We who are the initiators of the Festival of Jewish Culture Trondheim want to show a Norwegian audience an excerpt from a flourishing Jewish culture, a culture that has survived both harassment and genocide on Norwegian soil and that lives on today around the world.
We want to show how Jewish religion, culture, language and history have influenced art forms and given impetus to new forms of expression.
Jews have lived in Norway for about one hundred and fifty years. The vast majority came here from Eastern Europe and have gradually become an integral part of Norwegian society. Very few of those who came were performing artists. It was also difficult for the small group to pass on their cultural heritage in a small Jewish environment. This must also be seen in the light of their background, the reason why they left their homelands and especially the losses the Jewish population suffered before and during World War II.
The Jews lived a quiet life in Norway. Due to experiences of persecution and genocide, they kept their identity as much as possible to themselves.
In today’s Norway, the situation is such that Norwegian Jews, like all other minorities, can freely practice their religion and cultural identity. However, this is not unproblematic: in recent years we have seen several examples of attacks on Jewish institutions and individuals, some of a very serious nature – others have been less serious – but overall this creates an impression of insecurity in the Jewish environment that makes one quickly becomes introverted, also culturally.
We have received many examples of society as a whole recognizing this description of reality, including through comprehensive security measures aimed at Jewish institutions and the comprehensive study of the Norwegian population’s relationship to Jews and Jewish faith, history and culture initiated by the government in 2010.
This situation is not favorable for an open exchange of impulses and cultural expressions, at the same time as this in such situations is more important than ever.
Festival of Jewish Culture will present Jewish culture to a Norwegian audience. Through its program, the festival will show how Jewish religion, language, tradition and history have influenced various art forms, and given impetus to new expressions. The festival will be a bridge-builder between Jewish cultural and religious practice and today’s Norwegian multicultural society.
* give the audience with different backgrounds a common frame of reference in the encounter with Jewish culture.
* convey Jewish life and traditions today without forgetting history.
* raise the level of knowledge about the Jewish culture that is little known in the larger society even though it has lived
Jews in Norway for almost 150 years.
* convey artistic expressions with Jewish origin and background in several different art forms,
both traditional and further developed.
* bring in artists and public debaters from several countries to show breadth and diversity.
* introduce the public to Jewish food traditions.
Comfort Hotel Park
Quality Hotel Augustin
Transworld, Trondheim World Music festival
Jødisk museum Trondheim
The Jewish Community in Trondheim
Det Jødiske Samfunn i Trondheim Familien Ragle
