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Genealogical research

The Danish Jewish Museum's collection contains both photos, objects and personal archives with relevance for family history studies. The options for searching and consulting relevant materials in the museum's collection appear here.


Inquiries that only concern genealogical and family history matters should be directed to The Society for Danish Jewish History.

 

A number of databases of genealogical information are available online:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Research

The Danish Jewish Museum emphasizes a close connection between the museum's collection, research and dissemination. The museum's research projects therefore involve the active collection of objects and source material to illuminate central issues under the museum's area of ​​responsibility.


Knowledge center with research in the collection: In addition to the museum's own research projects and publications, the museum functions as a knowledge center that regularly receives visits from researchers and students from both at home and abroad, who research the museum's collection or consult the museum's knowledge and library. 

House research: The museum wants to house new research. Specifically, we offer study places to students who want to do research within the museum's work area. Contact us on info@jewmus.dk if you have a project or task you would like to write within our area.

Two examples of in-house research: In the autumn of 2019, the museum housed a thesis from the University of Copenhagen that will examine the museum's collection of Torah pennants. The museum has previously housed the research project The Scandinavian Psalter (London, British Library, Ms. Additional 17868): Representations of Jews and Devotional Practices in Thirteenth-Century Denmark by Marina Vidas, supported by the Ny Carlsberg Foundation.

Visit: Groups from higher education institutions and universities have free access to the museum during normal opening hours when they are accompanied by a teacher. In addition, the museum offers special tours outside opening hours.

Ongoing projects

Nordic art - Jewish heart: A research project on Jewish art collectors and cultural creators in the Nordic region. The project sheds light on an overlooked chapter in Nordic cultural history and asks how Jewish art collectors became so decisive for Danish and Nordic art history in the period 1870-1930.
The Hirschsprung Collection and the Danish Jewish Museum will therefore from 2022 enter into a close collaboration with a number of Swedish researchers to uncover an overlooked but crucial chapter in Nordic cultural history. The long-term goal is to place a number of museums and the Danish-Swedish connections clearly in the international, Jewish cultural history; both with the public and in international research. Contact Sara Fredfeldt Stadager for further information.

Completed projects

Jews in Danish business life: The project was divided into several elements and was the starting point for the establishment of the site Klik&Find (site temporarily closed for updating). For questions about the project, contact the museum inspector Signe Bergman Larsen.

Wartime experiences of Danish Jews 1943-45: In 2007, the Danish Jewish Museum launched a research and documentation project on the wartime experiences of Danish Jews 1943-45. As a result of the research and documentation project 1943-45, the museum has created a unique collection of materials to illuminate the lives and conditions of Danish Jews before, during and after the Second World War. As part of the project, the museum has also acquired 123 Holocaust testimonies relating to the wartime experiences of Danish Jews from the USC Holocaust Foundation Institute.

Religion - living cultural heritage: The museum has been part of a 3-year research collaboration, financed by the Velux Foundation. The project investigated the possibilities for mutual learning between the universities, specifically the religion subject, and the museum industry's work and dissemination of religion. The project's partners are the Danish Jewish Museum, the Immigrant Museum, Den Gamle By i Århus, ROMU, Århus University and Roskilde University. Read more about the project here. 

New Danish-Jewish identity in the light of the Kibbutz: A new generation of Danish Israeli Jews is in the process of forming their identity in the tension between Denmark and Israel, religion, traditions and politics. The lived life and contemporary religion are current and significant nuances that the Danish Jewish Museum will collect in order to learn more about the Danish Jewish diversity in Denmark. The museum's new research will investigate how internal and external dynamics such as religion, family and the outside world interact when a child in a Danish Israeli family has to define his identity and belonging in Denmark today. Contact Sara Fredfeldt Stadager for more information.

Academic assignments and theses

Academic assignments and theses on Danish Jewish history and the Danish Jewish Museum. Other theses and theses can be requested from the university libraries.


Andersen, Carina

 The symbolism of architecture - An exhibition analysis of the Danish Jewish Museum in Copenhagen

University of Copenhagen, 2009.

Download here.

 

Bludnikow, Philip

"O cervix rigida!" Perceptions of Jews in Ælnoth's chronicle

University of Copenhagen, 2020.

Download here.


Chamberlain, Karen L.

History on the Internet - about the immigration of Eastern European Jews to Denmark in the period 1904-1917

RUC, 2002.

 

Christoffersen, Ida, Lise Korsgaard and Stine Thuge

A museum in its time: the Danish Jewish Museum as a place of remembrance

RUC, 2005.

 

Elgaard, Kaj, Pernille Olsen & Line Hartvig Rasch

Nathan Levin Fränkel

University of Copenhagen, 2017.

Download here

 

Jensen, Anne Øster

The Russians are coming! - a study of the Russian-Jewish immigration to Copenhagen 1904-1917

Aarhus University, 2004.

 

Juhl, Magnus Panduro

The Danish helpers of the Jews in October 1943 - An analysis of reports

University of Copenhagen, 2017

Download here

 

Juul, Brit Caroline

The Holocaust in the Danish memory. An analysis of the dissemination and reception of the Holocaust in Denmark

University of Copenhagen, 2005

Download here

 

Jorgensen, Nanna Dissing Bay

History and memory - a study of the Danish Jewish Museum as a place of remembrance

University of Copenhagen, 2004.

 

Lichtenstein, Tatjana

Jews on Display: Jewish Representation in Copenhagen 1900-1921

University of Copenhagen, 2000.
 

List, Johan

Solid ground underfoot. An investigation of the importance of the state of Israel for Jewish identity in post-war Denmark

University of Copenhagen, 2020.

Download here

 

Namer, Ditte Katrine

Danishness and religion. A discourse analysis of religion and identity in a museum

Master's conference, University of Copenhagen, 2007.

Download here

Mydtskov, Karoline Mørk

The Age of Enlightenment and its significance for the Jewish population

University of Copenhagen, 2020.

Download here
 

Nielsen, Lark

A comparative analysis of whether and how mosques and synagogues have contributed to integrating or Jews and Muslims in Danish society

University of Copenhagen, 2017

Download here
 

Olsen, Nina Skyhøj

The history of Jewish sports (1921-1959). An analysis of Jewish sports in Denmark in the period 1921-1959

Prize assignment response, University of Copenhagen, 2011.

Download here

 

Pedersen, Anne Katrine Blinkenberg

The Hallen mission among Jews in the 1700th century, with a special focus on Denmark

Prize assignment response, University of Copenhagen, 2007.

Download here

 

Pedersen, Jens Vifeldt

Danish antisemitism 1870-1900. Studies of the portrayal of Jews in Danish humor magazines

University of Copenhagen, 2007.

 

Pedersen, Rikke Smedegaard

The flight of Jews from unrest in Poland to sanctuary in Denmark - a study of the Polish-Jewish refugees 1969 - 73

University of Copenhagen, 2005.

Download here

 

Rasmussen, Inger Elisabeth

Commemorative pictures of Denmark 1938-1945 among former chalutzim

University of Copenhagen, 2008.

Download here

 

Rasmussen, Nore Luna Kornø

Danish Jewish Museum and Jüdisches Museum Berlin - A comparative analysis

University of Copenhagen, 2013.

Download here

 

Simonsen, Cecilie Speggers Schrøder

A cosmopolitan Jew – about MA Goldschmidt's relationship to Jewish emancipation

Roskilde University, 2012.

Download here

 

Sørensen, Ditte Maria

Daniel Libeskind. An aesthetic and historical-philosophical position

University of Copenhagen, 2013.

Download here

 

Ostergaard, Karin

The museum as a place of experience exemplified by the Danish Jewish Museum

University of Copenhagen, 2006.