Jewish identity and the meaning of community in contemporary Denmark
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Abstract
This article examines social, ritual and political structures in the Jewish Community of Copenhagen, Denmark. This community maintains great vitality despite profound fragmentation in its membership, as well as intensive interaction by its members with non-Jewish culture. It does so by providing flexible contexts for participation by its members, so that Jews with profoundly diverse understandings of group and self can engage with Jewish identity. The community does not foster a single model of ethnic identity, but rather provides a symbolic space within which individual members can construct their own understandings of self and group. Such symbolic spaces may become increasingly essential for ethnic groups in late modern societies, where it has become difficult to maintain the sorts of cultural consensus and separation that have historically grounded ethnic communities.
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Volume/Issue
23(4)
Page Number / Article Number
712-734
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Bibliographic Information
Jewish identity and the meaning of community in contemporary Denmark. 2000: 712-734. https://archive.jpr.org.uk/object-den6
