How much pain, joy, anger, humour, boredom, insight, frustration, spiritual reformation, and existential revolution would have been denied if Catrine Rørdam had cried off her hostess duties? How many sleepless nights and ruined careers, how much spilled ink, and how many trees have given their lives as a result of Catrine Rørdam’s coffee klatches? It is because of her hospitality that Søren was put into the path of the two people with the most impact on his writing career. Søren first met Regine in 1837 at a gathering hosted by the mother of his friend Peter Rørdam. And it was that same year at another of her soirees Søren first made the acquaintance of a young Aron Goldschmidt. It is not easy being Jewish and Danish in the nineteenth century. True, there is no outright oppression, and Russian or German Jews have it worse, but that does not take away from the steady unease one feels in Danish society. No matter how well you fight in the army, teach in the university, or write in the press—any Jewish person in the public eye is always waiting for the other shoe to drop.
