Antisemitism in Sweden

Sweden has a Jewish community of around 20,000, which makes it the 7th largest in the European Union. Yiddish has legal status as one of the country's official minority languages. The first Jewish members of the Riksdag, Sweden's parliament, were elected in 1873.

Many Jews came to Sweden during the 1930s and World War II in order to escape Nazi persecution. Because Sweden was neutral during World War II, the country was able to facilitate the asylum of relatively many Jews from nearby countries: in 1942, some 900 Norwegian Jews were given asylum from Nazi persecution in their home country, and, most importantly of all, almost the entire Danish Jewish community, some 8,000 people, was transported to Sweden in October 1943 (see Rescue of the Danish Jews). Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg was also active in assisting Jews.

Attention has been given to the situation in the city of Malmö, which has one of Sweden's largest Muslim communities. Following a pro-Israel rally during the Gaza War in 2008–09, organized by the city's Jewish community, there has been some discord between the local pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel communities.

Surveys show that anti-Semitism exists in Sweden. The study "Antisemitic images and attitudes in Sweden", conducted by Henrik Bachner and Jonas Ring, revealed that 1.4 percent of the population disagrees with the assertion that "Most Jews are probably decent folks". A total of 7.3 percent disagreed with the statement "Most Muslims are probably decent folks".

History of Jews in Sweden

Jews have been permitted to immigrate to Sweden since the late 18th century. Prior to this, Jews were sought after as teachers of Hebrew in the universities, but the condition for being appointed to the teaching post was that they convert to Lutheranism. As Lutheran Protestantism was in its infancy, there was a feeling of being threatened by the existence of other religions, especially Catholicism.

Jews were sought after to stimulate the Swedish economy, and were actively encouraged to settle. They required a capital of 2 000 riksdalers to obtain a letter of protection (skyddsbrev). The status of skyddsjude derived from German schutzjude and the legislation in the 18th century regulating Jews in Sweden was put together after the Parliamentary Constitutional Committee (Konstitutionsuttskottet) had obtained copies of the German laws regulating Jews in Saxony, Prussia and other German kingdoms and duchies. It was discussed in committee whether Jews should wear a distinguishing mark when walking in the street - perhaps a red or yellow hatband, but this idea was rejected. poor Jews were subject to deportation. A large number of restrictions were placed on Jews, including restriction to towns: Stockholm, Göteborg, Norrköping and Landskrona: Jews could not reside or own property in the countryside: this restriction was first removed in 1854. In 1870 Jews received full citizens' rights and the first Jewish members of the Riksdag, Aron Philipson and Moritz Rubenson, were elected in 1873. However Swedish non-Protestants, most of which were Catholics and Jews, were still not allowed to teach the subject of Christianity in public schools or to be cabinet ministers (statsråd); these restrictions were removed in 1951.

Holocaust

During the pre-war years of Hitler's power (1933–39), some 3,000 Jews migrated to Sweden to escape Nazi persecution. Because Sweden was neutral during World War II, it helped facilitate the asylum of relatively many Jews from nearby countries: in 1942, 900 Norwegian Jews were given asylum from Nazi persecution in their home country, and, most importantly of all, almost the entire Danish Jewish community, some 8,000 people, was transported to Sweden in October 1943 (see Rescue of the Danish Jews).

Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg also saved thousands of Hungarian Jews in Budapest by providing them with "protective passports". He also rented 32 buildings, funded by the United States, and declared them Swedish diplomatic facilities, thus bringing them under protection of diplomatic immunity.

Development since 2000

After Germany and Austria, Sweden has the highest rate of antisemitic incidents in Europe, although the Netherlands reports a higher rate of antisemitism in some years. A government study in 2006 estimated that 15% of Swedes agree with the statement: "The Jews have too much influence in the world today". 5% of the total adult population and 39% of adult Muslims "harbour systematic antisemitic views". The former prime minister Göran Persson described these results as "surprising and terrifying". However, the rabbi of Stockholm's Orthodox Jewish community, Meir Horden, said that "It's not true to say that the Swedes are anti-Semitic. Some of them are hostile to Israel because they support the weak side, which they perceive the Palestinians to be."

In 2010, alleged antisemitism among Muslims in Malmö received media attention after a controversial interview with the then city's mayor, Ilmar Reepalu. In March the same year, Fredrik Sieradzk of the Jewish community of Malmö told Die Presse, an Austrian newspaper, that Jews are being "harassed and physically attacked" by "people from the Middle East," although he added that only a small number of Malmö's 90,000 Muslims "exhibit hatred of Jews."

The population of Malmö began to decrease in the 1970s due to decline of the once-dominant shipbuilding and textile industries. This also led to a decrease in the Jewish population. Sieradzk has stated that approximately 30 Jewish families have emigrated from Malmö to Israel in the past year, specifically to escape from harassment estimating that the already small Jewish population is shrinking by 5% a year. “Malmö is a place to move away from, right now many Jews in Malmö are really concerned about the situation and don’t believe they have a future here” he said, citing antisemitism as the primary reason.

The Swedish newspaper Skånska Dagbladet reported that attacks on Jews in Malmö totaled 79 in 2009, about twice as many as the previous year, according to police statistics. In December 2010, the Jewish human rights organization Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a travel advisory concerning Sweden, advising Jews to express "extreme caution" when visiting the southern parts of the country due to an increase in verbal and physical harassment of Jewish citizens in the city of Malmö. However, the leader of the Jewish congregation would have liked the center to consult them before issuing the warning. Fred Khan, the congregation's chairman told Sydvenska Dagbladet suggested that the rise in the crime statistics might not reflect an actual increase in crimes endured by the community over the proceeding year. Members of the congregation do face harassment, but a substantial degree of the incidences remain unreported to the police. In the last year members of the community had been more strongly advised to report all abuse to the police. On June 8, 2012, antisemitic graffiti was spray-painted on the external wall of the old Jewish cemetery in Malmö. The graffiti reads "A PIG" in Swedish (en gris) and a swastika. On September 28, same year, an explosion occurred at a Malmö Jewish community building.

Contemporary acts of Antisemitism

According to CFCA (the Coordination Forum for Countering Antisemitism), antisemitism in Sweden nowadays focuses on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A survey conducted by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights found out that in 2012, 40%-50% of Swedish Jews frequently were accusation of "Israelis behave to the Palestinians like the Nazis to the Jews". Moreover, a series of proposed measures in Sweden banning kosher slaughter, ritual circumcision, and possibly even the importation of kosher meat, had caused a Swedish Jewish activist to file for asylum in her own country.

Also In 2012, the President of the European Jewish Congress, Moshe Kantor condemned the behavior of the Swedish Government which according to him is "the only European country that is refusing to discuss the problem of Anti-Semitism prevailing within its borders".

In 2013, a total of ten Antisemitic incidents were reported, including Antisemitic statements made publicly by Swedish politicians, swastikas which were draws on Jewish property and the Slogan "Burn Israel Burn" which was printed on T-shirts

In 2014, several antisemitic incidents were reported, including:

• Vandalized youth center in Jönköping, which was also sprayed with antisemitic graffiti sprayed.
• A synagogue vandalized twice
• Breakthrough attempt of two protesters into Malmo Jewish center.
• A Jewish man was beaten with iron pipes for hanging the Israeli flag from his own apartment's window
• A Jewish woman received death threatens after posting an article about operation Protective Edge on her Facebook page. According to her, she's used to insults and slurs for her Judaism since her childhood, but now it's getting worse.
• Towards the end of 2014 the Rabbi of the Jewish community in Gothenburg got deaths threats threw his e-mail. The letter read: "...But soon will come the time when the Gothenburg synagogue will be destroyed to the ground with you inside, and then you too, you pig, will be killed in the eternal fire". This is the sixth threatining e-mail the rabbi got that year, all from the same anonymous writer.

On the evening of 2015 International Holocaust Remembrance Day a Nazi organization blocked some newspaper editorial offices in Sweden. The entrances to the buildings were blocked with a strap and the following written message: “The Swedish people is no longer interested to listen to any whining about dead Jews”.

Situation in Malmö

On January 13, 2009 Molotov cocktails were thrown inside and outside the funeral chapel at the old Jewish cemetery in the city of Malmö, south Sweden, in what seems as an antisemitic act. It was the third time the chapel has been attacked in the few weeks before this incident.

In March 2010, Fredrik Sieradzk of the Jewish community of Malmö told Die Presse, an Austrian newspaper, that Jews are being "harassed and physically attacked" by "people from the Middle East," although he added that only a small number of Malmö's 40,000 Muslims "exhibit hatred of Jews." Lea Gleitman, an Auschwitz survivor that has dedicated her life to teach about the Holocaust, stated with that she is experiencing being labeled as a liar when teaching about the Holocaust at Muslim majority schools.

Sieradzk also stated that approximately 30 Jewish families have emigrated from Malmö to Israel in the past year, specifically to escape from harassment estimating that the already small Jewish population is shrinking by 5% a year. “Malmo is a place to move away from, right now many Jews in Malmö are really concerned about the situation and don’t believe they have a future here” he said, citing antisemitism as the primary reason.

In 2010, The Forward reported on the current state of Jews and the level of Antisemitism in Sweden. Henrik Bachner, a writer and professor of history at the University of Lund, claimed that members of the Swedish Parliament have attended anti-Israel rallies where the Israeli flag was burned while the flags of Hamas and Hezbollah were waved, and the rhetoric was often antisemitic—not just anti-Israel. But such public rhetoric is not branded hateful and denounced. Charles Small, director of the Yale University Initiative for the Study of Antisemitism, stated that “Sweden is a microcosm of contemporary anti-Semitism. It’s a form of acquiescence to radical Islam, which is diametrically opposed to everything Sweden stands for.” Per Gudmundson, chief editorial writer for Svenska Dagbladet, has sharply criticized politicians who he claims offer “weak excuses” for Muslims accused of antisemitic crimes. “Politicians say these kids are poor and oppressed, and we have made them hate. They are, in effect, saying the behavior of these kids is in some way our fault.”

As of the 2010, the Jewish community of Malmö consisted of about 700 individuals, most of whom are descendants of refugees from Poland and Germany during World War II. The Swedish newspaper Skånska Dagbladet reported that attacks on Jews in Malmö totaled 79 in 2009, about twice as many as the previous year, according to police statistics. Judith Popinski, and 86-year-old Holocaust survivor, told The Daily Telegraph that she is no longer invited to schools that have a large Muslim presence to tell her story of surviving the Holocaust. Popinski, who found refuge in Malmö in 1945, stated that, until recently, she told her story in Malmö schools as part of their Holocaust studies program, but that now, many schools no longer ask Holocaust survivors to tell their stories, because Muslim students treat them with such disrespect, either ignoring the speakers or walking out of the class. She further stated that "Malmo reminds me of the anti-Semitism I felt as a child in Poland before the war. “I am not safe as a Jew in Sweden anymore.”

In December 2010, the Jewish human rights organization Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a travel advisory concerning Sweden, advising Jews to express "extreme caution" when visiting the southern parts of the country due to an increase in verbal, physical and violent harassment of Jewish citizens in the city of Malmö.

On September 6, 2012, the international United Nations Watch organization discussed the anti-Semitism attacks in Malmö and stated it considers the phenomenon extremely serious, given Sweden's candidacy for membership in the UN Human Rights Council. The organization called Sweden to supply adequate protection for the Jewish community, to develop special initiatives aimed at educating against anti-Semitism and officially reprimanded Reepalu for what they viewed as his multiple defamatory and incendiary remarks concerning the Jewish community in Malmö and the anti-Semitism it faces. Moreover, recent articles over the looming attacks on Malmö's Jewish community were published in the Swedish media also during the year of 2012, in particular subsequent an attack on a Jewish center on September 28, 2012. In the wake of report that marked Malmö as a hub for anti-semitic reported actions in Sweden, the discourse further dealt with the inquiry over the roots of the anti-Semitism, whether they are linked with classic Jewish-hatred or exacerbated by the prolonged Arab-Israeli conflict.

In 2013, Siavosh Derakhti, a Swedish-born son of Iranian immigrant parents and founder of Young People Against Anti-Semitism and Xenophobia, received the first Raoul Wallenberg Award, an honor named after the Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews from Nazi death camps during WWII. Because of his social activism focused on reducing anti-Semitism and xenophobia, the selection committee said Derakhti set a "positive example" in his hometown of Malmö and throughout Sweden. "He is a role model for others," the Wallenberg Award committee wrote, "showing through his actions and determination that one person can make a difference."On Nov. 8, 2012, the Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism gave Derakhti its first Elsa Award, established by Committee member Henrik Frenkel in memory of his parents to encourage young people to incorporate social media into the battle against Swedish anti-Semitism.

2009 Davis Cup

In 2009, Malmö hosted a tennis match between Israel and Sweden during the Davis Cup. Due to "reasons of security", no spectators were allowed to enter the stadium and watch the tennis game. However, numerous Swedish politicians had called for the match to be cancelled due to their pro-Palestinian views and the aftermath of the Gaza War, with this idea being discarded because the Swedish side would have had an automatic forfeit loss, and therefore the team's elimination, from the Cup tournament. A plan to move the match from Malmö to Stockholm failed due to logistical issues and a lack of time. In the end, Israel defeated and eliminated the Swedish team by a 3–2 score. The match drew more than 6,000 pro-Palestinian protesters, making it one of the largest demonstrations against Israel in Swedish history. More than 100 protesters were detained as several hundred Arab nationalists and supporters of the far-left clashed with more than 1,000 policemen that were guarding the stadium. Malmö was banned from hosting any further Davis Cup matches in the aftermath of the riots. The city was also fined $25,000 by the International Tennis Federation (lowered to $5,000 on appeal) and forced to pay an additional $15,000 to recoup revenues lost when spectators were barred from the match.

Ilmar Reepalu

Main article: Ilmar Reepalu

Swedish newspapers and political leaders as well as Israeli media have criticised Malmö's mayor, Ilmar Reepalu (a Social Democrat), for denying the rise of Antisemitism in Malmö. .

When confronted with the issue during an interview in 2010 with Andreas Lovén, a journalist in Skånska Dagbladet, Reepalu stated: “We accept neither Zionism nor anti-Semitism. They are extremes that put themselves above other groups, and believe they have a lower value." He also criticized the Malmö's Jewish community for its support for Israel, stating that “I would wish for the Jewish community to denounce Israeli violations against the civilian population in Gaza. Instead it decides to hold a [pro-Israeli] demonstration in the Grand Square [of Malmö], which could send the wrong signals.”

Jewish leaders responded that the demonstration Reepalu was referring to was "pro-peace rally" arranged by the Jewish Community in Malmö "which came under attack from members of a violent counter demonstration" and accused Reepalu of "suggesting that the violence directed towards us is our own fault simply because we didn’t speak out against Israel."

Reepalu has stated that apart from at the infamous demonstration, there had not been any violent attacks on Jews in the city, by claiming to cite police figures. However, the same police figures show that hate crimes against Jews have doubled over the last year. In January,when asked to explain why Jewish religious services often require security guards and even police protection, Reepalu claimed that the violence directed toward Malmö’s Jewish community is from right-wing extremists, and not Muslims.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph in February 2010, Reepalu was asked about reports that antisemitism in Malmö has increased to the point that some of its Jewish residents are (or are considering) moving to Israel. Reepalu again denied that there has been any violence directed at Jews in Malmö, stating that:

There haven't been any attacks on Jewish people, and if Jews from the city want to move to Israel that is not a matter for Malmö.

Reepalu added on Danish television that the criticism against his statement were a product of pro-Israeli lobbyism.

The then leader of the Swedish Social Democratic Party, Mona Sahlin, described Reepalu's comments as "unfortunate." Reepalu's statements have been sharply criticized by Sieradzk, who argued that “More often it’s the far-right that commonly use Jews as a punching bag for their disdain toward the policies of Israel, even if Jews in Malmö have nothing to do with Israeli politics."

Reepalu later conceded that he has not been sufficiently informed about the vulnerable situation faced by Jews after meeting with community leaders. Reepalu then claimed that Skånska Dagbladet, the newspaper that initially reported many Reepalu's controversial statements, had misrepresented him as antisemitic; the newspaper was subsequently banned from a press conference at City Hall, reportedly at Reepalu's request. In response, Skånska Dagbladet published on its website the full tapes of its interview with Reepalu, as well as all the texts published in its article series on threats and harassment faced by Malmö Jews, and the exchange of emails between the newspaper and the mayor's office.

In March 2012, Reepalu again came under criticism from the Jewish community when he told a Swedish magazine that the anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim party [Swedish Democrats] had "infiltrated" the city's Jewish community in order to turn it against Muslims. Reepalu later said he had no basis for his remarks and that he "shouldn't have put it that way." Jewish community officials susbsequently sent a letter to the Social Democratic leader Stefan Löfven condemning what Reepalu had said. The letter stated that "Regardless of what he says and does from now on, we don't trust him." Lofven and Social Democratic secretary Carin Jämtin subsequently agreed to meet with Jewish community leaders to discuss the comments and actions of Reepalu, who was being criticized by members of his own party.

Reepalu responded to this controversy by stating in an interview with Haaretz that "I've never been an anti-Semite and never will be."

Neo-Nazism

Main article: Nazism in Sweden

Sweden is home to some white supremacist and neo-Nazi organizations, including:

• Legion Wasa
• Swedish Resistance Movement

Former organizations include:

• National Socialist Front
• White Aryan Resistance

See also

• History of the Jews in Sweden
• Racism in Sweden
• Neo-Nazism
• Islam and Antisemitism
• Antisemitism in the Arab world
• New Antisemitism
• Religious intolerance
• Antisemitism in Europe

External links

• Mikael Tossavainen reviews (in English) Henrik Bachner's Judefrågan: Debatt om antisemitism i 1930-talets Sverige (The Jewish Question: Debates on Anti-Semitism in the Sweden of the 1930s) Jewish Political Studies Review 22:3-4 (Fall 2010)
• Mikael Tossavainen Arab and Muslim Anti-Semitism in Sweden Political Studies Review 17:3-4 (Fall 2005)