Knut Hamsun: row over Norway honor for pro-Nazi Nobel laureate

"Far worse than these ageing sins of a beloved madman are the anti-Semitic incidents which we see in contemporary Norway. And equally bad - the growing consciousness of how Israel is regularly demonized by prominent Norwegians for no good reason whatsoever. This site says Knut Hamsun be damned, he is of no political significance. But oh Lord, do give us newspapermen who are able to cover the Middle East in an adult and proper manner."

Source: article in Norway, Israel and the Jews blog

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz has published an article under the title "Row grows over Norway honor for pro-Nazi Nobel laureate". We are of course talking about Knut Hamsun, the "from rags to riches" author who in the winter of his life cast his lot in with Adolf Hitler, about whom he wrote an obituary on the eve of Nazi-Germany’s defeat. In his article Haaretz journalist Cnaan Liphshiz quotes among others an analyst for the Anti-Defamation League:

"No government should honor Nazis, their collaborators or their sympathizers," said Carole Nuriel, an analyst for the Anti-Defamation League. The ADL drafted a statement on Norway in consultation with the country’s Jewish community, noting that in the framework of commemoration, the Norwegian government was "highlighting Hamsun’s moral failure, not downplaying it."

On the other hand Bjørn Svenungsen from the Norwegian Foreign Ministry emphasizes how:

… honoring Hamsun is "a commemoration of one of Norway’s most important authors." He said all parties involved have criticized Hamsun’s Nazi past. The celebration is "a tribute to Hamsun’s role in European literature, not an acceptance of his political views," Svenungsen added. "The event is also used to remember the massive criticism of Hamsun after the 1945 liberation."

Nazi collaborator and great author

The issue of Hamsun - Nazi collaborator and great author - was quite recently covered in the New York Times as well. On February 27th, 2009, Walter Gibbs (Norwegian Nobel Laureate…) included the following quotes:

"Hamsun wrote great novels, but they are completely overshadowed by his behavior as a Hitler lackey," said Jo Benkow, 84, a former president of the Norwegian parliament. "At least for my generation, it’s outrageous to give more honors. He won the Nobel Prize in 1920. That should be enough."

In Gibbs’ article, Jo Benkow is countered by a famous Norwegian Hamsun biogropher:

"We can’t help loving him, though we have hated him all these years," said Ingar Sletten Kolloen, author of "Dreamer & Dissenter," a Hamsun biography. "That’s our Hamsun trauma. He’s a ghost that won’t stay in the grave."

In response to the recent Haaretz article, several Norwegian newspapers have today run the NTB (Norwegian News Agency) article "Jewish criticism of Hamsun celebration" (Jødisk kritikk av Hamsun-markering).

In the end, all three of the abovementioned articles are the same. Is it at all possible to celebrate an author who sympathised with the Nazi-regime ? The only new voice worthwhile of comment is Manfred Gerstenfeld of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, quoted both in the Haeretz and NTB article, who claims that the national celebration of Knut Hamsun is just "the tip of the iceberg". This is the correct take on the issue of Hamsun. Like a score of other incidents and events which have taken place in Norway lately, this matter of Hamsun is, in isolation, not of such tremendous importance. Knut Hamsun was mad as a hatter, what do you expect of him?

Far worse than these ageing sins of a beloved madman are the anti-Semitic incidents which we see in contemporary Norway. And equally bad - the growing consciousness of how Israel is regularly demonized by prominent Norwegians for no good reason whatsoever.

This site says Knut Hamsun be damned, he is of no political significance. But oh Lord, do give us newspapermen who are able to cover the Middle East in an adult and proper manner.

- The "riddle" of Knut Hamsun

Geneva exhibit of Russian avant-garde art celebrates Jewish contribution to European culture

"This exhibition beautifully demonstrates the exceptional contribution of Jews to European art and culture. Chagall himself famously noted that 'If I were not a Jew...I wouldn’t have been an artist', yet few truly understood that his brush was guided by his strong Jewish identity. We hope that the works on display by internationally-recognized masters will inspire tolerance and understanding also encourage our youth to take pride in their Jewish roots as many of these artists demonstrated through the medium of art." (Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress)

Marc Chagall's Clown Musician, one of the three pieces by Chagall in the Museum of Avant-Garde Mastery (MAGMA) in Moscow. The painting is on display in Geneva in the framewok of the exhibition "My homeland is within my soul: art without broders".

GENEVA (EJP)---The Jewish Contribution to Art and European Culture will be highlighted on Thursday in Geneva with the opening of an exhibition of one of the world’s most important collections of 20th Century Russian avant-garde art.

"My Homeland is Within My Soul, Art Without Borders: The Jewish Contribution to Art and European Culture" will open in the Swiss city in the company of European government officials, members of Parliament, and the diplomatic corps at the Palais des Nations which headquarters the European seat of the United Nations.

The exhibit, which is the first-ever public presentation of the collection of the Museum of Avant-Garde Mastery ("MAGMA"), features original works by internationally-recognized Jewish art masters - including Chagall and Rothko.

Through the works themselves, the exhibit aims to promote tolerance and cultural values in contemporary society. The works are living examples of both the Jewish contribution to art and culture and European tolerance and acceptance. Although many of the exhibits were created with strong Jewish identities, their gift to European culture is a shining example of minority contribution to the multicultural and tolerant landscape within the continent.

Underlying this, the venue for the exhibit launch was deliberately chosen as the Palais de Nations/the United Nations, the heart of European diplomacy and worldwide symbol of efforts to foster a tolerant atmosphere. The art and artworks featured by the Museum and the exhibit focus on the concept of "art without borders" – the power of free expression of ideas, possible only in the atmosphere of tolerance, understanding and mutual respect among people of various nationalities and backgrounds.

The exhibit, which opened on June 11 and will run through July 17, is an example of cooperation between the United Nations Director General in Geneva, the Russian Embassy, and Moshe Kantor, Chairman and Founder of the MAGMA Museum and President of the European Jewish Congress (EJC).

"This exhibition beautifully demonstrates the exceptional contribution of Jews to European art and culture," said Kantor.

"Chagall himself famously noted that 'If I were not a Jew... I wouldn’t have been an artist', yet few truly understood that his brush was guided by his strong Jewish identity," Kantor added.

"We hope that the works on display by internationally-recognized masters will inspire tolerance and understanding also encourage our youth to take pride in their Jewish roots as many of these artists demonstrated through the medium of art."

The exhibit will feature 40 artworks from such masters as Mark Chagall, Chaim Soutine, Amedeo Modigliani, Mark Rothko, Leon Bakst, Alexander Tyshler, Jacques Lipchitz, Viktor Pivovarov, Ilya Kabakov, Erik Bulatov, Solomon Telingater, David Shterenberg, and other important Jewish artists who have made a lasting contribution to world art and culture.

Viktor Pivovarov, The Fifth Floor, 2005

Moshe Kantor shows a painting from Chaim Soutine, Confectioner of Cagnes, 1922-1923, during the opening of the exhibit in Geneva on 11 June.

Ten years ago, Moshe Kantor, President of the European Jewish Congress, came up with the idea of establishing the Museum of Avant-Garde Mastery and became its founder.

Source: article by in Yossi Lempkowicz in EJP

Drawing together - the first Israeli-Polish comic book

Article by Asi Gal in The Jerusalem Post:
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If you didn't know, 2008-2009 is Israel-Poland year. One of the many events taking place in this framework is the launching of Polisra, the first Israeli-Polish comic book - to be featured at an exhibition at Holon's Israeli Cartoon Museum and at the Tel Aviv comic books festival. The Polish Mickiewicz Institute, which initiated the book, hopes it will be a channel in creating dialogue on topics considered taboo in the two nations' histories.
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On the Polish end of things, the obvious taboo is that period that began in the late 30s - and the never fully resolved questions of complicity with the Nazis.
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"Polish people feel a lot of hatred from Israelis visiting Poland," says Amitai Sandy, publisher, art director and editor of the comic book. Sandy, along with four other Israeli comics writers, including Ze'ev Engelmayer and Noa Abarbanel, worked with five Polish comics writers [Krzysztof Ostrowski, Michał "Śledziu" Śledziński, Joanna Karpowicz, Łukasz Mieszkowski and Jakub Szczęsny].
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"When Israelis come to visit the camps, they always have security around them and are not allowed to talk with the Poles." The Poles, he says, "feel that all Israelis view them as anti-Semites."
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For their part, he asserts, many Poles "view Israelis as militant extremists who have brought Russians to Israel to use as war machines against Arabs."
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Sandy views Polisra as an opportunity to deal with history and the stereotypes connected to it. One story in the book, for instance, portrays a Polish woman who buys a picture of a Jew counting money for her new house. According to Polish tradition, such a picture brings prosperity to a new home. When no such prosperity arrives, the woman complains of the picture's failure to the salesman. The next frame depicts the salesman in his villa, surrounded by such pictures, exclaiming that, "It works for me!"
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"Humor is a great method to examine our values. It takes a situation, flips it upside down, and gives the viewer a whole new perspective on it," Sandy says.
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Regarding the potential offense viewers might experience from the application of humor to these most controversial of topics, he states: "There is always the fear that people will get hurt. However, after exhibiting my anti-Semitic caricatures" - Sandy participated in an Israeli anti-Semitic cartoon contest two years ago open to Jews only, in an intended ironic riposte to Iran's official international Holocaust cartoon competition - "I have learned that there are enough people out there who can take a joke.""
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