After the Rescue: Jewish Identity and Community in Contemporary Denmark

277 Pages·2003·1.197 MB·English

by  Andrew Buckser (auth.)

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After the Rescue
Contemporary Anthropology of Religion,
A series published with the Society for the Anthropology of Religion
Robert Hefner,Series Editor
Boston University
Published by Palgrave Macmillan
Body / Meaning / Healing
By Thomas J.Csordas
The Weight of the Past:Living with History in Mahajanga,Madagascar
By Michael Lambek
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After the Rescue
Jewish Identity and Community
in Contemporary Denmark
Andrew Buckser
01 buckser fm 3/24/03 4:03 PM Page iv
AFTERTHERESCUE
Copyright © Andrew Buckser,2003.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2003 978-0-312-23945-9
All rights reserved.No part of this book may be used or reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of
brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published 2003 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN™
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PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global academic imprint of the
Palgrave Macmillan division of St.Martin’s Press,LLC and of Palgrave
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United Kingdom and other countries.Palgrave is a registered trademark in
the European Union and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-38695-6 ISBN 978-1-4039-7686-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781403976864
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the
Library of Congress.
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Design by Letra Libre,Inc.
First edition:May 2003
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Sue
The girl that I adore
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. The Community in Time 19
2. The Religious World:
Faith and Ritual Practice in Jewish Copenhagen 55
3. The Communal World:
Jewish Subgroups in Copenhagen 103
4. The Social World:
The Life and Politics of the Formal Jewish Community 131
5. The Larger World:
Relations with the Jewish Community Outside Denmark 155
6. The Danish World:
Jewish Difference in Danish Culture 171
7. The World of the Past:
Jewish Identities and the Rescue of 1943 189
8. Conclusion:The Future of Danish Jewry
and the Anthropological Study of Community 213
Notes 239
Bibliography 253
Index 265
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Acknowledgments
T
his study is based on fieldwork funded by grants from the
American-Scandinavian Foundation,the Lois Roth-Thomsen
Endowment, the Purdue Research Foundation, the Purdue
University School of Liberal Arts,and the Jewish Studies Pro-
gram at Purdue University.In addition,the Institute for European Ethnol-
ogy and the Department of Anthropology at the University of
Copenhagen both allowed me to use their office space and facilities dur-
ing parts of my research.I am grateful to all of these institutions for their
support.
Like most anthropologists,I am most grateful of all to the people with
whom I have done my fieldwork,who have put up with my nosiness and
foolish questions for more than five years now.Space does not permit me
to mention more than a handful by name, but I hope that all of the
Copenhagen Jews with whom I have spoken will accept my deepest
thanks for their time,their kindness,and their invariably thoughtful per-
spectives on Jewish life.I would especially like to express my gratitude to
Dan Besjakov,without whom this study would have been impossible;to
Karen Lisa Salamon,for her hospitality,her anthropological insights,and
her extraordinary patience;to Irina Magieres,a wonderful and inspiring
guide to the Polish Jewish community;and to the irrepressible David Ger-
schwald.A number of community leaders were very generous with their
time and advice;special thanks are due to Bent Lexner,Bent Melchior,
Jacques Blum,Erik Guttermann,and Yitzchok and Rochel Loewenthal.I
would also like to thank Simon and Dina Bergmann, Anne Boukris,
Grethe Gerschwald, Linda Hertzberg and Bjarne Karpantschof, the
Königshøfer family, Sara Kviat,Tatjana Lichtenstein, the Meyerowitsch