The tracks lead back to Spain, Germany, Poland, and Russia and many other countries. The Jewish immigrants in Denmark came from a wide variety of backgrounds, and have created very different lives for themselves here.

Jewish history is full of departures, migrations and new beginnings. Jews have left many countries to start a new life somewhere else after being driven away from their homes, but also in order to pursue better careers or
business opportunities in other countries.

The Danish Jews belong to not one but many groups with different backgrounds. Families and individuals have immigrated to Denmark for approximately 400 years, sometimes few at a time or individually, other times in waves. Some chose Denmark as their destination, others ended up here by chance. Every person's story is unique, but there are also patterns shared by all European Jews.

Look deeper into the many arrivals!

Read more about the immigration history of the Danish jews in the menu to the right.

Jewish autonomy until modern times

Historically speaking, it is not long since the Jews were recognised as citizens with equal rights. Until the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Jews every-where lived as "tolerated" minorities. The price for being a religious and ethnic minority was systematic discrimination throughout the centuries. In Islamic countries, Omar's Law, in return for observing certain laws and paying an extra tax, guaranteed Jews protection and tolerance. In Europe, the representatives of the Jewish communities negotiated with noblemen, kings and clerics for so-called privileges, which gave them the right to settle - again typically in exchange for paying taxes.

Many Jewish communities in the Orient and Europe had inner autonomy with their own judicial system, schools, burial grounds, poor help, political leader-ship, civil servants and institutions such as synagogues and ritual baths. Cases concerning marriage, divorce and inheritance were settled within the community itself. This gave great freedom for upholding Jewish culture. The first Jews in Denmark are referred to in official documents as members "of the Jewish nation", and they established traditional Jewish societies complete with synagogue, school and burial ground.  

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