History of the Jews in Sweden

The history of Jews in Sweden can be traced back to the seventeenth century, as vouched for by church records at Stockholm, from which it appears that several Jews had been baptised into the Lutheran Church, a condition at that time imposed upon any Jew who desired to settle in Sweden. In 1681, for example, two Jews of Stockholm, Israel Mandel and Moses Jacob, together with their families, twenty-eight persons in all, were baptized in the German church of that city in the presence of King Charles XI of Sweden, the dowager queen Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, and several high state officials.

Early history

In 1680 the Jews of Stockholm petitioned the king that they be permitted to reside there without abandoning their creed, but the application was denied because the local consistory had refused to endorse it. On December 3, 1685, Charles XI ordered the governor-general of the capital to see that no Jews were permitted to settle in Stockholm, or in any other part of the country, "on account of the danger of the eventual influence of the Jewish religion on the pure evangelical faith." In case Jews were found in any Swedish community, they were to be notified to leave within fourteen days.

Permission to settle

In the seventeenth century, however, the Jewish question had merely a religious aspect in Sweden, and had not yet assumed the character of a race problem. Through court patronage Jewish merchants were occasionally appointed royal purveyors; and during the warlike reign of Charles XII (1697–1718) the king usually had one or more wealthy Jews with him in the field, to take care of the paymaster's department of his army. Through their influence permission was obtained (1718) for Jews to settle in the kingdom without the necessity of abjuring their religion.

After the death of Charles XII (1718) the Swedish government was financially embarrassed for a long time, and the royal household was often relieved from pecuniary difficulties by the Jewish merchants of Stockholm, who, as a reward for their accommodations, insisted on the granting of additional privileges to themselves and their coreligionists. As a consequence the concession of 1718 was renewed, and supplemented by royal edicts of 1727, 1746, and 1748, but the permission had reference only to settlement in the smaller cities and rural communities. One of the most known jews in Sweden at this time was the convert Lovisa Augusti, who became one of the most popular singers on the Swedish stage in Stockholm.

In 1782 an ordinance was issued by which the Jews were permitted, on certain conditions, to settle anywhere in the kingdom, and to practise freely the tenets of their religion. It was, however, specified that Jews were ineligible for government positions and for election to the legislative assembly; they were, moreover, forbidden to establish schools for the propagation of their creed, and to combine with their religious services such ceremonies as might possibly cause disquietude in the minds of the general population.

Restricted to three cities

The government was desirous of attracting wealthy Jews to the country, but it was equally careful to keep out itinerant door-to-door sellers of trinkets, quite a number of whom had in previous years entered Sweden from Germany. Any foreign Jew who landed in Sweden was accordingly required to report, within eight days of his arrival, to the local authorities, and to produce his passport and a certificate of character, as well as a statement of his purpose in coming to the country. These certificates were issued by the elders of the congregation to which the immigrant belonged in his native country, and had to be verified by the municipal authorities of the place in which the immigrant had last resided. If the certificates were unsatisfactory, the authorities were at liberty to expel the holder; but in case he was admitted he was directed to Stockholm, Gothenburg, or Norrköping. Jews who were residents of the country prior to the promulgation of this ordinance were called upon to present their certificates of character to the proper authorities, together with a statement setting forth in which city they desired to settle and make their living. The ordinance enumerated the different trades the Jews were permitted to follow, and it stipulated also that they should apprentice their sons to Swedish tradesmen in one of the three cities mentioned above. In order to prevent the overcrowding of the mercantile field it was prescribed that no foreign-born Jew should be allowed to start in business unless he possessed at least 2,000 Swedish riksdaler in cash or negotiable securities; a native-born Jew need have only 1,000 riksdaler.

As to the retail business, the Jews were prohibited from selling victuals, liquor, and drugs, and they were permitted to retail their special articles of food, wine, kasher meat, matzot, etc., among themselves only. Furthermore, the Jewish retail dealer was not permitted to offer his goods for sale in markets outside the city in which he was located, and he was compelled to conduct his business in open shops and was forbidden to peddle from house to house or in the streets.

The Jews were allowed to establish synagogues in the above-mentioned three cities, and to keep rabbis and other clerical officials. Intermarriages between Jews and Christians were forbidden. For every Jewish marriage celebrated a fee of six riksdaler was to be paid to the orphanage of the royal guards, this stipulation being intended as a compensation to the army for the exemption of the Jews from military service. In order to protect the interests of descendants of immigrant Jews the state ordered that, on the death of a Jew, the elders of the congregation should make an inventory of his estate and submit an account thereof, either to the orphans' court or to the municipal authorities. The Jews, however, had the right to appoint guardians of minors; and a rabbinical court had jurisdiction in inheritance cases. In litigations between Jews and Christians where the facts could not be established except under oath, the Jew might be ordered to take the customary Jewish oath in the synagogue in the presence of the judge. A Jew convicted of perjury became liable to expulsion from the country.

The ordinance of 1782 contained a separate clause referring to "particularly wealthy Jews, or such as are proficient in some trade almost, or quite, unknown in the country". Such persons could, through the Department of Commerce, petition the king for privileges and concessions other than those granted in the general ordinance.

Reactionary decree of 1838 and afterwards

After 1782 the Jews gradually secured concession after concession from the government, but those living in Stockholm grew overconfident, and carried their ambitious designs so far that a feeling of indignation arose among the general population against the ambitious Jewish financiers. This aversion to the Jews grew more pronounced as their privileges were more widely extended; and it reached the limit in 1838, when a new ordinance was promulgated which abolished nearly all the former restrictions upon their civic rights (in this ordinance the Jews were, for the first time, designated "Mosaiter", i.e., adherents of the Mosaic faith). As a result a serious uprising took place in the capital; and numerous complaints were presented to the government, denouncing the alleged undue preference shown the Jews at the expense of other citizens. On September 21 of the same year the government was compelled to revoke the new ordinance.

During the following years the book-market was deluged by brochures for and against the "Mosaiter". This controversy between sympathizers and antagonists of the Jews continued until 1840, when the Commons in the Riksdag petitioned the government to re-establish the ordinance of 1782 in its original form. The friends of the Jews tried to show that the petitioners were actuated by religious intolerance, but their adversaries openly declared the question to be one not of religion, but of race. The anti-Semites in the Riksdag endeavoured to prove that the Jews had greatly abused the rights and privileges granted them in 1782, and that they had done so at the expense and to the detriment of the native merchants and tradesmen. The efforts to create anti-Jewish sentiment in the Riksdag were, however, unavailing, and at a later session of that body (1853), when public opinion had turned more in favour of the Jews, they were accorded additional privileges.

During the latter half of the nineteenth century the few remaining disabilities of the Jews were removed. Under the law of October 26, 1860, they were granted the right to acquire real estate in rural communities, whereas they had previously been permitted to own property in the cities only. On January 20, 1863, another ordinance removed the prohibition against intermarriages between Jews and Christians, which were declared to be legal provided they had been attended by due ceremonies. A later ordinance (October 31, 1873) stipulated that the issue of marriages between members of the Swedish state church and Jews should be brought up in the Lutheran faith. If, however, a pact concerning the religion of their future children had been made in writing by the parents before their marriage, and submitted to the clergyman or other authority that performed the marriage ceremony, such agreement should remain valid.

There were, of course, various privileges which the Jews, like any other non-Lutherans, could still not obtain as long as the then current constitution of the Swedish kingdom remained in force. Thus, they could not become members of the cabinet; nor could they, as judges or as members of committees, take part in discussions concerning religious questions. Otherwise they enjoyed the same rights and were subject to the same duties as the Swedish citizens of the Lutheran faith.

During the reign of Gustavus III (1771–1792) the Jews of Stockholm invited Levi Hirsch from Alt-Strelitz, Mecklenburg, to officiate as their rabbi. The first Swedish synagogue was located at Köpmantorget (Merchants' Square), Stockholm, in the Sjöberg house. After a few years this place was found to be too small, and the Jews in the capital selected the old auction chamber at Tyska Brunn (German Well), where they worshiped until 1870, when the large Stockholm Synagogue was inaugurated at Wahrendorfsgatan (Wahrendorf street). In 1905, the "Jewish Encyclopedia" reported that there were synagogues in all of the larger Swedish cities in which Jews had settled in any considerable number.

According to the statistics of 1890 there were in the entire kingdom of Sweden 3,402 Jews. Since then, however, their number has been considerably augmented, and in 1905 the "Jewish Encyclopedia" placed the Jewish population by a "conservative estimate" at 4,000.

20th century

Between 1850 and 1920, there was a large wave of Ashkenazic immigration to Sweden from Russia and Poland, and by 1920, the Jewish population of Sweden had grown to 6,500. After the First World War, Jewish immigration was regulated, though small groups of German, Czech, and Austrian were allowed to come to Sweden.

Holocaust

During the pre-war years of Hitler's power (1933 to 1939), some 3,000 Jews immigrated to Sweden to escape Nazi persecution. Although Sweden was neutral during World War Two, it helped facilitate the rescue of 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, 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 as part of official Swedish policy. In the post-war period, many Jewish refugees from the Baltic Countries, Romania and Poland made their homes in Sweden (including Vladek Spiegelman, father of famous American cartoonist Art Spiegelman, who was born in Stockholm). More waves of refugees came from Hungary in 1956 and 1968 who had fled the Communist government. More refugees came then from Poland between 1968-1970. Between 1945 and 1970, the Jewish population of Sweden doubled.

Today

The Jewish population of Sweden is now roughly 18,000. Stockholm has the largest community and boasts a primary school, kindergarten, library, a bi-monthly publication (Judisk Krönika) and a weekly Jewish radio program, but Malmö, Gothenburg, Borås, Helsingborg, Lund, and Uppsala all have Jewish communities as well. Synagogues can be found in Stockholm (which has 2 Orthodox and 1 Conservative temple), Göteborg (an Orthodox and a Conservative synagogue), Malmö (an Orthodox synagogue) and in Norrköping (although the Norrköping community is too small to perform regular services).

tatus of Yiddish in Sweden

The waves of Ashkenazic immigration to Sweden also brought the Yiddish language, the predominant language among Eastern European Jews. Yiddish is an officially recognized, non-territorial minority language in Sweden. [http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/local_and_regional_democracy/regional_or_minority_languages/2_monitoring/2.2_States_Reports/Sweden_report2.pdf] Like in all of Europe, the usage of Yiddish has declined in the Jewish community, but 3,000 Swedish Jews have a command of the language, and attempts are being made to revive it in some congregations. The organization "Sällskapet för Jiddisch och Jiddischkultur i Sverige" (Society for Yiddish and Yiddish Culture in Sweden) has over 200 members, many of whom are mother-tongue Yiddish speakers, and arranges regular activities for the speech community and in external advocacy of the Yiddish language.

References

*JewishEncyclopedia
*http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Sweden.html
*http://www.coe.int/t/e/legal_affairs/local_and_regional_democracy/regional_or_minority_languages/2_monitoring/2.2_States_Reports/Sweden_report2.pdf
*http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=ydd