The Jewish Lesson of Greenland

Jewish version of Greenland's flag.

The stereotype is a rabbi takes something from the weekly Torah portion and somehow applies it to currenet events.  This week, though, I thought I might share a Jewish message we can learn from the news instead.  

Without getting political, Greenland has taken center stage, we can all agree.  What is the Jewish connection to Greenland?  Surely, some enterprising or unlucky, or maybe a bit of both, member of the tribe has links to the world's biggest island?

In fact, I am pleased to say, Jews have been connected to Greenland since at least the 16th or 17th centuries.  Dutch whalers hunted off the coasts of Greenland and there were Dutch Jews who were whalers, so it seems likely there were Dutch Jews who plied their trade around Greenland.

In the early 20th century, a Jewish meterologist who was part of a polar expedition had to have his toes amputated with scissors on account of frostbite.  Seems like they could have been a little better prepared for that possibility.  

During World War II with the establishment of an American military presence on Greenland, the Jewish population increased signficantly and there were at times more than fifty Jews living.  Chaplains who visisted conducted services as the "northernmost minyan in the world."

It was at the same time the first known Jewish resident of Greenland came to live there.  Rita Sheftelowitz was a Danish Jew who had escaped to Sweden during the war.  She became a nurse and lived on Greenland for a couple years in the 1950s before making aliyah and then eventually returning to Denmark in her later years.  

At present, the "permanent" Jewish community of Greenland is just one person, Paul Cohen, a Wisconsin native who works as a translator and with his wife also runs a bed and breakfast.  He was interviewed in several outlets in early 2023 and spoke abou this love and appreciation for the natural beauty of Greenland, the home he has made, and that while not especially religious, how his status as the entire Greenlandic Jewish community himself, he takes great pride in sharing about his culture with locals as well as Jewish tourists who always seem to find him.  

What a wonderful lesson for us.  Paul's story is so much the story of Jews everywhere in the diaspora.  Whether we are one in 57,000 or one of many, whether or not we are so observant or so knowledgable, each of us can be proud ambassadors of Judaism wherever we live.  And also like Paul, we can cultivate gratitude for God's blessings around us, whether natural, communal, or otherwise, and live our lives inspired to share our thankfulness and our Jewish pride with others.