![]() Thule Air Base (now the Pituffik Space Base) in 2005 | |
Total population | |
---|---|
1+ | |
Regions with significant populations | |
Nuuk, Narsaq, Qaanaaq | |
Languages | |
English, Danish, Greenlandic, German, Hebrew | |
Religion | |
Judaism and Christianity | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Danish Jews, American Jews, German Jews |
Greenland is a large, mostly arctic, and ice covered Island, in the Western Hemisphere, with a population of 56,789 people as of 2024. [1] There is no permanent Jewish population on the island, but there have been Jews who have lived there temporarily, like Danish Jewish soldiers, American Jewish soldiers, Israeli navy members, and members of the Israeli Air Force. [2]
There had never been a permanent Jewish community in Greenland, but Jewish fisherman have fished in its abundant waters. As Icelandic-born historian Vilhjálmur Örn Vilhjálmsson writes in his book "Antisemitism in the North", "there were certainly Jews among the first Dutch whalers in the 16th and 17th centuries." [3] [4]
In the 1920s, Alfred Wegener, who famously discovered continental drift, came to Greenland with his friend and fellow meteorologist Fritz Loewe, who was Jewish. Loewe got frostbite while trying to reach the center of Greenland. Loewe's team had to amputate his toes with scissors. [5] [2]
In 1941, the United States, built an airbase at Thule, in order to help Denmark defend Greenland, and their other colonial possessions, from increasing German aggression in Europe, prior to World War II. [6] In the 1950s there was 50 American servicemen in the Thule airbase. Inside the airbase, Shabbat, services, Passover Seders, and prayers for the Jewish High Holidays were held. As a result, previously mentioned historian Vilhjálmsson writes about Thule, "having the northernmost minyan [prayer quorum] in the world." [3]
In 1955, a German traveler, by the name of Alfred J. Fisher went to look for Jews in Greenland. To his surprise he found a nurse by the name of Rita Sheftelovich. Fischer wrote:
The friendly Danish doctor, Dr. Schmidt, took me round the various departments. Finally we reached the children's section, whose inmates were an amusing mixture of Mongolian types with slanting eyes and blond, fair-skinned babies revealing their partly Danish parentage. With some astonishment, I noticed the nurse, whose features showed neither Danish nor Greenlandic characteristics. Dr Schmidt introduced her: "Miss Rita Sheftelovich [Scheftelo-witz] from Copenhagen." Sheftelovich sounds no more Danish than François sounds Eng-lish. Moreover, Miss Sheftelovich regarded my wife and me with the same curiosity with which we looked at her.In the afternoon we met her again, since one inevitably meets ev-eryone at least two or three times a day in Egedesminde. Without any further ado, Rita now enquired in English whether by any chance we happened to be coreligionists." [7]
Rita, whose family was Religious Zionists, moved from Russia to Denmark to escape antisemitism, and to Greenland for adventure, like other young Danes. Rita lived an Orthodox Jewish lifestyle there. She was able to eat kosher by avoiding meat, and eating the fish that was plentiful in the nearby water [2]
Another person who Fischer met was Jørgen Chemnitz. He himself was not a Jew, but his grandfather was Jewish and came to Greenland. He got sick, so he could not return to Denmark, so he ended up staying and marrying a local [2]
Currently, the airbase is being used as a base for space exploration, and has been renamed to the Pituffik Space Base in 2023. [6] There currently is one man named Paul Cohen who has been living in the city of Narsaq, who works as a translator. Despite his remoteness, he says tourists are always able to find him. [3]
Antisemitism is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against, Jews. This sentiment is a form of racism, and a person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Primarily, antisemitic tendencies may be motivated by negative sentiment towards Jews as a people or by negative sentiment towards Jews with regard to Judaism. In the former case, usually presented as racial antisemitism, a person's hostility is driven by the belief that Jews constitute a distinct race with inherent traits or characteristics that are repulsive or inferior to the preferred traits or characteristics within that person's society. In the latter case, known as religious antisemitism, a person's hostility is driven by their religion's perception of Jews and Judaism, typically encompassing doctrines of supersession that expect or demand Jews to turn away from Judaism and submit to the religion presenting itself as Judaism's successor faith—this is a common theme within the other Abrahamic religions. The development of racial and religious antisemitism has historically been encouraged by the concept of anti-Judaism, which is distinct from antisemitism itself.
Antisemitism has increased greatly in the Arab world since the beginning of the 20th century, for several reasons: the dissolution and breakdown of the Ottoman Empire and traditional Islamic society; European influence, brought about by Western imperialism and Arab Christians; Nazi propaganda and relations between Nazi Germany and the Arab world; resentment over Jewish nationalism; the rise of Arab nationalism; and the widespread proliferation of anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist conspiracy theories.
Some Christian Churches, Christian groups, and ordinary Christians express religious antisemitism toward the Jewish people and the associated religion of Judaism. These can be thought of examples of anti-Semitism expressed by Christians or by Christian communities. However, the term "Christian Anti-Semitism" has also been used to refer to anti-Jewish sentiments that arise out of Christian doctrinal or theological stances. The term "Christian Anti-Semitism" is also used to suggest that to some degree, contempt for Jews and for Judaism inhere to Christianity as a religion, itself, and that centralized institutions of Christian power, as well as governments with strong Christian influence have generated societal structures that survive to this day which perpetuate anti-Semitism. This usage appears particularly in discussions of Christian structures of power within society, which are referred to as Christian Hegemony or Christian Privilege; these are part of larger discussions of Structural inequality and power dynamics.
Judaism is an Abrahamic monotheistic ethnic religion that comprises the collective spiritual, cultural, and legal traditions of the Jewish people. Judaism evolved from Yahwism, an ancient Semitic religion of the late Bronze Age to early Iron Age, likely around the 6th/5th century BCE. Along with Samaritanism, to which it is closely related, Judaism is one of the two oldest Abrahamic religions.
Scholars have studied and debated Muslim attitudes towards Jews, as well as the treatment of Jews in Islamic thought and societies throughout the history of Islam. Parts of the Islamic literary sources give mention to certain Jewish groups present in the past or present, which has led to debates. Some of this overlaps with Islamic remarks on non-Muslim religious groups in general.
Islamic–Jewish relations comprise the human and diplomatic relations between Jewish people and Muslims in the Arabian Peninsula, Northern Africa, the Middle East, and their surrounding regions. Jewish–Islamic relations may also refer to the shared and disputed ideals between Judaism and Islam, which began roughly in the 7th century CE with the origin and spread of Islam in the Arabian peninsula. The two religions share similar values, guidelines, and principles. Islam also incorporates Jewish history as a part of its own. Muslims regard the Children of Israel as an important religious concept in Islam. Moses, the most important prophet of Judaism, is also considered a prophet and messenger in Islam. Moses is mentioned in the Quran more than any other individual, and his life is narrated and recounted more than that of any other prophet. There are approximately 43 references to the Israelites in the Quran, and many in the Hadith. Later rabbinic authorities and Jewish scholars such as Maimonides discussed the relationship between Islam and Jewish law. Maimonides himself, it has been argued, was influenced by Islamic legal thought.
Qaanaaq, formerly known as Thule or New Thule, is the main town in the northern part of the Avannaata municipality in northwestern Greenland. The town has a population of 646 as of 2020. The population was forcibly relocated from its former, traditional home, which was expropriated for the construction of a United States Air Force base in 1953. The inhabitants of Qaanaaq speak the local Inuktun language and many also speak Kalaallisut and Danish.
New antisemitism is a new form of antisemitism developed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, typically manifesting itself as anti-Zionism. The concept is included in some definitions of antisemitism, such as the working definition of antisemitism and the 3D test of antisemitism. The concept dates to the early 1970s.
Pituffik Space Base, formerly Thule Air Base, is the United States Space Force's northernmost base, and the northernmost installation of the U.S. Armed Forces, located 1,210 km (750 mi) north of the Arctic Circle and 1,524 km (947 mi) from the North Pole on the northwest coast of Greenland. Pituffik's Arctic environment includes icebergs in North Star Bay, two islands, a polar ice sheet, and Wolstenholme Fjord – the only place on Earth where four active glaciers join. The base is home to a substantial portion of the global network of missile warning sensors of Space Delta 4, and space surveillance and space control sensors of Space Delta 2, providing space awareness and advanced missile detection capabilities to North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the United States Space Force, and joint partners.
The Danish resistance movement, with the assistance of many Danish citizens, managed to evacuate 7,220 of Denmark's 7,800 Jews, plus 686 non-Jewish spouses, by sea to nearby neutral Sweden during the Second World War. The arrest and deportation of Danish Jews was ordered by the German leader Adolf Hitler, but the efforts to save them started earlier due to the plans being leaked on September 28, 1943, by German diplomat Georg Ferdinand Duckwitz.
The Catholic Church and Judaism have a long and complex history of cooperation and conflict, and have had a strained relationship throughout history, with periods of persecution, violence and discrimination directed towards Jews by Christians, particularly during the Middle Ages.
The terms "self-hating Jew", "self-loathing Jew", and "auto-antisemite" are pejorative terms used to describe a Jew whose viewpoints on a specific matter, especially issues relating to Israel, are perceived as antisemitic.
The history of Jews in Denmark goes back to the 1600s. Although there were very likely Jewish merchants, sailors, and among others, who entered Denmark during the Middle Ages, back in around the year 1000, when Denmark became the first Christian Kingdom until 1536, though no efforts were made to establish a Jewish community. At present, Jewish community of Denmark constitutes a small minority of about 6,000 persons within Danish society.
The history of Jews in Sweden can be traced from the 17th century, when their presence is verified in the baptism records of the Stockholm Cathedral. Several Jewish families were baptised into the Lutheran Church, a requirement for permission to settle in Sweden. In 1681, for example, 28 members of the families of Israel Mandel and Moses Jacob were baptised in the Stockholm German Church in the presence of King Charles XI of Sweden, the dowager queen Hedvig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, and several other high state officials.
This is a list of countries where antisemitic sentiment has been experienced.
The history of the Jews in Iceland starts in 1625. In 2018, around 250 Jews were living in Iceland. They often gather to celebrate the Jewish holidays. The first rabbi to be permanently located in Iceland since 1918 moved to the country in 2018.
Antisemitism—prejudice, hatred of, or discrimination against Jews—has experienced a long history of expression since the days of ancient civilizations, with most of it having originated in the Christian and pre-Christian civilizations of Europe.
Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine—a region partly coinciding with the biblical Land of Israel—was flawed or unjust in some way.
The relations between Pope Pius XII and Judaism have long been controversial, especially those questions that surround Pope Pius XII and the Holocaust. Other issues involve Pius's Jewish friendships and his attitude towards the new state of Israel.
Zionist antisemitism or antisemitic Zionism refers to a phenomenon in which antisemites express support for Zionism and the State of Israel. In some cases, this support may be promoted for explicitly antisemitic reasons. Historically, this type of antisemitism has been most notable among Christian Zionists, who may perpetrate religious antisemitism while being outspoken in their support for Jewish sovereignty in Israel due to their interpretation of Christian eschatology. Similarly, people who identify with the political far-right, particularly in Europe and the United States, may support the Zionist movement because they seek to expel Jews from their country and see Zionism as the least complicated method of achieving this goal and satisfying their racial antisemitism.