Kesher Talk

Jews in odd places: Denmark: There aren't that many Jews in Denmark, and, since they're Jewish, they're having trouble agreeing on their direction.

While some avid reformists favour granting women and men equal status during religious services, die-hard orthodox practitioners - many of them members of the Krystalgade Synagogue, an orthodox Copenhagen institution since 1833 - are holding fast to the traditional notion of what it means to be Jewish in contemporary Europe.

Tension between the city's Reform and Orthodox camps reached a fever pitch when London-based Reform Rabbi Julia Neuberger attended the meeting of an Orthodox congregation, in anticipation of a critical leadership vote in Mosaisk Troessamfund: a vote hinging in large part on the society's balance between Reform and Orthodox elements and a desperate bid for the survival of Copenhagen's Jewish communities.

In 1968, this country counted 5,500 Jews, 48.7 percent of whom were registered members of Mosaisk Troessamfund. Berlingske Tidende noted this week that, of the 7,000 Jews reported in this country in 2002 - most of them in the Greater Copenhagen area - just 30.8 percent were members of the group. Numbers of practicing Jews continue to dwindle as younger generations intermarry and abandon their synagogue memberships. (The Copenhagen Post, Dec. 12, 2002)

posted by William @ 5/19/2003 09:58:53 AM