STOCKHOLM – Years before the Nazis rose to power, Hugo Valentin, a prominent member of Stockholm's Jewish community, recognized the dangers of Nazi ideology. A historian and scholar, he warned against the "wild psychosis of hatred" as far back as 1930, and even before the outbreak of World War II, he cautioned against the "total eradication of German Jewry." When the Third Reich began implementing the Final Solution, he was among the first to inform the Swedish public that the Jews of Europe were being annihilated. Already in 1942, he wrote in a Swedish daily newspaper that 700,000 Polish Jews had been murdered, and he continued to report about the mass killings of Jews around Europe over the next few years for the Swedish Jewish Chronicle.
Until his death in 1963, Valentin was considered a leading authority on antisemitism. He connected ancient, medieval, and modern antisemitism and argued that "it is not the Jews who are hated, but an imaginary image of them." A pioneer of Swedish-Jewish studies, Valetin was also a vocal supporter of Zionism and of the young state of Israel. In 2009, nearly half a century after his death, Uppsala University – Sweden's oldest institute of higher education and one of its most prestigious – merged its Center for Multiethnic Studies with the Program for Holocaust and Genocide studies. Since Valentin had been a distinguished scholar of the history of the local Jewish community and antisemitism, as well as Nazism and genocide, it seemed only natural to name the center after him.
And so, the Hugo Valentin Center was established – the only academic center in Sweden named after a Jew. Late last year, the university announced that a decision had been taken to change its name: As of January 1 this year, it would be called the Uppsala Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies.
Hugo Valentin apparently got cancelled.
"The removal of Valentin's name is part of a dangerous trend of taking antisemitism out of the Holocaust," said Aron Verständig, chairman of the Council of Jewish Communities in Sweden. Speaking with Haaretz, he described the deceased historian as "the foremost writer of Jewish history in Sweden and one of the first to write about the Holocaust."
Pontus Rudberg, an associate professor of history at Uppsala University who was previously affiliated with the center, was also concerned. "It's disgraceful," he said. "It supports the trend that removes Jewish perspectives and Jewish history from Holocaust and genocide studies. It's also disgraceful because you don't remove the name of the person your institution is named after unless he's done something wrong."
Rudberg said he was surprised by the decision-making process. "I was asked by the director of the center for my opinion in a vague way during an informal meeting a week or two before the decision was made," he told Haaretz. "I said I was against it, but I didn't realize it was an actual process, and I found out about the decision, which was made with no informed and open debate, only when it was published just before the Christmas holidays."
In a protest letter addressed to Anders Hagfeldt, vice chancellor of the university, Professor Emeritus Harald Runblom, another Uppsala historian, wrote that "erasing a name in this context is like tearing down a statue, and it raises legitimate questions. Has he become persona non grata? Is there political opportunism behind this?"
Another letter addressed to the vice chancellor, signed by 93 international scholars, warned that erasing Valentin's name could set in motion "a broader trend of distancing Holocaust and genocide studies from Jewish history" and described the move as "an affront to Hugo Valentin's legacy and a diminution of his remarkable contributions." Among those signed on this letter were the distinguished Holocaust historians Christopher Browning and Jan Grabowski.
Weighing in on the controversy, journalist Nathan Shachar recently penned an op-ed in Dagens Nyheter, a leading Swedish daily, titled "Uppsala University embarrasses itself – does not dare to be linked to Sweden's most famous Zionist." "In the difficult reality since October 7, the center wants to tone down its Jewish affiliation for populist reasons of convenience and avoid being associated with the most famous of Swedish Zionists," he wrote.
Rudberg offered a somewhat different explanation for Valentin's erasure. "It's ignorance, rather than bad intentions," he said, "The people who made the decision don't know much about Valentin. They think he was mostly involved in Jewish history and antisemitism studies. They don't understand he was also a pioneer in Holocaust and Genocide studies."
Still, the decision seems to be in line with the current zeitgeist on campus. In November, a group of 131 university members published a letter in the Swedish daily Aftonbladet demanding that the university cuts all ties with Israeli universities "complicit in the genocide."
The letter was the latest in a series of calls at Uppsala to boycott Israel, and although the university's leaders have refused to bow to such demands from student groups, the fact that many professors and researchers support such sanctions against Israel has many Jews on campus feeling uneasy. Since October 7, the Uppsala campus has emerged as a hotbed of the Swedish pro-Palestinian protest movement. On a number of occasions during the past year, students disrupted university activities and the administration made the decision to summon police over what it perceived as threatening disruptions to campus life.
Several Jewish students, who agreed to speak with Haaretz on condition of anonymity, said they felt protests against Israel have crossed the line into antisemitism. They said that posters sighted at demonstrations and encampments on campus over the past year have supported violent resistance and denied Israel's right to exist.
Asked for comment, Elsa Bådagård from Uppsala University's office for Humanities and Social Sciences, issued the following statement: "Uppsala Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies is a center within the Faculty of Arts, and the decision regarding its name has been made by the faculty board upon request from the board of the Hugo Valentin Center in December 2024.
The different reactions to the name change have been received and noted by the Faculty of Arts. However, since the request originated with the center, the faculty will not overturn its collegial decision on the basis of these opinions. Furthermore, the proposition to change the name has the support of the current employees at the center."
Bådagård insisted that the reason for the name change was that the board wanted it to reflect the primary field of research of the center, which is Holocaust and Genocide Studies. "It was not part of any political agenda, and the name change will not lead to any change regarding the focus of the various activities at the Center," she said, adding that "this is a purely organizational decision, and should not be read as a wish for the Faculty of Arts to distance itself from Hugo Valentin and his work."
The question of whether the attack on Israelis in Amsterdam last month was an isolated incident or the beginning of a trend is critical to Israel's relationship with the rest of the world and the future of Europe's Jews. And according to several Israeli media outlets, two days after the incident in Amsterdam, a similar incident occurred in another European capital.
The online news site Mako reported that Jews were attacked "in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, during a ceremony commemorating the Kristallnacht pogrom." It said anti-Israel demonstrators yelled derogatory names at the ceremony's participants, snatched their Israeli flags, tore them up and threw them into the river.
The report was accompanied by a video titled "the difficult footage from Sweden." It shows police officers chasing a woman and arresting her. Channel 14 News added analysis and superlatives. "Antisemitism is having a feast day," it reported. "Pro-Palestinians brutally attacked Jews who gathered to mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht in Stockholm." The same news item, with some variations, appeared in other media outlets and was widely circulated on social media.
Meanwhile, in the real world, what happened in Stockholm is indeed troubling, but for different reasons. First, no ceremony commemorating Kristallnacht took place there. Second, no Jews were attacked. Third, this false information was disseminated by people who counted on the media to spread the lie, thereby providing them with free political propaganda. And they were right. The Swedish media refused to buy the goods, but the Israeli media sure did (I might add, for the benefit of Mako's investigative reporters, that Stockholm doesn't have a river).
What actually happened in Stockholm that night was revealed by Swedish investigative reporter Jonathan Leman in Expo magazine (which defines itself as fighting "racist ideas, myths and conspiracy theories"). On the evening of November 9, a pro-Palestinian march took place in central Stockholm. Such demonstrations have been happening in Sweden for more than a year now. The marchers chant slogans that some people (myself included) see as antisemitic, and they are filled with hatred for Israel. But usually, they are completely nonviolent.
This demonstration was the same, aside from one difference – the protest march was joined by a guest riding a bike, who was widely filmed by videographers broadcasting from the scene. One of them is known to work with media outlets identified with the Sweden Democrats, a populist right-wing party that has a neo-Nazi past.
The demonstrators immediately realized that the bike rider wasn't one of theirs. She was an older woman who spoke with the videographers and attracted attention because she had an Israeli flag attached to her bike (as well as the Finnish flag and Iran's flag from before the Islamic Revolution). She also had a loudspeaker through which she played Hebrew songs like "Am Yisrael Chai" and a megaphone via which she proclaimed that "Hamas murdered all the homosexuals in Gaza" and "Hamas planned to annihilate all the Jews."
At first glance, she appeared to be a courageous warrior who supports Israel. And that is indeed how she was depicted in reports from the videographers who were there. But this isn't true. As Expo discovered, the woman is actually a far-right activist. On social media, she spreads a mixture of antisemitism, Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories about the coronavirus, an Islamic takeover of Europe and the destructive power of Sweden's Jews, who "want to destroy the Nordic peoples" and constitute "a metastasizing cancer."
So why was she demonstrating against the Palestinians and seemingly supporting Israel? Anyone who tries to impose order on this eccentric activist's political theories will discover that her support for Israel stems from her hatred of Jews and Muslims in Europe. Despite her ideological hatred of Zionism, she wants the Nordic states to be free of Muslims and Jews, so she supports their expulsion. This isn't love of Zion, but radical racism and antisemitism.
The bike rider's appearance at the demonstration had the potential to cause an outbreak of rioting. But that didn't happen. Granted, there was some anger, but the organizers worked to calm it. At the end of the demonstration, one demonstrator grabbed the woman's Israeli flag, threw it off a bridge and was arrested on the spot. The headline the right-wing media gave this incident was "On the day we remember Kristallnacht, a Palestinian activist stole an Israeli flag and threw it into the water." What happened next is fascinating. People posting on numerous X, Instagram and Facebook accounts in several countries began adding details, limited only by their imaginations.
A ceremony that never took place was invented, groups of Jews who were attacked were created ex nihilo, one flag became many flags, and on some accounts, it was no longer flags that thrown into the freezing water of the Baltic Sea, but Jews. Anger boiled over, and there were thousands of shares and comments in groups with hundreds of thousands of members. When all this reached the Israeli media, the makeover was complete – the inventions became news. Even their rejection of the original videographer's false information didn't change anything.
Two conclusions can be drawn from the incident in Stockholm. First, the support Israel's government has found in Europe's far right is a broken reed. Beneath the hatred of Arabs and the nationalist fervor that the government likes so much lies a thick layer of antisemitism that cannot be mistaken. Second, the battle that honest politicians on all sides must join is the battle against the agents of chaos who create a world in which instead of truth and lies, there are only narratives.
The worship of likes and internet traffic, media outlets that dispense with checking facts and operators of trolls and bots aren't a threat to the opposition or the governing coalition. Rather, they are threat to the very existence of a free society.
The question of whether last month's attack on Israelis in Amsterdam was an isolated incident or the beginning of a trend remains critical. Yet anyone who reports on imaginary pogroms is not only undermining the media's credibility, but also creating a situation in which nobody will believe in or deal with the real ones.
October 7th becomes a new Memorial Day in the Jewish calendar as we are reminded where we come from, where we're headed and to whom we're destines to give account.
Last week, Jews all over the world welcomed a new Jewish year. According to Jewish tradition, the Jewish New Year isn't just a celebration. It's a memorial day – the day when God remembers his creations and grants them new life for the coming year. Or perhaps the day when we remind ourselves where we come from, where we are going, and to whom we are destined to give account.
This isn't unique. The Jewish calendar is all about memory – on Pesach, we remember the exodus from slavery in Egypt. On Tisha Be'Av, we remember the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. These are events that happened thousands of years ago, and yet they are recounted in detail, with almost holy precision, so that the lessons are never forgotten. "In every generation, one must see oneself as if one had personally experienced the exodus from Egypt," says the text Jews have read on the same date for over a thousand years. And that's exactly what we do.
But this year, Israeli Jews faced different challenges on the New Year. Just after 7 p.m., two Hamas terrorists began shooting and stabbing civilians on a light rail train in Jaffa. After killing four people, they got off the train and killed three more. One of the victims was Inbar Segev Vigder, who was carrying her 9-month-old baby. Inbar is dead. The baby survived. Half an hour later, the Islamic Republic of Iran fired 180 ballistic missiles at Israel. This was followed by missiles and rockets launched by Lebanese Hezbollah. All of this happened within 24 hours.
And now, just a few days later, the Jewish calendar has a new catastrophe commemorate. The brutality, horror, and despair that were supposed to be over after the Holocaust, the pogroms, and exiles due to the birth of the Jewish state have returned. Now, after the terrorists from Gaza succeeded in dragging the whole region into a new spiral of violence, we have a new memorial day – October 7th, a day that has become almost biblical in nature sue to the existential drama and the enormous human cost. It has already become a cliché – the day when the most Jews were murdered since the Holocaust.
At this point, some may bring up the issue of context. These are only Israel’s victims. Where are the stories of the Palestinians and the Lebanese who are dying in their thousands?
Yes, everything has context. Even Hitler. And Christian the II. And Genghis Khan. And everyone has their own context. For the Palestinians, October 7th is seen within the context of the 1948 Nakba and the 1967 occupation of the West Bank. For the Israelis, it’s about the Holocaust and violent attacks throughout history – the exploding buses, the hijacked planes, the massacres, the wars and the bombings. But human beings are not neutral creatures. They see their story before others and mourn their own first. The loss of life is not abstract. I am a Jew and I am a Zionist – I’m not a representative of Sweden’s Jews, but I’m sure I’m not alone in seeing Israel as an important part of my identity and its story, its people, and its safety come first for me.
But October 7th is not about context. It’s not about revenge, and it’s not about a future peace either. Like other days in the Jewish calendar, it’s about remembering. It’s about remembering those who were on the front line – the young, beautiful people who were slaughtered at a rave in the desert, the women who were raped and mutilated, the elderly who were brutally dragged from their homes to suffocate in underground tunnels in Gaza, the civilians who were shot to death while embracing each other, and the children who were murdered alongside their siblings and parents before they even had a chance to live.
October 7th is about remembering them, but it’s also about remembering ourselves – where we were, how we were affected, and what we learned about our place in the world, in an ever-widening circle that even reached Sweden. It’s about the Jewish children who were blamed for genocide and were too scared to go to school, the demonstrations filled with antisemitic slogans, the endless boycotts, walkouts, open letters, and slander on social media, explaining that Hamas has the right to resist. It’s about remembering the mass psychosis that made grown men and women boo a 20-year-old girl who came to sing in Sweden, shout at Holocaust survivors attending a ceremony in a synagogue, burn the Israeli flag in Malmö, and shoot at the Israeli embassy in Stockholm.
We have to remember all of this to recall where we came from, where we are headed, and before whom we are destined to give account. Whoever that may be, it is certainly not those who explain to us that we are allowed to be Jews but not Zionists, or that we can be Swedish Jews only if we denounce Israel. This is our first October 7th memorial day, and we’re not really ready for it to become one of our regular memorial days yet. Today, while 101 Israelis are still held hostage in Gaza, while the violence continues, and while we are still counting our dead, for many Jews, this is just another day in the longest month in history – today is the 365th of October.
However, it can improve life for Jews, Israelis, Palestinians and Palestinian activists here in Sweden.
For almost a year, so-called pro-Palestinian demonstrations in Sweden have raised opposing reactions. According to some, they're a powerful sign of international solidarity. Others criticized them saying that they support terrorism and spread antisemitic propaganda. The common reply to this claim uses the term "smutskasta"(literally – throw dirt), meaning that calling the demonstrators antisemitic is a smear campaign design to de-legitimize them.
This started early on. A popular slogan of the global pro-Palestinien demonstrations is "From the River to the Sea, Palestine Will be Free". Despite it's appealing and harmless sound, some claim that it's antisemitic since it implies that the Jewish state of Israel, which is currently between the (Jordan) river and the (Mediterranean) sea, will be violently annihilated. The answer was made by, amongst others, Shora Esmailian in Aftonbladet (November 2023) who said that this accusation is either ignorant or "a smear campaign against people and their quest for freedom and now also survival ".
Those who were persuaded that "From the River to the Sea" is a call for peace and harmony, may have been surprised when Sydsvenskan's Inas Hamdan and Jonas Nyren revealed what some of the demonstrators were shouting in Arabic. It turned out that it wasn't exactly calls for a cease fire and human rights. Instead, it was support for recognized terrorists and commitment to a violent struggle against any kind of compromise.
This time too, the comeback was accusing the accusers. " Sydsvenskan is now trying to discredit the organizers by insinuating their support for terrorism and speaking with double messages", Salahuddin Barakat, a famous Malmö immam, wrote claiming this is a result of islamofobia. Other Swedish pro-Palestinians went even further. In April Samidoun, an international "Palestinian prisoner solidarity network" which is active in Sweden and supports Hamas, claimed that authorities are aiming to " silence the movement promoting the legitimacy of the Palestinian resistance, especially the armed resistance". According to Samidoun, supporting armed resistance, which is a synonym for the massacre of Jews, is a natural right and preventing it is, once again, a silencing technique.
A pro-Palestinian demonstration in Malmö, May 2024
There are many more examples. A group of over 70 Swedish writers accused Swedish media of portraying Israel as a democracy fighting terrorist, while portraying Swedish protesters as "troublemakers or, in the worst case, anti-Semites" (Journalisten, August 2024). Another group, this time of 50 Lund academics, pointed the blame at Swedish politicians who instead of praising pro-Palestinian demonstrators as champions of democracy, call them "undemocratic, uncivilized and destructive", which is a "step in the development towards fascism" (Sydsvenskan, April 2024).
It's important to point out that this Swedish debate doesn’t really matter when it comes to the actual war in Gaza. The days when Swedish politicians, NGOs and diplomats could affect Middle-East affairs are over. In fact, they never really existed. Swedish demonstrators won't stop the war, bring Israeli leaders to the ICC or open the gates for humanitarian help in Rafah. But that doesn't mean they don't have an effect. They do. But it's not on foreign affairs – it's domestic.
This debate is a manifestation of everything wrong with Swedish discourse today – it's polarizing, it's full of fake news and conspiracy theories and lacks depth and complexity. and it's clear who the victims are. Demonstrations, boycotts, walk-outs, open letters and manifestations are affecting the sense of belonging and security of Jewish students and teachers in Swedish schools, they're effecting the debate climate on social media and work relations in the Swedish culture world, public sector and academia. This isn't a made-up problem; many Swedish Jews and Israelis are experiencing alienation from large parts of Swedish society.
But does the entire Swedish pro-Palestinian movement agree to dismiss criticism as "smutskastning", or will at least some of the thousands of demonstrators agree to enter a serious dialogue on this? Now, almost a year after the war started, it's time to reach some sort of understanding about what's considered antisemitic, undemocratic, uncivilized, and destructive. This will do absolutely nothing for the people of Israel and Gaza, but it may contribute a lot to Jews, Israelis, Palestinians and pro-Palestinian activists here in Sweden.
Just to get the debate started, here are three initial thoughts to be considered.
First, the idea that Israel is a colonizer state which shouldn't really exist and should be wiped of the map is antisemitic. One can quote Edward Said and Franz Fanon and make comparisons to Algeria or South-Africa, but it won't change the fact that Jews are natives to the land between the river and the sea and have been so since biblical times, many centuries before the Palestinians even existed. Despite post-colonial theories, the land of Israel is part of Jewish identity, history and culture and therefore the idea that "I don't have a problem with Jews, I only have a problem with Israel" is a fantasy based on a false idea about Jews (just like most other forms of antisemitism).
Second, the fact that there are some ultra-orthodox and some Marxist anti-Zionist Jews, doesn't mean that Zionism is an extremist or unauthentic manifestation of Judaism. In other words, Noam Chomsky represents Jews today in the same way that NMR represents Sweden. It's true that 150 years ago, the Zionist movement was a minority within European Jewry since most Jews though they could continue living in Europe. But then came Auschwitz. After that, Zionism became more or less a consensus. There are many kinds of Zionism – religious, secular, socialist, revisionist and populist, but the base is clear – Jews, like any other people, have a right to self-definition in a state of their own. Claiming you "don't have a problem with Jews, but you won't allow Zionist on your streets" is claiming that every people in the world have rights that jews don't have. If that's not antisemitism, what is?
And finally, Hamas is the new version of the genocidal wing of the Palestinian national movement which historically had a close ties with Nazi Germany. These days it's a modern movement, combining a conservative, fascist, chauvinist, fundamentalist, anti-democratic, homophobic and xenophobic ideology with Jihadism, high-tech disinformation campaigns, a financial empire of global investments, modern weapon systems and powerful alliances with the world's most tyrannical regimes. Many parts of the pro-Palestinian movements in Sweden support Hamas actively and spread its propaganda, while for Jews in this country, Hamas are today's Nazis. This would be a good thing to remember next time people with megaphones in a "peaceful demonstration" shout "Hela världen står med Hamas. Allahu Akbar".
Pro-Palestinian protesters, Stockholm, December, 2023
If there are people who march in "solidarity with Palestine" who don't support these ideas and are willing to make themselves heard and renounce their extremist partners, they may find surprising allies. These may include Jews and Israelis who are willing to denounce Netanyahu's government, to oppose the occupation of the West-Bank, investigate allegations of war crimes and support a peaceful two-state solution. All that is needed is a show of good will: oppose Israel's policy but not it's right to exist, oppose Israel's violent racist nationalist parties, but not the entire national movement of the Jewish people, keep Swedish tax-financed public sector out of the conflict and, for god's sake, don't impose the conflict on Jewish school children, university students and work colleagues. Sadly, the war in the Middle-East will continue whatever we do here, but if we can agree on this, at least we can end its Swedish extension.
Swedish daily news site Expressen reported that the object found and detonated by police was a hand grenade. Israel's ambassador to Sweden thanked police for its swift response
Swedish police detonated on Wednesday a suspicious object found near the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, believed to be an explosive charge.
The Swedish daily news site Expressen reported that it was a hand grenade.
Israel's ambassador to Sweden, Ziv Nevo Kulman, said this was an "attempted attack" against the embassy and its employees, and thanked Swedish authorities "for their swift response." He added that they "will not be intimidated by terror."
Shortly after the attack, a police car and an officer with a weapon drawn were seen outside the Hillel Jewish school in the center of Stockholm.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz commended the Swedish authorities in a post on X for their "vigilance and quick handling of the attempt to attack the embassy in Stockholm." "Our excellent diplomats around the world are subject to danger and threats from supporters of Islamic terrorism. I told this to all my colleagues – Islamic terrorism must be eradicated everywhere. In Gaza and Europe. Defend your countries," he added.
"This is very serious. An attempted attack on an embassy is an attack both on those who work there and on Sweden," Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a social media post, adding police and Sweden's Security Police were investigating "who is or who are responsible".
Kristersson said surveillance of the embassy and of Jewish institutions in Sweden had been tightened.
Aron Verstandig, chairman of the Council of Jewish Communities in Sweden, told Haaretz that he takes the incident very seriously. "I condemn this criminal act," he said.
Petra Kahn Nord, representative of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) in the Nordic countries, says she sees the attempted attack as very serious. "It is very good that the Swedish authorities acted quickly and decisively," she said. "Now I hope that whoever is behind this will be found and prosecuted soon."
Earlier this month, Israel's Mossad spy agency and Shin Bet security service said that three European countries arrested suspects allegedly involved in plans by Hamas to attack Israeli and Jewish targets abroad.
The planned targets included the Israeli Embassy in Sweden, the agencies said. While other European embassies were open and functioning normally in the weeks following the outbreak of the war, the embassy in Stockholm was completely closed, very strict restrictions were imposed on the movement and work of Israeli diplomats in the country, and consular services were not provided to Israelis living in Sweden except in very urgent cases.
In a letter to Israel's foreign minister, leaders of the European Jewish Congress and the Council of Swedish Jewish Communities warned against allying with the Sweden Democrats who, according to the letter, 'claim to be our allies' while advocating that 'Jews cannot be Swedes.' The party has roots in neo-Nazi and antisemitic ideologies
STOCKHOLM – In a letter to Israel's foreign minister sent Monday by the presidents of the European Jewish Congress and the Council of Swedish Jewish Communities, the two leaders expressed concern over a recent meeting between Israeli ministers and a delegation from the far-right Sweden Democrats party, which violated Israeli policy.
EJC President Ariel Muzicant and Jewish community leader Aron Verstandig wrote that they were "gravely concerned by the implications and long-term consequences of this meeting" which also ran "counter to the Israeli foreign policy vis-à-vis the Sweden Democrats as being non-welcome, with reference to their Neo-Nazi roots."
On January 29, a delegation of senior members from the Sweden Democrats arrived in Israel and met with Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli and Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar. The group included the party's leader, Jimmie Akesson, chairman of the Swedish parliament's foreign affairs committee, Aron Emilsson, head of the party's parliamentary group, Linda Lindberg, and the head of the party's group in the European Parliament, Charlie Weimers.
The Sweden Democrats, currently the second-largest party in the Swedish parliament, has roots in neo-Nazi and antisemitic ideologies. It is one of several European parties with which Israel has refrained from establishing official ties. For that reason the recent visit to Israel was not an official one and was not arranged by Israel's Foreign Ministry.
Last year, two members of the Sweden Democrats visited Israel and met with Knesset member Amit Halevi from Netanyahu's Likud party and with former Knesset member Michael Kleiner, who serves as the president of Likud's court. There were no meetings with government ministers.
"With right wing populism and extremism on the rise throughout Europe, Jewish communities easily become exploited in narratives targeting other minorities," Verstandig and Muzicant wrote to Foreign Minister Israel Katz, "these populist parties and movements are often keen to establish alliances with Jewish communities and Israel, acting on the presumption that Jews and Jewish institutions, often being targeted by extremists of Middle Eastern and/or Muslim descent, would (and should) be interested in uniting over the notion of a 'common enemy.'"
In their letter Verstandig and Muzicant also explained that "the [Sweden Democrats] party's ideology is still inherently xenophobic even though its representatives claim to be our allies, making an exception for the Jews as a national minority, albeit claiming that Jews cannot be Swedes." They added that the party regularly submit bills in the Swedish Parliament to ban circumcision and the import of kosher meat.
In this context, the January meeting with Chikli, whose role includes fostering connection between world Jewry and Israel as well as combating antisemitism, is particularly notable. In May, Chikli also caused diplomatic embarrassment for Israel when he delivered a keynote speech at the controversial evangelical Canada Christian College. The school's president, Dr. Charles McVety, is an activist and leader of Canada's Christian far right.
Sweden Democrats leader Akesson took to X after the meeting, writing, "It is clear that our parties and our nations share common values." In response, Chikli tweeted: "We deeply appreciate your support and your passion for our mutual fight for the future of Western civilization."
Asked by Haaretz what he expects as a reply to his letter, Verstandig said he hoped Katz would confirm that the policy of not allying with extremist parties still applies.
A Foreign Ministry source replied to Haaretz's query on the subject, saying there is no change in the ministry's policy toward the Sweden Democrats. The source did not say whether the ministers would face disciplinary action over the meeting.
Sweden's 20,000-strong Jewish community was looking forward to marking a landmark event next year – but October 7 changed everything. Now, with antisemitic incidents skyrocketing, there are fears that a community that was only founded in 1775 could be at risk.
STOCKHOLM – Sweden's Jewish community is preparing to celebrate its 250th anniversary next year, but what was being heralded as an unprecedentedly good moment for the community changed in the blink of an eye on Oct. 7.
This is a story about both ancient and modern history, and how a country went from having no Jews to having a vibrant Jewish community – yet could still end up having very few local Jewish communities if the recent tensions continue.
Prior to 1774, there was no Jewish community in Sweden. Although some Jews had settled there earlier, there was no Jewish community as Jews who immigrated there had to be baptized into the Lutheran religion.
Aaron Isaac, Credit: Wikipedia
That all changed 250 years ago, though, when a Jewish seal engraver named Aaron Isaac arrived in Stockholm from German Mecklenburg. "Isaac became the first person who was allowed to live as a Jew in Sweden," says Daniel Leviathan, a Swedish-Jewish historian who's also active in some of the country's Jewish organizations. "He was able to secure the right to form a minyan [prayer group] and to found a Jewish cemetery and mikveh."
Within the space of a year, Stockholm had a proper Jewish community, which included new arrivals from Germany, Denmark and Holland. Around the same period, under King Gustav III, a second Jewish community was established in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. "In 1782, a Jewish ordinance was issued as a demand of the Swedish aristocracy," Leviathan recounts. Apart from regulating the right for Jews to live in Sweden, the ordinance set some restrictions. Jews were only allowed to move to the country if they had a minimum capital worth today's equivalent of about $100,000; they had to live in one of three towns; and local guilds stopped them from working in certain fields. "At the beginning of the 19th century," he says, "there were only about 1,000 Jews living in Sweden. Many of them were young and industrious people who thought they could make a better life for themselves in Sweden. At this point, they couldn't yet assimilate into Swedish society, and since it was a small community they all knew each other. They competed with each other but were also dependent on each other."
"At the beginning of the 19th century," he says, "there were only about 1,000 Jews living in Sweden. Many of them were young and industrious people who thought they could make a better life for themselves in Sweden. At this point, they couldn't yet assimilate into Swedish society, and since it was a small community they all knew each other. They competed with each other but were also dependent on each other."
Daniel Leviathan, photo: Hugh Gordon
According to Leviathan, the second part of the 19th century brought great change: Sweden opened its borders more widely, with pogroms and hardships in the Russian Empire bringing poor Orthodox Jews to the country. At the same time, the Jews who had been in Sweden for several generations enjoyed full emancipation in 1870.
They were considered Swedish citizens of the Jewish faith, no longer a "foreign" element. Many were assimilated and belonged to the elite of Swedish society. They could live anywhere, had a brand-new synagogue in the capital, and many considered themselves Reform Jews. By the time immigration came to a halt because of World War I, Sweden had about 7,000 Jews.
Sweden's World War II story is well-known: It managed to maintain so-called neutrality and wasn't officially part of the war. As for immigration, it was extremely restrictive both before and at the start of the war, but this changed dramatically in 1942 when it allowed about half of Norway's Jews, all of Denmark's Jews and many more refugees from across the continent find refuge within its borders. "After the war, Sweden accepted around 15,000 Jews," says Leviathan. "Many of the Holocaust survivors immigrated later to the United States or Israel, but 5,000 or 6,000 stayed. They were joined by other waves of immigration in later decades: Poles in 1969, Russians in the 1990s, and also Israelis. Today, the community is in many ways similar to Swedish society – modern, liberal and relatively secular. Because of its unique wartime history, it's different to most European communities because it became much bigger after the war than it was before it."
Today, it's estimated that about 20,000 Jews live in Sweden – though there are thousands more who can claim Jewish heritage. The largest community is in Stockholm, which has three synagogues and a relatively new cultural center called Bajit that is home to a Jewish elementary school and kindergarten, Jewish activities, a kosher shop and a café. The city also houses plenty of Jewish cultural and educational institutions, and organizations. Other Jewish communities and associations exist in Malmö, Gothenburg and a few smaller towns.
Sweden's Jewish groups are united under an umbrella organization called the Official Council of Swedish Jewish Communities, and its chairman, Aron Verständig, says the local community is a vibrant and diverse one. "It's more diverse now than it was 150 or even 50 years ago," he says. "There are families like my own that have been here for three or four generations and are established in Sweden. And there are also many Jews who live here but weren't born here." Verständig adds that this diversity is of a religious nature too. "These days, Stockholm has – for the first time – a progressive community with a progressive rabbi, but there's also renewed interest in the Great Synagogue [which is Conservative] and Orthodox Judaism. Chabad, which has been here for over 20 years, has also become a respected part of the community."
But there are many challenges too. One is the fact that the smaller Jewish communities aren't as vibrant as the one in the capital. "The optimism that you can see in Stockholm, where the community is growing, isn't what you see in the smaller communities – and this has been the case for many decades," says Verständig. "Initially, many members of the smaller communities moved to Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmö. Now Gothenburg and Malmö's communities are getting smaller too, and many are moving to Stockholm. It's increasingly hard to live a Jewish life outside of Stockholm, and organized Jewish life in the smaller towns is quite slim."
Other challenges, according to Verständig, include staying relevant who those who are not observant and finding ways to attract new members in a country where assimilation rates are very high. He adds, though, that things have changed in that regard in his lifetime. "When I was growing up, they said that if you married a non-Jew, your kids wouldn't be Jewish – but nowadays it's not like that," he says. "We see that children of interfaith marriages are sent to Jewish schools and summer camps. There's a great need for Jewish education when you have a non-Jewish spouse, and it's a challenge to be inclusive enough for different groups from very different backgrounds."
However, while issues such as the legal status of circumcision, importing kosher meat and the legal framework of Jewish schools are undoubtedly issues for the community, all pale in comparison to the main problem these days: antisemitism. The issue of antisemitism has been discussed extensively over several decades in Sweden. In fact, all Swedish governments since the turn of the century have made concerted attempts to address it. The current (center-right) government appointed a special interministerial task force in order to combat antisemitism and strengthen Jewish life. This was a follow-up to 2021's Malmö International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism, which had been arranged by the previous (center-left) government.
These measures acknowledged that antisemitism comes in many different forms, including right-wing nationalism, left-wing radicalism and Islamism, which arrived through large waves of immigration from the Middle East starting in the last few decades. It was also clear that antisemitism can be found in many different arenas: online, in the workplace, public spaces and, perhaps worst of all, in schools. "A report that was written as a result of our request, and as one of the pledges of the Malmö conference, was released a few weeks ago," says Verständig. "In general, there are many suggestions that I think improve the possibility of living a Jewish life in Sweden – including safeguarding the right for Brit Milah [circumcision], financing security [at Jewish institutions], funding maintenance of synagogues and setting up a Jewish information center."
Yet the situation has deteriorated dramatically since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7. "Antisemitism has skyrocketed," says Verständig. "Many are feeling afraid, insecure and anxious," he says – and this was said on Tuesday, a day before a grenade was found outside the Israeli Embassy in central Stockholm. "A survey we did in November shows that many Jews have considered leaving Sweden. The government has reacted in an excellent way – but in civil society, reactions are sometimes very different."
Leviathan also expresses concerns over recent developments. "What's new in the current situation is that antisemitism is much harder to avoid," he says. "We always had antisemitism, but you could avoid it by moving to a different neighborhood or changing your job. Now it's everywhere – in the streets and squares, even in the 'nice' neighborhoods. It's in schools and universities. Youngsters are being bullied and exposed to antisemitism on TikTok, and adults are losing friends and colleagues who post anti-Israeli propaganda online. You're not even safe in your private space: you never know if the postman will react to the Jewish name on your mailbox. This is what I hear from young people in Sweden, and it's what I've experienced myself: there's no safe space anymore."
Leviathan's views are echoed by others in the community. Sweden has a vibrant Jewish cultural scene, but the difference between the period prior to Oct. 7 and afterward are dramatic.
The week before Oct. 7, the most important cultural event in the region, the Gothenburg Book Fair, hosted an institution called Jewish Culture in Sweden – founded and managed by Swedish-Israeli Lizzie Oved Scheja – as a guest of honor. This was a historic moment for Swedish-Jewish culture: Jewish literature, philosophy, music and humor were celebrated by a very wide audience, in what many described as an almost euphoric atmosphere.
What followed changed everything.
"My life has changed drastically since Oct. 7, both personally and professionally," says Natalie Lantz, a PhD scholar in Hebrew Bible studies who's also a columnist and translator of Hebrew literature (her translations include works by David Grossman, Amos Oz and Sara Shilo). "In 2013, I started writing and lecturing about Jewish and Hebrew culture and literature. My field of expertise has always spurred curiosity and positive reactions. Before Oct. 7, I had only been treated with suspicion by colleagues a few times. I remember a social gathering at a cultural institution when I was presented as the translator of Amos Oz's 'Dear Zealots,' and a person immediately took two steps back and said with disgust: 'I just want to be very clear that I don't support the Israeli occupation.' The conversation was abruptly shot down. Painfully, I realized that some people in the cultural world consider the Hebrew language and Israeli cultural expressions as being evil to the core. But such incidents were rare before Oct. 7. Now, there seems to be no end to the aggressive calls for a boycott of Israeli academia and culture."
She recounts how a petition signed by cultural workers, including some from public institutions, was peppered with terms like "apartheid system" and "Zionist-motivated genocide." "There are BDS rallies at the universities and I hear of faculties that are asked by students and staff to report if they have academic cooperation with Israeli universities," Lantz says.
Natalie Lantz, photo: Hugh Gordon
For her, it's not only about her feelings but also her livelihood. "I'm dependent on being in dialogue with the intellectual arenas of Israel in order to conduct my work in an insightful manner," she says. "Now I fear that the calls for boycott may result in a difficulty to get funding for academic and cultural exchanges between Sweden and Israel. I myself have become very anxious in interactions with colleagues and institutions.
"Will my upcoming university lecture on the history of Jewish Bible translations provoke someone?" she asks. "Is [Austrian-Israeli philosopher] Martin Buber going to be canceled? Can I film the planned family program about Purim for Swedish television without being aggressively attacked? And, most scarily, can I continue to be an openly Jewish public figure in Sweden? I feel vulnerable and exposed. My world is shrinking."
Lantz is accustomed to the sight of a heavy security presence outside synagogues and Stockholm's Jewish school, "even though it feels absurd that community members have to be protected just for being Jewish. I've never really felt frightened of taking part in Jewish activities, but this has changed. I was out walking in the city center last Saturday when I accidentally got caught in a pro-Palestinian demonstration. This was on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. That evening, some people from the demonstration stood outside the synagogue where we hosted a memorial ceremony with Holocaust survivors present. They filmed people entering the synagogue and screamed 'child murderers,' 'death to Israel' and 'intifada.' That horrified me."
She believes the Swedish government has an "enormous responsibility" to combat this wave of antisemitism. "It seems to me that the politicians are taking the matter seriously, as they're not only allocating funds for security to Jewish institutions but also have a strategy to strengthen Jewish life – which focuses on the transmission of Jewish culture and Yiddish to future generations."
Yiddish is one of five official minority languages in Sweden, which is why Lantz believes focusing on it makes sense. That said, she still has concerns. "I fear that the strong focus on Yiddish in Sweden comes at the expense of possibilities to strengthen the knowledge of Hebrew, which is important as a common language for Jews globally," she says. "I was puzzled to note that 'Yiddish' appears 327 times in the strategy document while 'Hebrew' appears only 15 times. To me, strengthening Jewish life in Sweden is also about providing tools to partake in the international Hebrew cultural scene. After all, we'll need Hebrew translators also in future generations. At least, I hope so."
Yiddish as an official minority language? A government agency that promotes Yiddish? Translations into that language of 'Harry Potter' and 'The Lord of the Rings' – and all this in Sweden?? Vos? Yo, yo!
STOCKHOLM – It was less than two weeks after October 7. The Stockholm Jazz Festival was taking place as scheduled, but for some of the visitors nothing was "as scheduled." The performance by renowned Israeli bassist Avishai Cohen, touted as one of the festival's highlights, was canceled because of the war, and for many Jews in Sweden and for the Israelis who live there as well, that was a portent of a very fraught period.
But the evening of October 18 was different. In Faschig, one of the most important jazz venues in Sweden, 13 musicians performed before a full house. Musically, the Georg Riedels Yiddishland performance, it was spectacular. The pieces sounded like a mash-up of Frank Zappa and Swedish folk tunes, combined with American jazz and zemirot – traditional Jewish songs sung on Shabbat – from some East European shtetl. The traditional songs in particular constituted a very unusual occurrence for a Nordic jazz festival. All the lyrics in the songs performed that evening were in Yiddish.
The music was composed by Georg Riedel, one of the biggest names in Swedish jazz. But it turns out that when it comes to a fondness for Yiddish, Riedel is actually not alone. In recent years, the language has been flourishing in Sweden. One reasons for this is that Yiddish has a special status here: It is officially recognized as a non-territorial, minority language. As such, it joins the languages of other minorities in Sweden: Finnish, Sami, Romany (the language of the Roma) and Meänkieli (a Finnish language spoken in the Torne Valley of far-north Sweden). In practice, the government in Stockholm is obligated to promote and preserve Yiddish.
"Because Yiddish is an official language here, there's a government agency to promote Yiddish," says Sarah Schulman, a local writer and publisher of books in Yiddish. "Swedes have a right to study Yiddish at school as a mother tongue, even if it's not their mother tongue. Public radio has several Yiddish programs and there are television shows in Yiddish – all part of a quota that the public broadcasting service has to meet."
Schulman is a member of the Yiddish Society of Stockholm, which she describes as a "very active" community. Some 20,000 Jews live in her country, the vast majority of whom do not speak Yiddish. "For example, through Judisk Kultur I Sverige – the Jewish Culture in Sweden organization – we brought a Yiddish-language production of Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot' to the Royal Dramatic Theatre, Sweden's most important theater. We just held a huge, two-day symposium about the Singer family [Isaac Bashevis, his brother Israel Joshua Singer and their sister Esther Kreitman, all accomplished Yiddish writers] with experts from all over the world. We have a Yiddish faculty at Lund University [in southern Sweden], and there are several Yiddish-related courses at [a college called] Paideia – The European Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden. There is an annual seminar of worldwide scope about Yiddish. There has been a Yiddish theater in Stockholm for 120 years, we have a Yiddish choir, and there are several publishing houses that put out Yiddish books. My publishing house is one of them, but there are also poetry publishers and more."
Schulman was also the driving force behind Riedel's recent jazz concert. Riedel, who celebrated his 90th birthday in January, was born to a Jewish mother and a Sudeten-German father, who had fled to Sweden from the former Czech Republic four years before that. During his long career – he is also an accomplished double bass player – he has composed music rife with multiple influences, but it was only in recent years that he was inspired by his Jewish roots and began composing music with Yiddish lyrics, and approached Schulman.
"I love Yiddish songs and I have always sung traditional songs, but for my children I wanted newer songs," says Schulman, 40. "When Riedel contacted me and said he wanted to put Yiddish texts to music, I put him in touch with the Swedish Yiddish writer Salomon Schulman [no relation to Sarah] and together with me and with the poet Hanna Riedel, Georg's daughter, we wrote the new songs that were finally compiled into a beautiful book, two music albums and a theater show for children in Yiddish.
Sarah Schulman, photo: Hugh Gordon
"This is a fascinating project," she continues, "because it offers a bridge between Yiddish culture, Jewish culture and Swedish culture. Since every Swedish child knows Georg's music [not least because Riedel composed the songs for a series of films about the iconic children's book heroine Pippi Longstocking], we have also translated some of Georg's better-known Swedish songs into Yiddish. This is one of the most important projects we have ever done to revive the language and attract a new audience to the Yiddish world. For me it was like 'go big, or go home,' so I made sure the project reached the biggest stages. I wanted to show people – including also Jews in Sweden – that the Yiddish world has something unique and different to offer. This year a Georg Riedels Yiddishland album was also been nominated for one of the most prestigious music awards in Sweden."
Schulman grew up in a Yiddish-speaking family. "My Yiddish-speaking grandparents, who survived the Holocaust, came to Sweden from Poland with the White Boats [a humanitarian operation that transported thousands of survivors to Sweden from German concentration camps after World War II]. My father is the head of the Yiddish Society in Stockholm, so Yiddish is a large part of my Jewish identity. I grew up with Yiddish literature, with Isaac Bashevis Singer, I. L. Peretz and Itzik Manger. Yiddish stories were my favorites when I was young. I was surrounded by Yiddish music, idiomatic expressions and jokes."
She went on to study Yiddish at Columbia University in New York. "As a young woman in New York, I realized how important Yiddish was for me, so when I returned to Sweden I became very active in the local Yiddish community. In 2015 I wrote my first children's book in Yiddish. I was looking for books in Yiddish for my sister's children, and because I couldn't find any that were secular and modern, I wrote one myself. A few years later, in 2019, I founded my own publishing house, Dos Nisele (the Little Nut), because the comments I got from readers were so positive. They wanted more."
Does the Swedish audience accept Yiddish naturally? Is there no resistance to a relatively unknown language identified with the Jewish past in Europe?
"It's been a slow process, but Swedish society is gradually getting interested in what we're doing. Yiddishists tend to have pretty radical dreams, and in the last 20 years, and especially since the Georg Riedel project, we've been getting a lot of attention. We've been on radio and television and in the newspapers. The project is doing very well, probably because Riedel's music is part of the core of Swedish culture and we are taking this core and adding something to it, using Yiddish."
Nikolaj Olniansky also heads a Yiddish publishing house in the city of Lund, in southern Sweden, which is known worldwide. Its recent publications include Yiddish translations of some of the "Harry Potter" books and "The Lord of the Rings," typically purchased by secular Yiddish lovers and also as collectibles by non-speakers.
"We started Olniansky Tekst back in 2010," the publisher says. "My wife, Ida, and I had just taken Yiddish at Lund University and wanted an outlet to use the language afterward. Together with a friend from Yiddish studies, Linda Gordon, we decided to put out a magazine. While in university, we noticed that a lot of material published in Yiddish was also about Yiddish [itself]. We wanted to do something different: to write in Yiddish about things that interested us, like movies, video games, books, music, etc. Much of the content had absolutely nothing to do with Yiddish and/or Jewish culture. The result was a small periodical called Dos Bletele [the Small Page].' We did everything ourselves: articles, editing, graphics, distribution – the works. Although we had some subscribers, it was really a project designed for ourselves as a way to practice our language skills, and when we felt ready we decided to take the publishing house to the next level."
In time, Ida and Nikolaj continued on their own,and began to focus on children's literature in Yiddish. With a grant from the Swedish Arts Council, they published four books. "This was – and is – pure activism," he says. "The feeling that Yiddish was about to fade away was hard to bear, and we knew that a lot of families outside the Hasidic world felt the same way. So our mission became to help keep Yiddish alive in the secular world by creating modern, high-quality literature. So when Yiddishists became parents, there would be point-and-learn books for their children, when a Jewish teenager searched for their roots they would have juvenile fiction to enjoy, and when Yiddish writers created prose and poetry there would be a publishing house available for them. So far we have published about 30 books and 21 issues of an ambitious literary quarterly."
What books have you published lately, and how many copies have you sold?
"We've published classic Yiddish writers like Bashevis Singer and [the poet] Kadya Molodowsky, big international writers like J.K. Rowling, Erich Kästner and J.R.R. Tolkien; award-winning graphic novels, poetry and prose from the best contemporary writers, new children's books and more. A standard print run for us is 500 to 1,000 copies, but there are exceptions. 'Harry Potter' reaches a lot of target groups, because many see it as a collector's item, a cool book to have on the bookshelf, or a fun gift to give – we've printed 5,000 copies so far."
How do you explain the fact that a country with a population of 10 million and a small Jewish community has become a Yiddish superpower?
Yiddish has been a part of the Swedish-Jewish cultural scene for a long time. However, as in the rest of the world, Yiddish basically skipped a generation and became a language of the past and a reminder of terrible pain and suffering.Nikolaj Olniansky
"First of all, one has to remember that although the Jewish community in Sweden is small in numbers, there have been several immigration waves that have kept Yiddish alive within the community – from the Jews who came from czarist Russia to those who came from Poland in the 1960s. Yiddish has been a part of the Swedish-Jewish cultural scene for a long time. However, as in the rest of the world, Yiddish basically skipped a generation and became a language of the past and a reminder of terrible pain and suffering, whereas Hebrew became the language of a new dawn, of victory and prosperity.
"The fact that Yiddish became an official minority language in Sweden in 2000 is what brought about the current situation," he observes, "but that would not have happened if Yiddish hadn't been a central part of many Swedish Jews' lives. It was also partly a matter of timing. Sweden's governments were then investing in minority languages just as some people who thought it was important were putting their heart and soul into creating a new wave of Yiddish literature.
"And it's not just in Sweden. Take [American-born translators including] Arun Viswanath, for example, who wanted his kids to be able to read Harry Potter in Yiddish and set out to translate the book without knowing whether it would ever see the light of day; or [former computer programmer-turned-translator] Barry Goldstein, who wanted something to do after retiring and decided that translating Tolkien's works into Yiddish was a good project; or Israeli writers Michael (Mikhel) Felsenbaum, Velvl Chernin and Emil Kalin, who also write in Yiddish. I'm very happy to be a small part of this group of people who live and breathe Yiddish and carry the language into the 21st century."
The Yiddish translation of "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone."Credit: Art: Jonny Duddle/OLNIANSKY TE
Schulman, too, sees Swedish history as a central factor behind the present revival of Yiddish in the country. "Because Sweden was not involved in World War II, it became the only country in Europe [besides Albania] that had more Jews after the Holocaust than before. After the war, Sweden was also one of the wealthiest countries in Europe because it had stayed out of the war. The Jews who came here brought [with them] the stars of the Yiddish theater, the Yiddish music scene and Yiddish films. All the great names performed here; we had more Yiddish culture here than existed almost anywhere else."
How important is Yiddish to the local Jewish community?
"Most Swedish Jews come from Yiddish-speaking families. The events organized by the Yiddish Society of Stockholm always attract a full house and there's obviously much interest in the language. So, we bring value to the Jewish community and add to Jewish life in Sweden. Aaron Isaac, the first Jew to come to Sweden, 250 years ago, spoke Yiddish, and I think that even today it's the right of every Jewish child in Sweden to have access to the Yiddish culture and language. More and more Jewish families today ask for Yiddish teachers, and we don't have enough."
But for Schulman, the language's importance is not just historical. "There's something in the Yiddish world that doesn't only give me meaning and purpose," she says. "It's also something I want to create for my children. Yiddish is driven by tolerance, curiosity and courage. It's a platter of ideas, and these values are embedded in the Yiddish world – it's an alternative to a world that's gotten increasingly polarized."
Isn't there tension between Yiddish and Hebrew? Is it convenient for the Swedes to support Yiddish because it helps distinguish the Jews of Sweden from the State of Israel, where Hebrew is spoken?
"It doesn't come from the need to protect the Jewish minority – that's something else – but from the need to protect Yiddish as an endangered language. Hebrew is a different story altogether … it doesn't qualify as an official minority language.
"Jews have always been multilingual, and there's no reason to choose one Jewish language over another. We don't think about what some perceive as tension between Yiddish and Hebrew. If we can create quality Yiddish culture for Jews and non-Jews in Sweden as well as for Yiddishists around the world, we're happy to do it. We've received recognition in Sweden, and we are really going to use the opportunities we get. I want my children and the generations to come to have access to the beautiful Yiddish culture that I knew as a child, and which has brought me so much joy and happiness."
STOCKHOLM – Instead of triggering a historic normalization with yet another Arab country, Israel’s announcement of Foreign Minister Eli Cohen’s meeting with his Libyan counterpart led to political embarrassment in Jerusalem, riots in Tripoli and the Libyan minister fleeing the country for her life. Some people claim that this was the result of opportunistic and amateurish behavior.
But if we divert our gaze from North Africa to Europe, we get suspicious that the problem lies not with the Foreign Ministry’s errors (if this indeed was an error) but with its successes.
Three months before Cohen met with the Libyan minister, he visited Stockholm. This wasn't a routine visit either. Cohen became the first Israeli foreign minister to visit Sweden in over 20 years. The trip lasted only 24 hours and included just a handful of meetings that were kept on a very low profile. Not that anyone expected a red carpet and marching bands, but the two countries held no public events, ceremonies or receptions, and the meeting between Cohen and his Swedish counterpart, Tobias Billström, was kept secret until it was over.
One reason for the uncharacteristic restraint is that the two governments are in an unprecedented situation. Jerusalem is advancing processes that are filling the streets with protesters, not only in Israel but anywhere in the world where a cabinet member visits. The Swedish government, meanwhile, is dependent on the Sweden Democrats party, which started out as a neo-Nazi party that up to 30 years ago was led by skinheads. Now this outfit defines itself as “nationalist and social-conservative,” and on the back of an agreement with parties such as Billström’s Moderate Party, it sets the country’s agenda.
Israel’s traditional policy is to refrain from any contact with such parties, not just because of their Nazi roots but because in recent years leaders and members of the Sweden Democrats and its counterparts across Europe have been disseminating conspiracy theories as well as racist, antisemitic and Islamophobic propaganda. Several of them have been implicated in violent incidents, not exactly the kind of thing Israel wants to be associated with.
But it's not so simple. If, as Cohen claims, he and his Swedish counterpart discussed the strengthening of political, economic and military ties, how could this happen when key positions in Sweden, including the leadership of parliament's foreign affairs and labor market committees, are held by a party that Israel is boycotting? Israel’s Foreign Ministry said that ties with the Sweden Democrats weren't addressed at the meetings in Stockholm. This may be true, but not because the issue is unimportant but because Israel seems to be well on its way to changing its policy in this area. Ties with Italy’s prime minister, despite her neofascist past, are stronger than ever, Hungary is considered an important ally, and Cohen recently instructed Israel’s ambassador in Romania to meet with the far-right AUR party, hitherto boycotted by Israel due to its antisemitic comments and Holocaust denial.
All this has been done to win support for Israel's settlements in the West Bank. Is there a connection between all these events? The answer can be found in another diplomatic visit. A few days after Cohen’s return from Stockholm, two senior members of the Sweden Democrats, Charlie Weimers and Richard Jomshof, landed in Israel. The visit was supposed to remain under the radar, but word got out that these Swedish far-rightists had met with Israeli lawmakers.
The daily Israel Hayom revealed that among them was Likud MK Amit Halevi, who spoke with his guests about suspending Israel’s boycott of their party. They even handed him a document that was passed higher up. Three months later, Halevi helped change Israel’s policy toward the Romanian AUR party. Another Likud member, former lawmaker Michael Kleiner, also met with the two Swedish legislators. Not surprisingly, Kleiner was a guest of the AUR in Bucharest last November.
All this is confusing: While Israel is officially boycotting the Sweden Democrats, politicians from the party are secretly meeting with members of Israel’s ruling party and undermining its official policy. Of course, the policy on Europe's far right should be weighed carefully, and it may be time to change it, but the impression is that what happened in Romania and is happening in Sweden isn't a result of deliberations by Foreign Ministry professionals but is a snap political move.
And so, it seems that as Israelis are caught up in domestic politics, a small number of Likud activists are changing Israel’s foreign policy. Israel’s democratic and liberal allies are being replaced with nationalist movements, including populist and racist ones, in a move that's a European parallel to what Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is doing with Israeli-U.S relations. His statements about America’s “preaching” may not have been off the cuff but a reflection of a new policy: exchanging America's traditional bipartisan support and the backing of mainstream forces in Europe for the support of the populist-evangelical camp in the United States and the nationalist-xenophobic wing in Europe.
Beyond the ideological considerations, political and business interests are at play here. In contrast to leaders such as U.S. President Joe Biden and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who openly protested Israel's judicial overhaul, Swedish Foreign Minister Billström had nothing to say about it. A country that used to see itself as a “humanitarian superpower” and global peacemaker is remaining silent when it comes to Israel’s democracy. This was probably refreshing for Cohen.
Meanwhile, sales of Israeli weapons to Sweden have spiked during the war in Ukraine and the entry of Sweden and Finland into NATO. The governments in Stockholm and Helsinki, both supported by far-right parties, are much more interested in drones, rocket launchers and cyberwarfare than human rights, settlements and judicial overhauls. Even if parts of the Israeli left don't consider this a problem, we should recognize a corollary of this new approach: Israel’s new partners won't save Israel from itself. They are part of governments that are morally blind, deaf and mute.
Maybe the Libyan incident was no mistake. Instead of pursuing a policy of building bridges to Arab states – a way of avoiding the Palestinian issue – Israel is adopting a new international stance and seeking support based on arms deals, natural gas and its cyber prowess, not shared values. This seems logical, because what common values are there anyway? Human rights? Peace? Social justice? That stuff is so '90s.
It’s still not clear if and when Billström will visit Israel, but when this happens, we can be sure that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the dangers to Israeli (and Swedish) democracy won't be on the agenda. Instead, when the ministers finish talking business, they can always talk about the weather, the Eurovision Song Contest and the pros and cons in the battle of Swedish meatballs vs. falafel.
Swedish Police Approve Hebrew Bible-burning Event Near Israeli Embassy in Stockholm
According to reports in Swedish media, local police will allow the event to take place on Saturday, during which the attendees are expected to burn a Hebrew and Christian bible in an attempt to expose Swedish hyprocisy
July 14th
Police in Sweden have approved a request to burn both a Hebrew and a Christian Bible during a protest expected to take place Saturday in front of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, police in the Swedish capital have confirmed. The request was made by a 32-year-old Swede who claims that his action is a protest against recent events of burning the Quran, which were approved by Swedish authorities and took place in the last few months.
In a statement released on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he condemns “in the strongest terms the authorities’ decision in Sweden to permit the burning of a Jewish Bible in front of the Israeli Embassy.” Netanyahu added that “this deeply shameful act undermines the sacredness of the Jewish people’s holiest scriptures.” Israel’s ambassador to Sweden, Ziv Nevo Kulman, condemned the burning of holy books from any religion, saying it’s “an act of hate and disrespect, that has nothing to do with freedom of expression.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he “unequivocally condemn[s] the permission granted in Sweden to burn holy books,” and that he is “heartbroken that the same fate awaits a Jewish Bible.” Herzog added that “permitting the defacement of sacred texts is not an exercise in freedom of expression, it is blatant incitement and an act of pure hate.”
Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen also stated on Friday that “burning a Torah scroll is a hate crime, provocation, and a severe attack on the Jewish people and Jewish tradition,” urging Swedish authorities to “prevent this disgraceful event and not allow the burning of a Torah scroll.” On Friday, the European Jewish Congress (EJC) also issued a condemnation, saying the Swedish authorities shouldn’t allow the event to take place. “Provocative, racist, antisemitic and sickening acts such as these have no place in any civilized society,” EJC president Dr. Ariel Muzicant said.
The Official Council of Swedish Jewish Communities published a statement claiming that “our tragic European history links the burning of Jewish books with pogroms, expulsions, inquisitions and the Holocaust.” The council added that it condemns the abuse of freedom of expression that takes place with the aim of sowing hatred in society. “Burning holy books, be it the Quran, the Torah or the New Testament,” it concluded, “are hateful acts that we perceive as direct threats to the societies that value them. Following the Quran burnings, we support the Muslim community in Sweden, express our gratitude for their strong stance and condemnation, and sincerely hope that this and all other burnings of holy books will stop.”
In a meeting with representatives of religious communities in Sweden, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said: “Sweden is and must be a country where people of different faiths – or no faith – can live together side by side in mutual respect. Let us together fight the hatred in society, which drives people to burn the Quran, the Bible or the Torah, and in places and times that are most offensive. Instead, let’s show each other respect.”
The practice of burning holy books in Sweden started a few years ago as a result of a Danish far right provocateur and politician named Rasmus Paludan. A few of Paludan’s supporters burned the Quran in the southern city of Malmö in 2020, and he himself repeated the act a number of times since then.
Rasmus Paludan in Stockholm, August 2022, photo: David Stavrou
In April 2022, Paludan managed to provoke a violent reaction when criminal elements took advantage of the local communities’ outrage and used the opportunity to set off riots which included setting cars on fire and attacking police in several Swedish towns. In January, Paludan returned to Sweden after he received a permit to burn a Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. This time the reaction had geopolitical implications. Turkey used the Quran burning in Stockholm as a pretext to continue blocking Sweden’s decision to join NATO.
Things got even worse in June when an Iraqi Christian immigrant burned a Quran just outside a Stockholm Mosque during Eid al-Adha. This led to anti-Sweden protests all over the Arab world. In recent weeks there have been more applications sent to the police requesting approval to hold demonstrations which include burning of holy books. The current case of burning of Jewish and Christian holy scripture is intended as a way of exposing Swedish hypocrisy, claiming the authorities allow burning the Quran in the name of freedom of expression too easily, but many claim the result is that a handful of extremists have managed to drag Sweden down a path which is becoming both dangerous and internationally embracing.
Some Swedes have had enough of this, including some government officials. Jonas Trolle, the head of the Swedish Center for Preventing Violent Extremism, for example, said that it’s time for Sweden to consider certain legal changes. “Sweden needs to be equipped in a turbulent time in Europe,” he wrote in “Expressen” one of Sweden’s daily newspapers, “Today it’s Quran burnings, tomorrow it will be something else. Without a legal change, Sweden risks becoming vulnerable. It’s unreasonable that our laws concerning public order are out of step with our basic laws [concerning freedom of speech]. We must protect both our freedom of expression and our national security.” Trolle also claimed in recent interviews to the Swedish press that Sweden needs a “reality check” in these matters and it can learn from countries like Germany, France and the UK which have managed to legally forbid these kinds of events and still remain democratic.
Earlier this month, a man who identified himself in Swedish media as a refugee from Iraq burned a Quran outside a mosque in central Stockholm – resulting in strong condemnation from several countries. Shortly after, reports surfaced about another individual who had applied for a police permit to burn the Torah outside the Israeli embassy. “I am shocked and horrified by the prospect of the burning of more books in Sweden, be it the Koran [sic], the Torah or any other holy book,” Ambassador Nevo Kulman tweeted in early July.
Man Who Planned Hebrew Bible-burning Event in Stockholm Delivers Speech Against Act Instead
The 32-year-old Swedish citizen, who is Muslim, says his intention was to 'show how wrong it is that people don't respect other religions'
July 15th
STOCKHOLM — A 32-year-old Swede named Ahmad Alush who announced that he intended to burn a Hebrew and Christian Bible on Saturday in front of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm surprised those present and instead gave a speech against the burning of religious books. When he arrived in front of the Israeli embassy in Stockholm at noon holding a large lighter in his hand, he made it clear that he did not intend to use it. "I'm Muslim, we don't burn [books]," he said, adding "I wanted to show how wrong it is that people don't respect other religions."
The man, who lives in the south of Sweden, explained on Friday that he intends to burn a Bible as a protest against an event about three weeks ago in which a Quran was burned before a mosque in Stockholm with police permission. "It deeply saddens me and many others in Sweden and the world who allow the Quran to be burned," he explained. "I know that the Swedes are very good people and that they want to prevent the burning of the Quran and that there is a legal obstacle to doing that."
Ahmad Alush, the man who said he'd burn a Torah book outside the Israeli embassy in Stockholm, photo: David Stavrou
After the Swedish police approved the man's request to burn the Bibles, Israeli Foreign Minister Eli Cohen instructed Israel’s ambassador to Sweden, Ziv Nevo Kulman, "to act in every way in order to prevent this shameful incident." It was also reported that the ministry's political director Aliza Bin Noun spoke with Kulman in Israel "and made clear to him the seriousness with which Israel views the police's approval of damage to the sacred sites of Judaism."
The decision to permit burning of the Bible was met with harsh criticism in Israel, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying he condemns “in the strongest terms the authorities’ decision in Sweden to permit the burning of a Jewish Bible in front of the Israeli Embassy.” Netanyahu added that “this deeply shameful act undermines the sacredness of the Jewish people’s holiest scriptures.” Kulman earlier condemned the burning of holy books from any religion, saying it’s “an act of hate and disrespect, that has nothing to do with freedom of expression.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog said he “unequivocally condemn[s] the permission granted in Sweden to burn holy books,” and that he is “heartbroken that the same fate awaits a Jewish Bible.” Herzog added that “permitting the defacement of sacred texts is not an exercise in freedom of expression, it is blatant incitement and an act of pure hate.” On Friday, the European Jewish Congress (EJC) also issued a condemnation, saying the Swedish authorities shouldn’t allow the event to take place. “Provocative, racist, antisemitic and sickening acts such as these have no place in any civilized society,” EJC president Dr. Ariel Muzicant said.
In a meeting with representatives of religious communities in Sweden, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said: “Sweden is and must be a country where people of different faiths – or no faith – can live together side by side in mutual respect. Let us together fight the hatred in society, which drives people to burn the Quran, the Bible or the Torah, and in places and times that are most offensive. Instead, let’s show each other respect.”
The practice of burning holy books in Sweden started a few years ago as a result of a Danish far right provocateur and politician named Rasmus Paludan. A few of Paludan’s supporters burned the Quran in the southern city of Malmö in 2020, and he himself repeated the act a number of times since then. In January, Paludan returned to Sweden after he received a permit to burn a Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. This time the reaction had geopolitical implications. Turkey used the Quran burning in Stockholm as a pretext to continue blocking Sweden’s decision to join NATO.
When an Iraqi Christian immigrant burned a Quran just outside a Stockholm Mosque during Eid al-Adha in June, anti-Sweden protests broke out all over the Arab world. In recent weeks there have been more applications sent to the police requesting approval to hold demonstrations which include burning of holy books. Earlier this month, a man who identified himself in Swedish media as a refugee from Iraq burned a Quran outside a mosque in central Stockholm – resulting in strong condemnation from several countries. Shortly after, reports surfaced about another individual who had applied for a police permit to burn the Torah outside the Israeli embassy. “I am shocked and horrified by the prospect of the burning of more books in Sweden, be it the Koran [sic], the Torah or any other holy book,” Ambassador Nevo Kulman tweeted in early July.
The Torah Wasn’t Burned This Time. But What’s Next?
Are public burnings of the Quran and other holy books inevitable in a country that values free speech? No, according to the co-head of a Jewish-Muslim organization in Sweden, Rabbi Moshe David Hacohen. 'These events are an opportunity for cooperation, because the threat to Muslims and Jews is real,' he says
July 16th
STOCKHOLM – The Swedish capital found itself in the world news this weekend when a Muslim man who had pledged to burn copies of the Torah and Bible in front of the Israeli Embassy instead discarded his lighter and sought to send a message about respecting other religions. The Swede, who was named in the media as Ahmad Alush, went on to explain that he and many other Muslims were saddened by the burning of the Quran in Sweden and that the right to freedom of expression can’t excuse such hate crimes.
The practice of the Quran being publicly burned in Sweden started a few years ago because of a far-right Danish politician called Rasmus Paludan. A few of his supporters burned the sacred book of Islam in the southern city of Malmö in 2020, and he himself has subsequently repeated the act a number of times. In April 2022, he managed to provoke a violent reaction when criminal elements took advantage of the local outrage and started riots, including setting cars alight and attacking police forces in several Swedish towns.
Last January, Paludan returned to Sweden after receiving a permit to burn a Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. This time, the reaction had geopolitical implications: Turkey used the incident as a pretext to continue blocking Sweden’s efforts to join NATO. Things got even worse last month when an Iraqi Christian immigrant burned a Quran just outside a Stockholm mosque during the Eid al-Adha festival. This prompted not only more Turkish reaction, but also anti-Sweden protests all over the Arab world. And more applications requesting approval to hold public demonstrations to burn the holy books of three major religions (Judaism, Islam and Christianity) were sent to the police in recent weeks.
On Saturday, Alush said he wanted to expose Swedish hypocrisy that permits the Quran to be burned in the name of freedom of expression, but ended up making a wider statement by saying the practice of burning holy books must end.
Dismantling the fear
This point has been made by others, including some Swedish officials. Jonas Trolle, who heads the Swedish Center for Preventing Violent Extremism, has said it’s time for Sweden to consider certain legal changes. He said in recent media interviews that Sweden needs a “reality check” in such matters and that it can learn from countries such as Germany, France and Britain, which have managed to legally ban these kinds of events yet still remain democratic.
Civil society has also joined the discourse over the burning of holy books. The Amanah organization, founded by Imam Salahuddin Barakat and Rabbi Moshe David Hacohen, for instance, has prevented Torah burnings in the past. The group focuses on creating a trusting society while working to combat discrimination, antisemitism and Islamophobia.
“Jewish history is useful in this debate,” Hacohen said in an interview. “It’s clear that the purpose of burning holy books is not to demonstrate an objection to the content of the books; it’s about creating the Other in society – like Nazi propaganda in the 1930s. Burning books is a way of showing certain people that they are not welcome in society, and this leads to legitimizing murder.”
Asked what Amanah does when it learns that someone intends to burn a holy book, Hacohen explained that “the first thing we do is join forces. These events are a good opportunity for real cooperation, because the threat to both Muslims and Jews is real. We try to bring in forces from the Jewish world, the Muslim world, the leaderships of all communities in Sweden, the Nordic countries and Europe, and we try to send a unified message.
“On a more local and practical level, we exert our influence wherever we can behind the scenes – not only in order to prevent the burning of books, but also to prevent antisemitic incidents and Islamophobic behavior such as hate speech online. We work on dismantling the fear and building bridges in various ways. We created a digital project for Swedish schools, funded by the Swedish government, which helps young people understand what it’s like to be a Muslim or a Jew in Sweden. We also created a Jewish-Muslim madrassa [school] for adults, in order to deepen the knowledge about the two religions, understand the similarities, and see beyond the black and white way of seeing reality.” Hacohen noted that the imam of Stockholm's main mosque spoke on Friday against the burning of all holy books, and added that Muslims should not act against Jews who are their partners in the struggle against Quran burnings.
Sweden's unique interface
As for why Sweden has seemingly become an epicenter of book-burning controversies, Hacohen believes it is because the country has a unique interface where religion and social freedom meet. “The limits of democracy are stretched as they meet different cultural and religious values such as those brought by immigrants who arrive to a very different culture than they came from,” he said. “This friction triggers a debate about limits on freedom of speech and limits on behavior in the public arena when it comes to hate and racism. In Sweden, freedom of expression is a value above almost all others, and limiting it because of the danger of hate crimes is seen by many Swedes as a threat to their basic values.”
Hacohen referred to Jewish tradition when asked if Swedish exaltation of freedom of expression makes such incidents inevitable. “Amanah was invited to a panel discussion at the law faculty in Lund University. The participants were a law professor, the archbishop of the Church of Sweden and us, Imam Barakat and myself. When asked about the freedom of expression in Judaism, I replied that the notion of freedom is very personal, it’s about how one relates to choices. But when it comes to social laws and the relationship to others, the word ‘responsibility’ is used. We have rules regarding responsibility to others and the society we live in. It’s about responsibility rather than freedom. Perhaps this distinction can help direct us toward a true cohesive society where we care for one another and have a trusted shared space.”
The rabbi also highlighted recent comments by the Vatican and the World Jewish Congress. Pope Francis told United Arab Emirates daily Al-Ittihad that any book considered sacred by its people must be respected out of respect for its believers. “Freedom of expression must never be used as an excuse to despise others, and allowing this must be rejected and condemned,” the pope was quoted as saying.
WJC President Ronald Lauder, meanwhile, reacted to the recent incidents in Sweden by calling the burning of the Quran a “heinous act,” expressing solidarity with “our Muslim brothers and sisters.” On Friday, he said that “the burning of our sacred texts ostracizes and hurts the Swedish Jewish community as well as all those who value pluralism and multiculturalism. Books should be read and cherished, not set ablaze.”
Quran Burnings and Terror Threats: Israel Warns Citizens to Avoid Crowds – in Sweden
As Sweden raises its terrorism alert to its second-highest level, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson warns of potential revenge attacks for recent public burnings of the Quran – from Lebanon's Hezbollah, Al-Shabab in Somalia and Al-Qaida
August 21st
STOCKHOLM – The Swedish Security Service on Thursday raised the country's terrorist-threat level to its second-highest rung, a step last taken in 2016 when Europe was wracked by terror attacks. The move follows a spate of Quran burnings by protesters in Sweden, angering the Muslim world and triggering assaults on Swedish consulates and embassies in Baghdad, Beirut and Izmir, Turkey. The threat level will now be a 4 in a five-rung scale.
“There are also several examples of terrorist groups that have urged their sympathizers around the world to take revenge for the Quran burnings that have taken place in Sweden. Among them are Hezbollah in Lebanon, al-Shabab in Somalia and Al-Qaida,” Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson told a press conference Wednesday.
At the news conference, officials said the authorities had thwarted terrorist attempts and made arrests. Sweden's security agencies were cooperating with each other and their foreign counterparts, Kristersson added. Meanwhile, Britain and the United States have warned their citizens to stay vigilant in public places and tourist sites in Sweden. Even the National Security Council in Jerusalem has asked Israelis to “try their best to avoid crowded places and public institutions at the present time.” British officials have said there is a chance that terrorists will attempt to strike in Sweden, adding that the Swedish security agencies had already prevented attacks on Swedish citizens.
Burning holy books as a political provocation is nothing new to this Scandinavian country. For years now, far-right Danish politician Rasmus Paludan has been burning Qurans to express opposition to immigration to Sweden and neighboring Denmark, and in a bid to goad immigrant communities. In April 2022, provoked by Paludan, criminal elements took advantage of Muslim citizens' wrath and sparked riots in Swedish cities that included the torching of cars and attacks on the police. In January this year, Paludan returned to Sweden after receiving permission to burn a Quran in front of the Turkish Embassy in Stockholm. This time there were geopolitical repercussions: Turkey used the event as one of its reasons to block Sweden's entry into NATO.
The situation worsened in June when Salwan Momika, an Iraqi Christian, burned a Quran outside a mosque in Stockholm during the Eid al-Adha holiday. This time, the Turkish protests were joined by anti-Swedish demonstrations around the world. This wasn't the only Quran-burning by Momika, an anti-Muslim activist and asylum seeker who has been in Sweden since 2018. He has burned a Quran outside parliament, and on Friday, a day after the raising of the threat level, he burned the book outside the Iranian Embassy. Similar incidents have occurred in Denmark. In recent weeks, further requests for approval to burn holy books have been submitted to the Swedish police, with torchings of the New Testament and the Hebrew Bible also being prepared.
Sweden has absolute freedom of speech; it has no law preventing the burning of holy books. Meanwhile, the country’s legislation on hate crimes and public disturbances doesn’t allow the police to prevent book burnings, except in extraordinary circumstances. But many in Sweden argue that the country is paying too high a price for this policy. The freedom to burn holy books is letting a handful of extremists – whose views or actions are very unpopular around the country – drag Sweden into severe international crises while worsening the security situation.
At the press conference, Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer said that new legislation to fight terror groups is now in place while new policies have been crafted to prevent terrorists from entering the country in the first place. Sweden's police chiefs added that the security services were following suspects' online activities, gathering intelligence on radicals and preparing the rescue and security services for a rapid response to all scenarios. The head of the Swedish Security Service, Charlotte von Essen, added that the threat to Sweden may carry on for a long time.
She said the threat stems largely from Islamic extremists, while the spread of fake news, disinformation and rumors about Sweden – mainly portraying it as an anti-Muslim country – worsens the situation. The authorities are also monitoring intimidation from the far right and security threats in the entire region, against the backdrop of Russia's war on Ukraine and the Swedes' subsequent request to join NATO.
The threats in Sweden cast a shadow over Stockholm’s annual end-of-summer culture festival, which ended Sunday. For many Swedes, the mid-August event marks the last week of the summer vacation, after which it's back to work and school.
A police Car at Stockholm's Culture Festival. Photo: David Stavrou
Since its inception nearly two decades ago, the festival has been a huge attraction both for Stockholmers and tourists. For five days, stages throughout the city center host dance, music, circus and theater performances, all for free. Long lines stretch around dozens of food and drink stands, and more than a million visitors and hundreds of workers fill central Stockholm's streets, squares and bridges.
This year's installment went by without incident. Despite the warnings, there were no metal detectors, no one checking bags at the entrance, and no tense atmosphere at all. Maybe the reason is that instead of the rainy weather of the first half of August, the sun shined on Stockholm. Maybe it's just that the Swedish approach to terror threats, at least for now, is the same as the Swedish approach in general: faith in the authorities and security forces – and a cautious pragmatism. “We must live our lives as normal,” Kristersson said. “We stand behind our democratic values. We are defending ourselves, but we still stand behind our way of life.”
דיויד סטברו 