S.6 #4 | Being Jewish in Norway

The adventure continues to Norway. Hear about my experience as a Jew in Bergen and Oslo, as well as Norway's natural beauty, and peculiar art scene. 

Mentions: 

Bergen - port city

Fjords -  long, narrow, deep inlets of the sea with steep sides formed by glacial erosion

Mount Floyen in Bergen and the Troll Forest

Oslo - capital

Quote by the Rebbe - Menachem Mendel Schneerson

Transcript

We flew into Bergen from Stockholm - just an hour’s flight - on a rainy, chilly June day. We took a train to the city and found our hotel. After settling in, and despite the rain, we decided to explore the city. In the public transport, what I noticed first and foremost was how diverse the population is. In Denmark and Sweden, you could tell, there were mostly locals there, I mean originally from there- tall, blond, white people. But in Norway, it was drastically different. People of all races and colors and faiths, but above all - Muslim. Many balconies of apartment buildings displayed Palestinian flags and the more we explored the city, the more obvious the country’s anti-Israel stance became. In one of the underground pedestrian crossing, my kids noticed a huge colorful graffiti of a scary-looking man or monster with a big star of David in one of his eyes, which was crossed out with black paint, to their surprise, but not to mine. 

Similarly to the other Scandinavian countries, we didn’t find Kosher food options so we had to limit ourselves to either vegetarian dishes or do our best to not mix dairy with meat, and obviously skip on the abundant seafood available all around the port city. I won’t lie, it’s not easy to change your life habits such as that of food preferences as an adult. Before becoming observant, my husband and I considered ourselves foodies. We would travel the world trying all kinds of fancy and exotic local dishes. There were no limits. But I am convinced that having limits is not only better for our physical health, but especially for our spiritual health. So when we went to the famous fish market in Bergen, we admired all the colorful, bizarre sea creatures, but we were absolutely fine not eating them. My husband jokes that we created for ourselves an allergy of sorts. Many people can’t have gluten or dairy or nuts, we could have it all and yet we chose to limit ourselves. Well, I strongly believe that if you don’t limit yourself, G-d will limit you. So it’s better to take matters into your own hands and be proactive rather than later cry about limitations that were decided for you. I mean look around, there are more allergies than ever before. Why? Because the more choices we have, the more availability of foods we have, the more people go crazy and lose control. While before people would be satisfied with a meal consisting of porridge or soup with bread, now they can have anything their soul desires and of course, naturally, problems such as obesity, diabetes, and GI issues arise. So with allergies popping up, at least people can control themselves to an extent. For example, I have a sweet tooth, and I used to find it very hard to control myself when it came to sweets. If I saw chocolate in front of me, I’d have to have it. Now that I am observing the Kosher law of not mixing dairy and meat, do you know how many times I’ve wanted to finish off my meaty meal with whatever sweets I could find? But because I am observing commandments for G-d, I feel I have a huge responsibility to not let Him down, and no matter how attractive a desert looks, if it has dairy in it, I put it down. I am noticing that more and more I’m able to have control of myself, of my desires, and it makes me happy. Because now I am becoming less and less dependent on the earthly and more so on the spiritual, which is great because we know that earthly things only provide temporary pleasure, while spiritual things - everlasting pleasure and joy.

But back to Bergen. Overall, this city is very charming and picturesque. In the Nordic culture, trolls are a big part of Norse mythology and you can find interpretations of these creatures all around - from gift shops to parks to random street art. Norse paganism, by the way, is a reconstruction of the pre-Christian religious beliefs and practices of Scandinavia. Perhaps you’re familiar with some of the gods of this mythology, like Thor - the God of thunder that has become so popular thanks to the Marvel Comics movies. The funny thing here is that being Jewish I am of course a monotheist - I believe in one God, but for some reason pagan gods have followed us from Scandinavia all the way to Cleveland, Oh. A few days after our return, we adopted a dog whose name is Loki who, in Norse mythology, is described as a trickster god and a shape-shifter. The irony of life!

If you decide to go to Bergen, I highly recommend taking a cruise through the fjords, which are long, narrow, deep inlets of the sea with steep sides formed by glacial erosion. The views are truly breathtaking. In addition, the forests of Norway are out of this world. There are many parks for hiking, kayaking and other outdoor activities. The park we went to was the Troll Forest. Yes, there are trolls, not real ones of course, but many figures carved out of wood that our kids had a blast searching for and taking pictures with. To get to this park, which is located on Mount Fløyen, you can take the famous funicular from the fish market, which takes a good 8 minutes to reach the mountain. From the mountain you will be able to enjoy unparalleled views of the port city. After exploring the troll forest, which is where all the tourist activities are like the kids playgrounds, gift shops, cafes… we decided to go a little bit deeper into the woods. It’s like the forest was calling us. When we caught a glimpse of the towering trees covered in vibrant green moss and heard the soft sounds of far-away creeks, we couldn’t pass on the opportunity to see Norway’s natural landscape. Mind you, we were completely unprepared for any type of hike, I was wearing my perfectly white sneakers and jeans, and the rest of the family was in a similar situation. We didn’t care and started climbing up the hills. The amount of moss everywhere, on trees, around trees, instead of grass was striking. It felt like we were walking on a huge velvety, green carpet sprawling all over the mountain. We wanted to take our shoes off and run around barefoot on it, that’s how soft it was to the touch. I’d never seen anything like it. We all agreed that we had been transported into a fairy land, we were expecting for trolls and fairies to appear at any moment. The beauty of the forest kept drawing us in and we kept on walking, trying to remember the path we took so we could come back. There are paved trails in this park but we always choose to go “off the beaten path”. Eventually we make it to a lake where you can kayak for free! So of course we do that as well. Several hours pass and we know it’s time to go back. Had we been more prepared, like packed snacks and worn different clothing, we would’ve continued exploring. Also, since in the summer the sun in the Scandinavian countries sets so late, well after 10pm, people can enjoy the trails well into the night. 

So after spending a couple of chilly, rainy days in Bergen, we flew to Oslo - the capital of Norway. And here, honestly, I don’t think there was any moment in time where I didn’t see women covered from head to toe in the hijab and robe - this didn’t make me feel in the least welcome in this city and country. What I didn’t know, and soon found out, was that Norway has a strong relationship with Palestine, rooted in a long history of diplomatic engagement and a commitment to the two-state solution…that Norway formally recognized the State of Palestine in 2024, and that they continue to accept refugees from Palestine. That of course explained the Palestinian flags everywhere, as well as the abundant anti-Israeli graffiti, stickers and signs on basically every wall, every sidewalk and every bench in sight. Not gonna lie, I didn’t feel safe in Oslo. To be honest, this whole situation ruined my mood and angered me more than anything. We only had a couple days in Oslo, we wanted to make the best of it. I had reached out earlier to the synagogue of Oslo, but unfortunately they were closed for the summer, only open on shabbat, which we would miss, so we didn’t get to visit the Oslo synagogue. And as far as Chabad goes, if I understood correctly, most programming is virtual and combined for members of Chabad in Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. The website information wasn’t exactly straight forward, so unfortunately we didn't get to visit the Chabad house in Norway either. 

Other places of interest on our itinerary included two sculpture parks. Without doing much research about these parks, we headed to the first one. It turned out to be a huge park with paved trails and sculptures scattered all across, some easily visible and accessible from the trails, others hidden or tucked away from the trails. The park is quite big so we didn’t get to see even half of the sculptures, but the ones we did see were plenty for us! Let me explain! Norwegian culture, perhaps this is a European thing, is very liberal and open about sexuality. There is no shame in the human body and in sexual relations. So upon entering the park, be prepared to see sculptures of a naked man pleasuring a naked woman orally, or a huge yellow male organ propped on the ground with the testicles, or a bronze woman squatting with her pants off taking a wee. And this is all in a public park! Walking swiftly past these sculptures and trying to avoid conversation with my kids’ about the sculptures, we made it onto a trail on which we discovered a whole wall of screens mounted onto or into a rock formation that transmitted images and footage of a completely naked woman, perhaps a famous artist like Marina Abrmovic, I don’t know, I didn’t stay to read about it. I just didn’t appreciate all the nudity that my kids were exposed to. I am teaching them about modesty, and this trip to Scandinavia…well hopefully it didn’t ruin my attempts to instill in my children a sense of humility. 

The following day we visited another sculpture park, Vigiland Park, which I have to say is very impressive aesthetically, it’s humongous and features hundreds upon hundreds of sculptures by one artist. The park also features a lake with swans and thousands of colorful roses. However, every single sculpture is also of a naked person, women, men and children. So this, in a nutshell is Norway - very liberal and a little perverted, or a lot.  

If you’d like to see photos from this trip, please go to my Instagram or TikTok at lovetohealpodcast. If you’re Jewish and looking to travel to Scandinavia, just know that it is not the most Jew-loving place on earth. When I posted on TikTok videos from synagogues and Jewish museums in Scandinavia, I received countless hateful comments, which I won’t even repeat, they were dreadful. Many people were kind enough to defend me and answer those comments, saying that there is a difference between being Jewish and being a Zionist. That my posts were not Zionist in nature. But I’m sorry, what kind of a Jew is not a Zionist? Of course I am a Zionist! Jews who are not Zionists must be confused about Judaism overall. Our right to dwell in Israel, and to strongly protect ourselves—not only in Israel, but everywhere in the world—comes directly from G‑d, Creator of heaven and earth. Jews must not see the connection and claim to the Land of Israel as a gift of the nations of the world, no! And they should not see it as something conferred upon them by the United Nations. Instead, they must see it as G‑d’s covenantal agreement with our forefather Abraham, as written clearly in the Torah—a holy book not only for the Jews, but also for Christians and Muslims. 

Oh and one more thing I wanted to share with you is about our flight from Oslo to JFK. Nothing specifically intriguing occurred on this trip, unlike our Caribbean cruise last year or even Argentina, which if you haven’t listened to those episodes, you can find them in previous seasons, they are fun to listen to. But one little thing that did happen, which again tested my faith in G-d happened when we arrived at Oslo international airport. We had purchased our flight through a Scandinavian budget airline, yes, they too have those, much like Spirit and Frontier, and when it was time to check, we realized we could not do it online, we had to go to the airport to do that. We also noticed that we were not assigned seats, which was strange for an international flight. We got to the airport nice and early, went to check in and were told that we would get our seat assignment at the gate, which was also very suspicious. Once we got to the gate, we were amongst the first in line, we waited until a representative from the airline arrived. When they arrived and scanned our ticket, they told us to wait on the side to see if they would have any seats for us because the flight was overbooked. We started to get a little nervous because with 2 little kids it didn't seem like a whole lot of fun to have to spend the night in Oslo and try to fly out the next day, hoping that there would be 4 seats for us on a different plane. We talked to the manager and he said he would do what he could. We stood by as a never-ending line of passengers was going past us. We figured there would be no way we could get 4 seats on this obviously way-overbooked flight. While standing there and waiting for a while, I kept telling myself that whatever G-d’s plan is, I am ok with it. The following morning we were planning to visit the Ohel- the burial site of the Rebbe in Queens, NY, which I had been waiting for for half a year. I figured, if we miss that, it means we are not ready yet to go to this magical, spiritual place and I would be fine to wait for another opportunity. The more I told myself that everything is G-d’s will, the calmer I became and soon enough the manager called us over and provided us with the tickets that had assigned seats on them. It all worked out in the end and I once again was reminded of how important it is to trust G-d. By the way, make sure to listen to the next episode, in which I tell you all about the Ohel, which really is a magical oasis. 

I will leave you today with a quote by the Rebbe on this topic and on maintaining faith. Israel will survive and prosper. The Jews are a rising lion and once awakened, no master will ever tame us. Enjoy and until next time.

“When the enemy nations of the world see true Jewish strength, not strength that emanates from ‘the strength and might of my hand’ but strength that comes from true faith in G‑d Almighty, then they will dissipate on their own and not even approach to make war.”

Mentions: 

Bergen - port city

Fjords -  long, narrow, deep inlets of the sea with steep sides formed by glacial erosion

Mount Floyen in Bergen - Troll Forest

Oslo - capital

Quote by the Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson