THE OLYMPICS

By Shalya Kateff

NORWAY FLAG

JEWISH PEOPLE IN NORWAY

Norway comprises the

western part of

Scandinavia in Northern

Europe.

The Jewish people in

Norway are one of the

country's smallest

cultural and religious

groups in Norway.

Stunning and exciting

views and landscape is

found throughout Norway

Norway's population

numbers are roughly 5

million.

Norway has two official

languages .

HISTORY OF JEWISH PEOPLE IN NORWAY

First word of Jews in Norway were those expelled

from Portugal and Spain in 1492.

In 1892 there were enough Jews to form a

synagogue in Oslo.

758 Norwegian Jews were murdered by the Nazis

during the Holocaust mostly in death camps, only

559 Jews remained in Norway in 1946.

SYNAGOGUES IN NORWAY

There are no special customs. Like in other Shuls

(orthodox) ladies sit upstairs. We have a kiddush after

the service and different families host the kiddush every

Shabbat. The community pays for that. Ladies don't

need to wear hats. We have a Jewish nursery school with

about 30 children. We have a Jewish aged home next to

the Shul with about 20 flats. We have a rabbi and a

cantor. We have a kosher shop that is about 20 sq.

meters big! It is open twice a week for 3 hours in the

late afternoons. Our meat is all imported and we buy it

frozen. Shchita is not allowed in Norway. There are very

few people here who keep kosher. We do. We cannot just

go and buy things in the shops, we have a list that is

called our "kosher list". We can't buy cheese for

instance, as it is made with rennit (from pigs) so that is

also imported. I go around the shops looking at the

ingredients of the things I want to buy - if there is

something that I don't usually buy. We can only buy

bread from certain bakeries. We never ever go out

eating as the restaurants are not kosher - when I go out

with my friends, I usually have a salad of some sort.

JEWISH CUSTOMS IN NORWAY

Information on the

customs was received

from my Great Auntie

Enid who lives in

Norway.