About Iceland
Iceland, a Nordic island nation, is defined by its dramatic landscape with volcanoes, geysers, hot springs and lava fields. Massive glaciers are protected in Vatnajökull and Snæfellsjökull national parks. Most of the population lives in the capital, Reykjavik, which runs on geothermal power and is home to the National and Saga museums, tracing Iceland’s Viking history.
According to the ancient manuscript Landnámabók, the settlement of Iceland began in the year 874 AD when the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfr Arnarson became the first permanent settler on the island. The climate of Iceland's coast is subarctic. The warm North Atlantic Current ensures generally higher annual temperatures than in most places of similar latitude in the world. Historically the population of Iceland were farmers that also fished cod throughout the Atlantic and often in the winter months when farming wasn’t possible. Today the fishing industry is still very important for the economy.
Jewish History, POI & Kosher Establishments in Iceland
It is widely assumed that the first Jews to travel to Iceland were traders and merchants who arrived as early as 1625. Most of these merchants came from Denmark, and trade continued during the 18th and 19th centuries. Native Icelanders owned most of the trading businesses, but a small number of wholesale firms in Iceland were owned by Danish Jews. The Jewish community that exists in Iceland today is extremely small and has generally liked to go unnoticed, though signs of Jewish identity in the public are beginning to emerge. Of the roughly 300,000 people who live in Iceland, it is believed that no more than 50 to 100 are Jewish, nearly all of whom live in the country's capital city of Reykjavik. Most of Iceland's Jews are Israeli, European or American immigrants who are married to native Icelanders; there are only a couple of fully Jewish couples in the country. Religious observance is very minimal, though the Jewish community tries to gather together in Reykjavik on the Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Passover. These get-togethers are coordinated by Mike Levin, an American immigrant and the Jewish community's unofficial spokesman. "I have two kids, and I wanted them to have some sort of Jewish experience," he explains. In 2011, Rabbi Berel Pewzner, a Chabad emissary, made a trip to Reykjavik to organize a Passover seder. "It was the first kosher seder ever held in Iceland, and we had more than 50 people join us," Pewzner recounts. Encouraged by the response, he returned in September 2011 to organize services and meals for the High Holy Days. "We had our first minyan here since World War II, and for many of those who came, it was first time they ever heard a shofar."
