On the 19th of September, 2012, the exhibition „Wergeland‘s Legacy. Jewish Life in Norway“ was opened in the Tolerance Centre of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum in cooperation with Oslo Jewish Museum in Norway and the Embassy of Norway to Lithuania. Opening ceremony was dedicated to the Lithuania‘s Jews Genocide Day. Exhibition presents the story of the Jewish people in Norway from 1851 to 1945. It was first shown at the Norsk Folkemuseum in Oslo in 2001 and travelled within Norway, later to Poland and Israel. Through texts and photographs from private albums and archives, the exhibition gives an overall view of the Jewish life in Norway for about a hundred years. Most of all, the exhibition is about people, their dreams, the lives of the people who fled away from terror and persecution and who looked for the land where they “could sleep peacefully at night”.

Sidsel Levin, Director of the Oslo Jewish Museum, participated in the opening. In her speech she talked about the concept of the exhibition, and marked that many Jews, who immigrated to Norway during those years, were linked to Lithuania and the surrounding countries. Ambassador of the Kingdom of Norway to Lithuania H. E. Leif A. Ulland and the Deputy Director of the Vilna Gaon State Jewish Museum Kamilė Rupeikaitė, also addressed the audience. It was Deputy Director Rupeikaitė, who showed the initiative to present the joint project with Oslo Jewish Museum in Lithuania. Ambassador of Norway talked about the personal achievements of Henrik Wergeland (1808 – 1845) and his fight for the human rights. „When Norway separated from Denmark and got its own constitution in 1814 it was a very liberal and forward looking document except in one important respect. Article 2 of that constitution made clear that Jews were not allowed into the country. It is a sad fact that this was also the case in other countries in Europe. This article in the constitution caused great controversy at the time. The person in the forefront in the struggle to remove the article from the Constitution was Henrik Wergeland. He is probably the greatest poet Norway has ever had, but he also contributed on many other levels such as language, culture and politics”, told the Ambassador. 

Norwegian Soloist Sein Skjervold, currently living in Lithuania, performed during the opening of the exhibition.

Exhibition „Wergeland‘s Legacy. Jewish Life in Norway“ will travel to Kaunas IX Fort Museum already this December. Later on it will be exhibited in Lithuania‘s schools, throughout the country. Students will have a chance to learn from the unique history of Norwegian Jews.