It was a tough day today in Copenhagen. Sun was shining, people were out and about, bikers riding down alleys and the Danes laid out to tan and congregate in massive droves on the bright green lawns around the city. And I? I met one defeat after another. I was not able to procure permission to take pictures at the Danish Jewish Museum because it is a rip-off. One video and about ten display cases for the cost of almost ten dollars just because they have it in the Charles the emancipators library and had an expensive interior decorator. I spoke with Astrid about the world Jewry because the curator was too busy to speak with me. I found two synagogues that had no sign of ever being synagogues and the old synagogue did not have services today as advertised. Thus I was forced to scrap my plan to leave early morning for Oslo and all the Judaism I saw was an ancient inscription on the church inside which Torah scrolls were hidden during the war. And then… a light. In form of Economist series of articles about the Jews. They were not bad and it is good to see such articles in print but it was another series of articles with the same cliches of someone who has spent a couple days on the subject, hasn’t traveled to the places they speak about with an authoritative voice (that I might be guilty of as well) but mostly just giving people the wrong idea and reinforcing stereotypes about communities and countries that deserve more…
I was this close (how do I show a space this big ” “) to quiting, thinking my time is wasted, my savings are wasted, that no one needs this, that I’m doing a terrible job and that I will find nothing. And now I realise that at least I am not kept ignorant by reading those articles by finding out what really happens with the Jews, I realize that there maybe another one or two people who may read about what I see and the people who live in these places have somewhat of a voice.
Well, two more months of this doesn’t seem so bad anymore.