Place” by Victor Lind (memorial park remembering Carl Fredriksens Transport (refugee aid) at Carl Berners plass, Oslo).
- The Norwegian Center for Holocaust and Minority Studies at Bygdøy, Oslo. Vidkun Quisling’s home during the war, and now a museum with a large, permanent holocaust exhibition.