Queen Margrethe visited the Danish Jewish Museum to mark 400 years of Jewish history in Denmark.
She also attended a celebratory service at Copenhagen Synagogue where she meet the chairman of the Danish Jewish community, Dr. Henri Goldstein, and Rabbi Yair Melchior.
This year marks the 400th anniversary of King Christian IV inviting the Jewish community to formally settle in Denmark.
Before the celebratory service in the synagogue, the Queen had the opportunity to visit the brand new traveling exhibition about Jewish life in Denmark over 400 years.
Over the next two years, the traveling exhibition will tour to seven Danish cities before returning to Copenhagen.
Queen Margrethe’s visit began at Daniel Libeskind’s new iconic entrance, followed by a tour of the museum’s brand new exhibitions.
Queen Margrethe participated in the inauguration of the Jewish museum in 2004. The museum has been extended and heavily renovated in recent years. Currently, three exhibitions take up space in the museum.
A special exhibition based on the escape and rescue of Danish Jews in October 1943 tells a European story about the escape and persecution of Jews to and from Denmark from the end of the 19th century to the present day.
The second exhibition shows a virtual journey through the mind of the aging Josef, full of painful and fragmented memories of his flight to Sweden in October 1943. The last exhibition tells about Jewish life and culture in Denmark in the 18th century.
In the synagogue, the celebratory service included speeches, group singing and musical performances by the Caroline school’s choir, which among other things performed Jewish songs in both Hebrew, Ladino and Yiddish.
His Majesty King Christian IV of Denmark officially invited Jews to settle in Denmark in November 1622, and the distinguished 400-year anniversary was therefore celebrated with style.
