All major Jewish organisations in Norway have issued a joint condemnation of the Centre for Studies of Holocaust and Religious Minorities in Oslo, accusing it of undermining the unique historical significance of the Holocaust through controversial programming, reports The Jerusalem Post.
In an open letter published this week, a broad coalition of Jewish bodies — including the National Council for Jewish Communities in Norway, Det Mosaiske Trossamfund, and Jewish communities in Trondheim and Bergen — criticised the centre’s decision to host events drawing parallels between the Holocaust and the Palestinian experience.
The controversy centres on a seminar exploring the Holocaust and the Nakba as “parallel cultural traumas,” alongside a planned event titled Holocaust Memorial after Gaza. Signatories of the letter stressed that while acknowledging suffering in modern conflicts is legitimate, linking such events to the Holocaust risks distorting its meaning.
They argued that the Holocaust represents a historically unique genocide, defined by its industrial scale and ideological aim of the total extermination of the Jewish people. Drawing direct comparisons, they warned, risks relativising that uniqueness and weakening understanding of antisemitism.
The letter also emphasised that the HL Centre carries a particular responsibility in this regard. Established in part through restitution funds tied to property confiscated from Jews during the Holocaust and supported by state funding under Norway’s Action Plan Against Antisemitism, the institution is expected to preserve the integrity of Holocaust memory.
Jewish leaders called on the centre’s board to clarify its mandate and adopt stricter guidelines to prevent the politicisation or instrumentalisation of Holocaust history in relation to contemporary conflicts.
Tensions have been heightened by previous statements from the centre’s director, Jan Heiret, who has publicly criticised Israeli policy and suggested that aspects of Israel’s conduct in Gaza could be compared to forms of ethnic cleansing. While he has rejected direct equivalence with Nazi crimes, such comparisons have been strongly rejected by Jewish organisations.
The dispute reflects a broader debate across Europe over how Holocaust memory should be preserved and taught, particularly amid rising antisemitism and increasing attempts to draw parallels between historical genocide and current political conflicts.
For Norway’s Jewish community, the issue is clear: Holocaust remembrance must remain historically grounded and protected from reinterpretation that risks diluting its meaning or obscuring the specific antisemitism that led to it.
Photo credit: ERIK JOHANSEN/NTB/AFP via Getty Images
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