About the project
The project builds on the theoretical assumption that ‘Jewishness’ – as any group identity – is always enlivened, reinterpreted and contested, both within the Jewish community and in relation to the Norwegian majority and other minorities. It will also investigate how the conditions for being a Jew in Norway have been affected by societal and cultural changes in the last decades. More specifically, these changes relate to macro-level factors such as anti-Semitic incidents, increased migration and nationalism in Europe, Israeli politics and meso- or group-level factors like the role of Jewish institutions in a secularized and diverse Norway, divergent theological definitions of Jewish traditions, questioning of the Holocaust as a collective memory, as well as identity (minority) politics amongst new generations of Jews. The specific Norwegian-Jewish history is also crucial for understanding how Norwegian-Jewish identities and cultural practices have been and still are developed.
Cathrine Thorleifsson is leading the study on Young Norwegian Jewish Identities in an Age of Globalization.
Funding
This project is funded by the Research Council of Norway
