After the Rescue: Jewish Identity and Community in Contemporary Denmark

Review
"[C]omprehensive, nuanced, and beautifully written. Buckser skillfully weaves data from historical sources with rich ethnography and succeeds in depicting [the Jewish community of Denmark] sensitively and as objectively as is humanly possible. In doing so he provides valuable guidance for how to conduct research when challenged by enormous scale and social complexity, conditions common to late modern urban society." --Leonard Plotnicov, Professor of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, and Editor of Ethnology

"After the Rescue is a comprehensive and lively anthropological study of the Jewish community of Copenhagen and Denmark since World War II. Although the author is an anthropologist, the book is equally relevant for sociologists, suggesting that the often arbitrary boundaries between them can be overcome or ignored. After the Rescue is a welcome addition to the ethnic, community and ethnographic literatures of both disciplines." --Herbert J. Gans, Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, Columbia University, and author most recently of Democracy and the News

"After the Rescue is a timely contribution to the anthropology of Jews and Judaism. Too long, the Jewish communities of post-Holocaust Europe have figured as nostalgic shells. Now on the eve of the creation of a United States of Europe, Andrew Buckser recuperates the vibrant voices of a remarkable Diaspora community."--Matti Bunzl, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign



Review
"[C]omprehensive, nuanced, and beautifully written. Buckser skillfully weaves data from historical sources with rich ethnography and succeeds in depicting [the Jewish community of Denmark] sensitively and as objectively as is humanly possible. In doing so he provides valuable guidance for how to conduct research when challenged by enormous scale and social complexity, conditions common to late modern urban society." --Leonard Plotnicov, Professor of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, and Editor of Ethnology

"After the Rescue is a comprehensive and lively anthropological study of the Jewish community of Copenhagen and Denmark since World War II. Although the author is an anthropologist, the book is equally relevant for sociologists, suggesting that the often arbitrary boundaries between them can be overcome or ignored. After the Rescue is a welcome addition to the ethnic, community and ethnographic literatures of both disciplines." --Herbert J. Gans, Robert S. Lynd Professor of Sociology, Columbia University, and author most recently of Democracy and the News

"After the Rescue is a timely contribution to the anthropology of Jews and Judaism. Too long, the Jewish communities of post-Holocaust Europe have figured as nostalgic shells. Now on the eve of the creation of a United States of Europe, Andrew Buckser recuperates the vibrant voices of a remarkable Diaspora community."--Matti Bunzl, Assistant Professor of Anthropology and History, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign



Book Description
In October of 1943, the Danish resistance rescued almost all of the Jews in Copenhagen from roundups by the occupying Nazis. In the years since, Jews have become deeply engaged in a Danish culture that presents very few barriers of anti-Semitism or prejudice. This telling ethnographic study explores the questions that such inclusion raises for the Danish Jews, and what their answers can tell us about the meaning of religion, ethnicity, and community in modern society.

Social scientists have long argued that modernity poses challenges to traditional ethnic communities, by breaking down the networks of locality, kinship, religion and occupation that have held such communities together. For Danish Jews, inclusion into the larger society has led to increasing fragmentation, as the community has split into a bewlidering array of religious, social, and political factions. The community's persistent vitality in the face of such fragmentation, and the ongoing importance of Jewishness to the self-identity of its members, points to a new understanding of the meaning of ethnic community in contemporary society.



About the Author
Andrew Buckser is Associate Professor of Anthropology at Purdue University. He is author of Communities of Faith: Sectarianism, Identity, and Social Change on a Danish Island.



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In October of 1943, the Danish resistance rescued almost all of the Jews in Copenhagen from roundups by the occupying Nazis. In the years since, Jews have become deeply engaged in a Danish culture that presents very few barriers of anti-Semitism or prejudice. This telling ethnographic study explores the questions that such inclusion raises for the Danish Jews, and what their answers can tell us about the meaning of religion, ethnicity, and community in modern society.

Social scientists have long argued that modernity poses challenges to traditional ethnic communities, by breaking down the networks of locality, kinship, religion and occupation that have held such communities together. For Danish Jews, inclusion into the larger society has led to increasing fragmentation, as the community has split into a bewlidering array of religious, social, and political factions. The community's persistent vitality in the face of such fragmentation, and the ongoing importance of Jewishness to the self-identity of its members, points to a new understanding of the meaning of ethnic community in contemporary society.


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