MAI 2015
Artifact of the month for May 2015
Speech at the Wergeland Monument, 17th May 1881
Speech at the Wergeland Monument, 17th May 1881
Jacob Herman Prager (1836 – 1898)
Jacob Herman Prager was born in Aschersleben in Germany in 1836, where his father, Isidor Prager was a rabbi. In 1876 he came to Christiania with his wife Jenny (b. Levy). The couple eventually had seven children, amongst them a daughter, Else Sarah, who died in 1885, and was the first to be buried in the Jewish part of the Sofienberg cemetery. Herman Prager left Norway in 1887 and returned with his family to Germany. In 1917, his son Frithjof (1878-1946) came back to Norway. He ran an agency business in Oslo and married Rosa (b. Behak) in the late 1920’s. Herman Prager died in Hamburg in 1898, survived by his wife by 31 years.
The first time the Jews in Norway appeared publicly and hence manifested their position as Norwegian Jews, happened on the 17th of Mai 1881 when the Wergeland Monument in Studenterlunden was unveiled. Approximately fifty thousand people were gathered around the monument, and Bjornstjerne Bjornson was the keynote speaker. After Bjornson came Herman Prager forward as the representative of the Norwegian Jews. At the end of the speech, which was received with applause, Prager put down a laurel wreath at the monument, adorned with ribbons in Norwegian colors and with the following inscription: You, who sacrificed your ability for humanity, your memory will live forever, with Norwegian Jews. The annual tradition of Norwegian-Jewish youth’s 17th of Mai ceremony on Wergelands grave, arise from this event.
Herman Pragers tale:
Ved denne fest for Wergeland, om hvis aandsstorhet og overstrømmende menneskekjærlighet vi har sett saa mange beviser, bør jødernes stemme ikke savnes; og en jøde er det nu som taler til eder, en jøde er det som paa denne fest har den ære paa dette sted at rette sine ord til Wergelands landsmænd; det er ikke for at gi noget nyt bidrag til Wergelands bedømmelse at jeg har bedt om ordet; men det er for i simple ordelag paa mine herværende troesbrødres vegne atfrembringe et svakt uttryk for de norske jøders evigvarende taknemmelighetsgjæld og pietet for Henrik Wergeland. Wergeland var det, som i Norge skapte os et nyt fædreland, og Wergeland var det, som lærte os at elskee dette land. Derfor vil vi jøder stadig ved mindet om Henrik Wergeland gjøre alt vort for at bli gode borgere i den norske stat, saa det aldrig skal hete at Henrik Wergeland har hat skam av sine sønner. At lyde hans raad og stræbe efter hans idealer, den aandelige og sædelige frihets virkeliggjørelse skal være vort høieste maal. Henrik Wergeland var humanitetens apostel og som saadan har han foruten alt det andet gode ogsaa utvirket at svække og tilintetgjøre de tunge paa jøderne hvilende fordomme. Det er idag reist et synlig monument av sten og bronce av Henrik Wergeland. Men vi jøder, vi bærer Henrik Wergelands minde i uforgjengelig erindring i vore hjerter og i sine verker har han efterladt os et testamente, et livslangt billede av sig og sin inderlige kjærlighet til sine medmennesker og sit fædreland, et oprop til den hele menneskeslægt om kjærlighet, endrægtighet og forsoning.
Harry M. H. Koritzinsky, Jødernes historie i Norge. Henrik Wergelands kamp for jødesaken. Oslo, 1922. Side 61-62.
Jacob Herman Prager
Wergelands-monumentet, 17. mai 1881