A museum visit in Norway

My Scandinavian tour of Jewish museums is complete. Last weekend I got to tick off the last country off my list: Norway. Established in a building that used to be a synagogue, the Jewish Museum of Oslo is located conveniently in the center. You can recognize the museum from its iron gate so be brave, buzz the door bell and enter. Entrance tickets are reasonably priced (50 NOK for adults).

Unfortunately, it was not allowed to photograph inside, but basically the museum has two aspects that you could expect it to have: the other aspect tells the story of Jews in Norway during WWII and the occupation, and the other is a classic story of a Jewish year, explaining all related holidays. Nearly everything was translated into English, for those who do not know any Norwegian or other Scandinavian languages.

The day that we (yes, my boyfriend joined!) visited the museum was no ordinary day... There was a "family Sunday" arranged around Pesach. There was a play by local teens telling the story of Moses and Exodus, and activities around the Seder dinner and plate for kids: coloring, cutting out and pasting paper maror etc. on a paper Seder, and a tasting menu of matza and the rest that you can find on a Seder plate. A note was given to typically Scandinavian kids: charoset cannot be eaten by those who are allergic to nuts (because all the kids in the Nordics are allergic to something!). The museum was rather packed because of this event, and it was quite endearing and heart-warming to see such a small but tight community getting together for the holiday season.

A snapshot of the museum's website about Family Sunday - Pesach.

It was interesting to read about what went on in Norway during the WWII. All the Nordic countries had very different destinies during this war. Sweden remained untouched, Finland messed with the Germans but kept Finnish-Jews safe and Denmark and Norway were occupied. It was shocking to learn that prison/labor camps were established in Norway and Jewish prisoners were under more harsh treatment in these places. So the camps weren't just in Poland and elsewhere in Central Europe - also here in the Nordics. Many Norwegian Jews fled to Sweden, but nearly 800 Jews were murdered - for the most part in Auschwitz. Those who fled to Sweden or beyond, often chose not to return.

The Norwegian government cooperated with the Nazi regime as the Norwegian Royal Family left for exile during the war. Jewish families were not allowed to own radios, their IDs were stamped with the letter "J" and as mentioned, possessions were confiscated and many ended up dying at concentration camps. Today, the community has been revived with somewhat 1500s Jews in Norway that are well integrated in the society, however the Chabad-Lubavitch has a permanent presence in Norway.

The building served as a synagogue until 1942. Outside the museum, there are metal placates on the ground with names of those Jews who lived in the area and were sent to Auschwitz.

If I had to rank the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish Jewish museums, I'd say the Norwegian one is the best and most comprehensive one. There's also a great gift shop with many Jewish items. Unfortunately, though, I have seem to come 100% with Judaica and Jewish items, since I could not find anything that I didn't have to buy at the gift shop!

As there was nothing new to add to my souvenir collection, I took the recipe for Natascha's blintzes :-).

PS. An interesting tidbit I learnt while visiting this museum was the vague connection between astrology and Judaism. The Kabbalah is into astrology, and the Zodiac signs almost seem to sync better with the Jewish calendar months better than the Gregorian months... I always wondered why Capricorn isn't 1st-31st of January but overlaps from December to January etc.