By Cantor Elias Roochvarg

I am a cantor. In addition to being interested in Jewish music, I love to travel to unfamiliar communities to observe Jewish life. Recently, my wife and I were in Copenhagen. Knowing well in advance that we would be there on a Sabbath, I asked if we might visit the Great Synagogue. I was asked to send a copy of our passports, which I did. I eventually received an email that Linda and I were welcome to visit.

So on that Friday evening, after dinner, Linda went back to the hotel while I walked to the Great Copenhagen Synagogue. As a sign of the times in which we live, there were auto barricades on the corner and two Danish guards in front of the synagogue. They directed me to a side entrance and told me to ring the intercom. After a few moments, a non-uniformed Israeli checked my ID and let me in.

( Jewish geography story: Within a moment of conversation, we discovered that he had grown up on the same street in Jerusalem where I had lived as a student!)

It was 7:55 and I was the first to arrive in the sanctuary for an 8:00 service. The words high above the ark are the Hebrew for“ Know before whom you stand.”

The Great Synagogue of Copenhagen

When I arrived, a mechitza( divider) had been set up in the center aisle so that the few women who would show up would not have to climb all the way to the

balcony.

At 8:00., when the service was scheduled to start, I was still the only person in the sanctuary. But within a few minutes, several

people began to arrive. I got a good look at each of them when they came in, and they were all in their teens and 20s. By the time the service started at about 8:15, there were about 20 men and 20 women besides myself, and none of them over about 30.

The rabbi, who led the Friday service, looked to be in his mid- 30s. The actual Sabbath service was led by a layperson. To my pleasant surprise, I was able to participate in most of the service. I had assumed that they might use a lot of unfamiliar( to me) Danish melodies, but most were either Israeli or composed by Shlomo Carlebach, so I was able to sing along. The main part of the Sabbath service was highly participatory, and I was gratified that I could join in.

After the service, I introduced myself to the rabbi and asked him( in Hebrew) how it was that almost all the congregants were so young.( Actually, the way I put it was,“ Where are all the old people?”) He asked if I would be coming back in the morning, to which I responded affirmatively. He said the situation would be reversed at the morning service, which is their main service, and at which there would be a much wider spectrum of ages.

But once again, as a sign of the

times, just as the service ended, the rabbi received a message( in Danish) that we should not yet leave the building. Apparently, toward the end of the service, some people outside the synagogue had shouted antisemitic remarks, and the Danish guards wanted to ensure it was safe before we exited. Five minutes later, we got the all-clear and left. Saturday, June 28.

The rabbi ' s prediction proved accurate: There were about 100 worshippers at the morning service, including Linda.( The sanctuary ' s seating capacity is probably 300 or 400.) Because this service was better attended, the mechitza had been removed, and women had to sit upstairs. There was no air conditioning, so Linda tells me it got uncomfortably warm. They also don ' t use a microphone on Shabbat, but the prayer leaders and rabbi projected their voices well.

Shortly after I arrived, I was approached by the person giving out honors. It would have been natural to offer a visitor an aliyah( which involves reciting two short blessings at the Torah). But I was offered the maftir aliyah, which involves chanting four blessings and the haftarah( pro-

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