Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Norway Synagogue Street Closed for Good

The city of Oslo decided to permanently close to traffic the street leading to its main synagogue.

Ervin Kohn, president of the Jewish Community in Oslo and the deputy director of the Norwegian Center Against Racism, told JTA Thursday that the decision was made following the slaying on Feb. 15 of a guard at the main synagogue of Copenhagen in Denmark.

The Jewish community of Norway, which has seen a number of threats in recent years, has long lobbied for the closure, which city official had resisted and termed excessive.

“With this change, the security needs of the community are more or less satisfied,” Kohn said.

He also said the community planned to hold its services on the street on Saturday, as hundreds of non-Jews, including many Muslims, are expected to encircle the synagogue as a gesture expressing their outrage at the shooting at the Danish synagogue by a Muslim fanatic who hours earlier killed another person at a cafe which hosted a debate featuring a cartoonist who drew cartoons lampooning Islam.

The initiative, titled “Peace Ring,” was organized on Facebook and “has a chance of changing the dynamic in Scandinavia because it is grassroots and much more powerful than statements by Muslim community leaders, who have also been outspoken in condemning this violence,” Kohn added.

Both in Norway and in Sweden police beefed up security around synagogues, and in Sweden police also received protective gear for their own security.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.