Grand Hotel Adds Jewish Artifacts

By Yehuda Sugar, Chabad.org
Photos: Joseph Pessar

Two years ago, the Jews of Norway—small in number and historically reserved—marched boldly as ever down Oslo’s main street with a new Torah scroll to the local Chabad center, landing for dancing and a festive meal at the Nobel Peace Prize’s official host hotel.

Last month, they gathered again at the same location, the iconic Grand Hotel, to once again celebrate their heritage at a high-profile event—this time the dedication of a pricey gold menorah in the hotel’s art gallery.

A throng of intent onlookers, some with tears in their eyes, stood by in the lush dark-paneled room off the lobby of the hotel as the glistening new gold menorah was placed near where Nobel Peace Prize winners receive the high accolade, and where presidents and heads of state gather for high-level meetings.

“Both of these events represent major breakthroughs in the sense of Judaism being displayed on the outside,” Rabbi Shaul Wilhelm, who with his wife, Esther, has been serving the community since arriving in 2004, told Chabad.org.

The lavish menorah was donated by the Philipson family of New York, formerly of Oslo, who with the help of friends also donated the Torah scroll celebrated at the August 2016 ceremony.

Some 400 people were in attendance at the Torah inauguration festivities—the first of its kind in the country’s history. In a country where assimilation is probably 95 percent, both events were greeted as a great boost to Jewish confidence and pride.

Among the mixture of some 40 Jews and non-Jews at the more intimate affair on Aug. 29 was David Weinberg, vice president of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategic Studies.

“It was thrilling to witness the respect that the directors of the Grand Hotel—a Norwegian icon—accorded to Chabad and the Jewish community, and to see the growth of the Jewish community,” said Weinberg, who was in Oslo to speak before a lobbying group. “Rabbi Wilhem is a true leader. It was also a privilege to meet Mr. Ben Philipson and his family.”

Another participant, Gonen Botel, an Israeli who has lived in Oslo for the past 20 years, agreed with Wilhelm’s view, adding that the public celebrations of recent history “are proof that a Jewish lifestyle can be maintained in Norway.”

Some 2,500 Jews, half of them in Oslo, reside in the Nordic country—the northernmost Jewish community in the world—where until 1851 by constitutional law Jews were forbidden to live. Jewish slaughter is still prohibited, and the Jewish rite of circumcision is under constant legal threat in an atmosphere Wilhelm describes as historically “challenging to Jewish practice.”

The menorah-placing, including a heartfelt welcome from the hotel’s director and words of inspiration about the power of a menorah’s light over darkness by Wilhelm and a blowing of the shofar by the rabbi, was held in the hotel’s stately library and art gallery among high-priced art and artifacts, where three Israeli prime-minister recipients of the Nobel Peace Prize are pictured.

A sumptuous breakfast (apparently, the hotel’s first kosher one) followed. In another area of the hotel, a pavilion and restaurant section where pictures of well-known visitors to the hotel line the walls, the hotel—to the community’s delight—hung a picture of Wilhelm and Philipson holding the Torah scroll two years ago, timed to coincide with the menorah ceremony.

Avid blogger Suzanne Aabel of Oslo couldn’t wait to step away from the proceedings to post a message and a picture of the menorah on social media: “One small step for Norway,” she wrote. “One huge step for light and peace.”

Architect Nir Gilad, a longtime friend of the Wilhelms, came from London, joining an Oslo friend at the affair. “This is an historic event, and it is extremely important,” he said. “The Grand Hotel is a historic building, and the fact that the menorah will be placed in its gallery is a milestone in the recognition of the contribution of the Jewish people to the spreading of light in the world for the benefit of all humanity.”

The hotel, inside and out, is the picture of material luster and prominence. Outside on one side sits the parliament’s edifice; across the street is the presidential palace.

Despite their tony surroundings, the hotel staff and administration, who Wilhelm described as being “blown over by being part of two dynamic and historic Jewish events,” were more than happy to get in on the act.

“The introduction of the Torah scroll was the first international event after the renovation of the hotel,” Angelica Montez de Oca, the hotel’s director, said during the presentation.

“When Mr. and Mrs. Philipson expressed their desire after the [festive Torah] event to give us the menorah—a wonderful gift as a thank you—we realized that this is a gift that suits the hotel and its rich history as symbolizing the Nobel Prize for Peace.”