The Bent Melchior Prize

A tribute to passionate people

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When Chief Rabbi Bent Melchior was asked how he wanted to be remembered, the answer was: "As a person who has gone out of his way to make this world a better place."

The Bent Melchior Award is an annual award presented by Brobyggerne. The award honors passionate individuals who, with perseverance and patience, make an effort to step onto the bridge and meet others with openness, curiosity, and critical thinking.

The Bent Melchior Award goes to passionate people who:

Goes out of their way to make the world a better place
works to promote dialogue between people with different views of humanity and world perceptions
serve as an exponent of fundamental human rights and respect for the dignity every individual
demonstrate tolerance, openness and curiosity towards other people's points of view.

Who was Bent Melchior?

Bent Melchior (1929-2021) was a prominent religious leader. He was seen by many as a father figure who fought open-mindedly to make the world a better place. He fought for better conditions for refugees and defended the rights of religious minorities in Denmark, among many other things.

Bent Melchior was born in 1929 in the town of Bytom, then part of Germany, to Danish parents. In 1933 the family returned to Denmark, but at the age of 14 Bent and his family had to flee to Sweden. After the liberation of Denmark, the family returned to Denmark. Bent graduated from Frederiksberg Gymnasium in 1947. After an unsuccessful attempt to become a lawyer, he studied to become a rabbi in England. From 1963 he was rabbi at the Jewish Community in Copenhagen, where he became Chief Rabbi in 1969, a position he held until his retirement in 1996.

Bent had a great influence on the Jewish community and translated the Pentateuch into Danish. After his retirement, he continued his work for democracy and human rights and engaged in humanitarian work for associations such as the Danish Refugee Council, Amnesty International and the Danish Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. He was a Knight 1st Class of the Order of the Dannebrog and received, among other things, the State of Israel's badge of honor. Bent was married to Lilian Melchior, with whom he had four sons.

Watch the short film "Voices in the Silence" made by Humanity in Action about Bent and his family's escape to Sweden during World War II.

Watch the short film

Ozlem-Cekic-og-Bent-Melchior-foran-Grundtvig--scaled

Bent and Özlem's friendship

In 2010, Bent Melchior attended a dinner held in the Danish Parliament to mark the end of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan. The event was organized by Özlem Cekic, who is now secretary general of the Bridge Builders Association. The meeting between the two marked the beginning of a very special friendship, nourished by what they both fought for: improving the conditions for coexistence in a multicultural society. Together, Bent and Özlem traveled throughout Denmark to tell their stories and share their joint vision of how we can work with dialogue and tolerance - and together sharpen our ability to embrace our differences. In 2015, they received the NFS Grundtvig Prize for their interfaith work, and in 2019, they founded the Association of Bridge Builders – Center for Dialogue Coffee. Bent was chairman of the association's board until he passed away on July 28, 2021.

Curious about the friendship between Bent and Özlem? Anders Jerichow (commentator, journalist and author) has written the book Bridge Builders, which is a conversation and reportage book about the two passionate souls and their fight for democracy. Read more about the book here.

The prize

- a statuette by Jens Galschiot

The Bent Melchior Award consists of a very special teardrop-shaped statuette made by the Danish artist Jens Galschiot. The statuette is a trophy that is handed down each year by the previous award winner and is thus passed on from enthusiast to enthusiast. In addition to the statuette, the award recipient will receive DKK 10,000 in cash as an extra recognition of their important work.

The award recipient may be a passionate spirit. But in the form of the statuette, the drop, lies the message that a passionate spirits zeal can spread ripples in the water. A single drop, big or small, can grow and form large ripples in the ocean of humanity that makes up our society. And when the statuette is passed on from passionate person to passionate person, it is also a reminder of the vast sea of people who, every day and in their own way, change the world for the better

Awards Committee

Özlem Cekic

Secretary General of Brobyggerne

Jair Melchior

Chief Rabbi, Bent Melchior's grandson and chairman of the board of Brobyggerne

Alan Melchior

Bent Melchior's son

Per Magid

Lawyer and friend of Bent Melchior

Ulla Skorstengaard

Former parish priest in Gilleleje Parish

Anders Jerichow

Journalist and author of the book Bridge Builders

Bridge Builders

The Bridge Builders - Center for Dialogue Coffee was created to strengthen dialogue, tolerance and understanding between people with different opinions, values and ways of life.

We want to promote a society that handles its conflicts and disagreements with words and arguments - not violence and threats.