All photos by Ryan Rodrick Beiler After four years covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a photojournalist, I’m not used to covering good news. Even before my recent relocation to Norway, land of the Peace Prize and Oslo Accords, it’s been easy to be cynical about institutionalized efforts to promote coexistence. But a recent grassroots effort…
More than 1,000 Muslims formed a human shield around Oslo’s synagogue on Saturday, offering symbolic protection for the city’s Jewish community and condemning an attack on a synagogue in neighboring Denmark last weekend. Chanting “No to anti-Semitism, no to Islamophobia,” Norway’s Muslims formed what they called a ring of peace a week after Omar Abdel…
Muslims in Norway plan to form what they are calling a “peace ring” around an Oslo synagogue following Sabbath services. More than 800 people have signed up on a Facebook page called Frendens Ring, or Friendship Ring, to participate in the gesture on Saturday. The human ring is being undertaken in the wake of the…
A Jewish cemetery in the north of Norway was desecrated. The incident was discovered on Oct. 25 at the Jewish cemetery of Trondheim, the Norwegian daily newspaper Aftenposten reported. Several tombstones were vandalized with purple paint and the words “Der Furher,” a reference to Adolf Hitler, were painted on a nearby building. Police are patrolling…
The leader of Norway’s Jewish community praised his country’s parliament for passing an act regulating ritual circumcision for boys. “The act changes the paradigm of the debate about ritual circumcision in Norway in a very positive way and is therefore very significant,” Ervin Kohn, president of the Jewish Community in Oslo, told JTA Friday. “I…
Resisting calls to ban the non-medical circumcision of boys, the governments of Norway and Denmark have taken steps to preserve the practice’s legal status. Norway’s health ministry has submitted a bill that proposes placing some limitations and fees on ritual circumcision but not banning it outright, while Denmark’s health board issued guidelines stating that the…
A Norway musuem said it would return a Nazi-looted painting by Henri Matisse to the heirs of its former Jewish owner. The Henie Onstad Art Center near Oslo, or HOK, announced Friday that it would return the 1937 painting “Woman in Blue in Front of a Fireplace,” which has been part of the museum’s collection…
The Norwegian Nurses Organization reported the plea in an interview with its director, Astrid Grydeland Ersvik, which was posted Tuesday on the organization’s website. “We need to gain acceptance for setting a minimum age limit of 15-16 years for circumcision, so that the boy himself can decide,” Grydeland Ersvik said, outlining a presentation she made…
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