Shabbat dinner in a former Danish church

A Jewish Israeli writer describes attending a communal dinner at Folkehuset Absalon in Copenhagen, a community house founded by Danish Jewish entrepreneur Lennart Lajboschitz in a former church. The concept, which involves strangers sharing a meal and conversation, felt familiar despite the absence of traditional Shabbat rituals. The author notes that such encounters allow individuals to connect before categorizing each other by nationality or politics, fostering a modest form of “repairing the world” by enabling disagreement within shared space. The experience highlighted that “I was an Israeli having dinner, not Israel having dinner,” emphasizing the importance of individual interaction over political identity.