Danish government outlines 15 initiatives to battle escalating Anti-Semitism

Among the measures, the Holocaust will be compulsory learning for children and counter-measures will be stepped up in environments where the hatred is particularly prevalent

On 14 November 2019, dozens of Anti-Semitic acts were conducted all over Denmark – including the desecration of over 80 Jewish headstones in Randers – to mark the 81st anniversary of Kristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass), a pogrom against Jews living in Germany carried out by the Nazis. It wasn’t even a round number anniversary. 

READ MORE: Anti-Semites leave ugly stain on country

In the November 2021 local elections, David Zepernick, a councillor seeking re-election in Frederiksberg, woke up one morning to find one of his posters daubed in swastikas, the symbol of the Nazis. The suggestion was that Zepernick is Jewish, but he isn’t.  

READ MORE: Swastikas flying both ways: election poster vandals using them to target both left and right-wing candidates

All of this is happening in a country that famously rallied together to save its Jews from extermination in the Nazi death camps in the autumn of 1943 – the same nation served a stark reminder of the evils of Anti-Semitism when Jewish security guard Dan Uzan was murdered whilst guarding the city’s main synagogue in February 2015. 

READ MORE: Marking the 75th anniversary of the rescue of the Danish Jews

So maybe it’s no surprise that the government is tackling the problem of escalating anti-Semitism in Denmark seriously.

Today it has presented 15 initiatives (see below) in a bid to turn the tide. The primary focus is education.

Danish government: anti-Semitism is unacceptable
The teaching of the Holocaust in schools, as well as Danish-Jewish cultural history, will be compulsory learning for children.

The efforts will be funded, which is good news for cultural centres like the Danish Jewish Museum, which will be encouraged to hold more exhibitions and debates.

Additionally, preventative measures will be stepped up in environments where anti-Semitism is particularly prevalent, more targeted research will be carried out, and “the maintenance of the necessary security efforts to protect Jews and Jewish institutions” will continue.

“We know from European studies that some Danish Jews avoid carrying objects that can identify them as Jews, and that some experience being harassed at school and at work, simply because they are Jews,” explained the justice minister, Nick Hækkerup. 

“We cannot and will not accept that.”

READ MORE: Denmark refuses to ban the ritual circumcision of boys




  • Becoming a stranger in your own country

    Becoming a stranger in your own country

    Many stories are heard about internationals moving to Denmark for the first time. They face hardships when finding a job, a place to live, or a sense of belonging. But what about Danes coming back home? Holding Danish citizenship doesn’t mean your path home will be smoother. To shed light on what returning Danes are facing, Michael Bach Petersen, Secretary General of Danes Worldwide, unpacks the reality behind moving back

  • EU Foreign Ministers meet in Denmark to strategize a forced Russia-Ukraine peace deal

    EU Foreign Ministers meet in Denmark to strategize a forced Russia-Ukraine peace deal

    Foreign ministers from 11 European countries convened on the Danish island of Bornholm on April 28-29 to discuss Nordic-Baltic security, enhanced Russian sanctions, and a way forward for the fraught peace talks between Kyiv and Moscow

  • How small cubes spark great green opportunities: a Chinese engineer’s entrepreneurial journey in Denmark

    How small cubes spark great green opportunities: a Chinese engineer’s entrepreneurial journey in Denmark

    Hao Yin, CEO of a high-tech start-up TEGnology, shares how he transformed a niche patent into marketable products as an engineer-turned-businessman, after navigating early setbacks. “We can’t just wait for ‘groundbreaking innovations’ and risk missing the market window,” he says. “The key is maximising the potential of existing technologies in the right contexts.”

  • Gangs of Copenhagen

    Gangs of Copenhagen

    While Copenhagen is rated one of the safest cities in the world year after year, it is no stranger to organized crime, which often springs from highly professional syndicates operating from the shadows of the capital. These are the most important criminal groups active in the city

  • “The Danish underworld is now more tied to Scandinavia”

    “The Danish underworld is now more tied to Scandinavia”

    Carsten Norton is the author of several books about crime and gangs in Denmark, a journalist, and a crime specialist for Danish media such as TV 2 and Ekstra Bladet.

  • Right wing parties want nuclear power in Denmark

    Right wing parties want nuclear power in Denmark

    For 40 years, there has been a ban on nuclear power in Denmark. This may change after all right-wing parties in the Danish Parliament have expressed a desire to remove the ban.

Connect Club is your gateway to a vibrant programme of events and an international community in Denmark.