Abstract
Wulf Wallich was a child of the sixties, and he gave the rabbi fits. Like a number of young, progressive Jews in the eighties, he thought that the Jewish community was behind the times. Its leaders seemed to think they were in a seventeenth-century shtetl, not modern urban Copenhagen, and they didn’t want to adapt to the changing world around them. He and his friends made a lot of trouble for the heads of the community, even taking them to court on accusations of skimming funds. But what really irritated them was his hair—straight out of the sixties, with braids and ribbons and all, not what they considered appropriate for a respectable Jewish businessman. It was embarrassing enough during the week, but the rabbi, Gedalia Levin, was insulted that Wallich and his friends came to the synagogue that way on Saturdays. He finally published a rule forbidding such hairstyles in the synagogue, virtually throwing down a gaundet to troublemakers like Wallich. And inevitably, one Saturday morning in the late eighties, Wallich took it up.
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Notes
A few authors have written general histories of the Jewish community in Denmark; perhaps the best known are Balslev (1932), Borchsenius (1968), and Bamberger (1983). Most of the available historical writing, however, comes in the form of articles or chapters focusing on specific moments in Jewish history, often published in anniversary volumes (e. g., Feigenberg 1984, Margolinsky 1958a, Margolinsky and Meyer 1964). The rescue of the Danish Jews in 1943 has been the subject of extensive historical writing (e. g., Yahil 1969, Flender 1963, Goldberger 1987, Sode-Madsen 1993, Kreth 1995, Buckser 2001, and Paulsson 1995); recently, the immigration period of the early 1900s has also received extensive scholarly attention (Bludnikow 1986). I do not know why such a disproportionately large portion of the historical literature on the Danish Jews has been written by authors with last names beginning with B. It is a trend, however, of which I heartily approve.
The following characterization of early Jewish history in Denmark is taken primarily from Balslev 1932, Margolinsky 1958a; 1964, Bludnikow and Jørgensen 1984, Borchsenius 1968, Blum 1972, and Bamberger 1983.
There are a number of sources for early Jewish population figures in Denmark, not all of which agree. In this chapter I rely mainly on Balslev (1932), who is the source for a number of later histories. While some sources may give slightly different figures, there is general agreement on the rough shape of the population’s growth.
Factionalism in the congregation can also be seen in the proliferation of small burial societies in the early 1700s. See Margolinsky 1958b: 41.
The account of the reform period given here is drawn primarily from Linvald 1964, Meyer 1964, Balslev 1932: 29–44, Christensen and Syskind 1984, Bludnikow and Jørgensen 1984, Borchsenius 1968: 61–71, and Gold 1975.
This discussion of the Decree of 1814 draws heavily on Gold’s analysis in her excellent doctoral dissertation (1975). Other sources used include Margolinsky 1964, Bamberger 1983, Borchsenius 1968, and Balslev 1932. For interested readers, Bamberger 1983: 50–57 provides a full English translation of the decree’s text.
While our focus here is on the Copenhagen community, it is worth noting that these effects were even more pronounced for Jews living in the provincial towns. Whereas the Copenhagen community was allowed to retain some of its civil administrative functions, as long as they accorded with Danish law, provincial Jews were subjected directly to local civil authorities in all administrative matters.
Priest (prœst) is the standard term for a Danish Lutheran clergyman; the term does not, as in the United States, have a specific association with Catholic clergy. The terminology does matter, however, since the status of a cleric in a state church is considerably different from the traditional status of a rabbi, both in terms of the conditions of employment and of the sacramental responsibilities.
Among the spectators to these events was the fourteen-year-old Hans Christian Andersen, who had just arrived in Copenhagen from outlying Odense. Never having visited the metropolis before, he assumed that such sights were standard in big cities. He relates the story in his autobiography, Mit Livs Eventyr (1951).
The synagogue was installed in the home of Moses Levy in Læderstræde, after Levy had unsuccessfully petitioned the crown to block any reduction of prayers in Wolff’s services. The synagogue never received royal approval and was therefore technically illegal, but no effort was ever made to close it down. The family maintained the synagogue for over a century, holding services twice daily until it closed. Levy himself engaged in a lifelong feud with Wolff; some of his descendants today continue to have antagonistic relations with the Mosaiske Troessamfund. See Bamberger 1983: 63–64.
The article appeared without a byline in the community journal Jødisk Samfund. Schornstein is generally presumed to be the author, a reasonable presumption which I follow here, but no definite proof of authorship exists.
The depiction here of immigrant lives is drawn largely from Bent Bludnikow’s excellent study (1986), as well as Welner’s evocative memoir of the period (1965). The account of the Machsike Hadas schism draws primarily on Blum 1972 and Melchior 1965.
Welner 1965: 112–113 reports the following conversation between a Jewish immigrant and his elderly father-in-law, who had come to visit him from Poland. The father-in-law had been shocked to see his grandchildren playing with Christian children and their mother drinking coffee in her kitchen with Christian neighbors, and he could not understand the matter-of-fact manner in which these encounters were regarded. Finally, he had to get the mystery answered. “Gabriel,” he said to his stepson, “are the Danes also Christians?” “Yes, father-in-law,” answered Gabriel, “the Danes are not only Christians, they’re real Christians.” “And so what are the others?” asked the stepfather. “The others that you’re thinking of, they’re goyim!”
As noted above, there is an extensive historical literature on this period in Danish Jewish history. The most influential among scholars has been Yahil 1969, and accounts like Flender 1963 and Goldberger 1987 have been influential in shaping public perceptions of the event. Among the many other studies, some of the more current and generally oriented include Kreth 1995, Sode-Madsen 1993, Paulsson 1995, Kirchhoff 1995, and Buckser 1998; 1999b; 2001.
Logically, this argument would not have protected non-Danish Jews, significant numbers of whom had fled illegally to Denmark just prior to the occupation, and who had sometimes been turned out of the country if discovered by the police. After the German invasion, however, Jewish refugees were accorded the same protection as Danish Jews, and they were just as likely to be rescued in October 1943.
The precise mechanics of these arrangements, including their author, remain the subject of considerable unclarity. Best’s public account of his actions came in the context of his postwar trial, and he had a strong incentive to minimize his own role in the actions against the Jews. Accounts by different people differed, and historians continue to disagree on exactly what Best did and intended to do in the weeks surrounding the rescue. As these disagreements are mainly of interest to professional historians of the period, I have not reprised them here; interested readers should consult Yahil 1969, Kreth 1995, Paulsson 1995, and Kirchhoff 1995, for discussions of the controversies.
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© 2003 Andrew Buckser
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Buckser, A. (2003). The Community in Time. In: After the Rescue. Contemporary Anthropology of Religion. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403976864_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781403976864_2
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