 Among Danish Jews
"Imagine, if it were possible literally speaking, to preserve photographs of previous generations. This has now been done for our decendants"
Former Chief Rabbi Bent Melchior in an introduction letter for "Among Danish Jews"
A fascinating insight and understanding of the historical background of the Danish Jewish society would have been available to us today, if only a photographer had conceived the idea of documenting their lives in 1896.
Unfortunately, no one did.
Our contemporary daily existence is often perceived as a triviality. Lives pass by and then are gone again.
In this sense, the 4,000 black and white photographs I have taken in the attempt to document the Jewish community in Denmark, could be conceived as a triviality, but hopefully, in the years to come these pictures will be considered otherwise.
I have often been told that the Jewish community in Denmark will continue to exist. It can easily be said that the community of today is well integrated within the Danish society. I have also come to realize that many Danish Jews prefer to remain anonymous, that "they find it easier to put veils over their heads."
I have experienced time and again, during the short three year span of this project, the older generation passing on. Individuals, shops, and organizations cease to exist - only a short time after I have photographed them.
It has been stated by the cultural sociologist, Jacques Blum that,
"Another indicator of the growing assimilation is mixed marriages. It can be ascertained that only one out of five among the younger Jewish population will marry another Jew.
Unless Denmark receives significant groups of Jewish refugees or immigrants in the years to come, there is a considerable risk that the Danish Jewish community will vanish as such within the next generation or two."
On one of the main streets of Århus, the city where I lived after moving from Israel in 1985, there is a very small cemetary just along the sidewalk.
One morning, I noticed that the cemetery had been vandalized, and taking a closer look, saw that the lettering on many of the gravestones was in Hebrew. This awoke my curiousity, particularly because I was not aware that there had ever been a Jewish population living in Denmark. I started to research the subject at the Århus Public Library, and learned that the Danish Jewish community consists of approximately 6,000 people, the majority of whom live in the Copenhagen area today. At the same time, I also discovered that there was very little written material concerning the community of today, and even less photographic documentation.
At this point, the idea for this work originated and I realized that such a project would have considerable value. The Danish historian, Merete Christiansen, initially guided me as to how I could approach the subject. Eventually, I contacted the head librarian from the Jewish Department of the Royal Library, Ulf Haxen, without whose help this project could not have been realized. He, as well as Vitali Berenstein and Egon Keck from the same department supported the idea and were exceptionally helpful in every way possible.
I was equally fortunate to receive a special grant from Niels Højlund's Culture Fund, which is a part of the Danish Ministry of Culture, as well as from the Society for Danish-Jewish History. And that is how it all came about.
 Although
I was brought up in a Jewish-American home, and lived over twenty
years in Israel, I have never actually considered myself an observant
Jew.
Nevertheless, since the beginning of this project in 1989, it fascinated
me to meet a culture, which is an integrated part of my background
and my own family's history. I have come to feel that religion can
be expressed through an art form, as a very personal, deep experience.
It is one thing to portray a community by the click of a camera; another
is to capture the core of their humanity. If I, as a photographer,
can manage to capture just one moment of that reality on my negative,
which is real, then I will have reached my ultimate goal.
My camera is my partner. It plays as essential a part in the entire
process as myself, as well as the object I am photographing. I attempt
to freeze an attitude and grab the moment of a certain atmosphere.
At the same time, my presence as the photographer, should never dominate
the negative.
I perceive the meaning behind documentary photography as the making
of a statement, which will eventually be translated by the viewer.
It is the viewer's prerogative to interpret the image.
This is my intention.
The darkroom is my refuge, where I experience my first contact with the negative. For me, it is a private place, where fantasy, creativity and intuition meet together with techinque; the place where the most exciting seconds of photography occur.
In the years I have worked on this project, I have sometimes discovered that the expression of a hand or a face, reminds me remarkably of the very Jewish culture that I was brought up with.
Earlier memories of my grandparents rush to my mind, as I work with a particular negative in the darkroom. Suddenly I remember how they used their Yiddish language with their entire body. As a child, I was then quite unappreciative of a language which I could barely understand. Today, I see Yiddish as one of the most physically expressive languages I know.
This has brought me to the conclusion that even though a culture is spread over continents and speaks numerous languages, it will still maintain its similarity in body language.
Not being a member of the Mosaic community, has at times caused me great difficulty in gaining access to photographing the Jewish society.
At other times, I have had a warm, enriching collaboration and have gained several close friendships through my work on "Among Danish Jews."
Although I have taken over 4,000 photographs of the Danish Jewish community, I feel I have only captured a short glimpse of their rich history. I have not, for example, been to the provinces where only few of the population still reside.
As such, this "portrait" should not be perceived as a definitive statement. It is only a fraction of an impression, which all in all, sketches a moment of my own, personal experiences with the Danish Jewish community.
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