A brief history of the Jews in
Sweden
The first Jew permitted to settle perman-ently in Sweden was Aaron
Isaac, a merchant from Germany. He came to Stockholm with his family
in 1774, accompanied by ten fellow Jews who also brought their families.
By the time the Jews of Sweden were emancipated in 1870 their number
had increased to 3000. Communities were founded in Gothen-burg,
Malmö and in several other towns around the country.
The largest Jewish immigration to Sweden occurred
immediately after the Holocaust. Thousands of survivors were brought
from the death camps. This influx, equal in size to the number
of Jews then in Sweden, doubled the Jewish population.
The Jews of Stockholm today
The Jewish Community in Stockholm has just over 5000 members.
The Jewish Community is known as an "Einheitsgemeinde",
a unified community, meaning that all synagogues, Conserv-ative
as well as Orthodox, belong to the same organization. In addition
to The Jewish Community there are a number of other Jewish organizations
and institutions active in Stockholm. The largest is Hillel which
runs the Jewish school and kindergarten. There are Jewish Communities
in Gothenburg and Malmö as well. We estimate that there are
approximately 18 000 Jews living in Sweden today.
Offices of The Jewish Community of
Stockholm
The main building of The Jewish Community is situated in downtown
Stockholm on Wahrendorffsgatan 3B. This is where the community
administration, rabbis, social workers, chevra kadisha, among
others have their offices.
Jewish Community Center (JCC)
The JCC of Stockholm is located on the 3rd floor in the Judaica
building on Nybrogatan 19. This is where the youth movements,
youth activities, culture activities, informal education, senior
citizen activities, etc. takes place. During the summer most activities
are closed. The Center is open though and there it is possible
to buy drinks, pastry, use computers connected to the internet,
read newspapers and magazines, etc.
The Great Synagogue (masorti)
Bevin will be called to the bimah in the Great Synagogue on Wahrendorffsgatan
3 (next to the Community offices). It is built "oriental"
style, and seats 900 people. The building is an official national
historical building, built in 1870. Services are Conservative/masorti
and an organ is used.
The synagogue is partly mixed seated. This
means that women and men can sit together on the right side of
the bottom floor, but only men are allowed on the left side, and
only women upstairs. Rabbi Philip Spectre is the head Rabbi and
the cantors are Maynard Gerber and Paul Heller.
The Holocaust Monument in Stockholm
A memorial to the victims of the Holocaust is engraved on the
wall leading from the entrance of The Great Synagogue to the Jewish
Community office building on Wahrendorffsgatan 3. It was dedicated
in 1998 by Carl XVI Gustav, King of Sweden, and records 8 500
victims who are relatives of Jews residing in Sweden. The 42 meter
monument serves as a link between a monstrous past and a future
in which there should be no room for such atrocities to be repeated.
More information can be found on the Jewish
Community's website. Most of it is in Swedish but there are
some pages in English, from which most of this text was taken. |
