Malmö: Hatred of Jews in a Swedish city

Image courtesy of Bare Naked Islam

(JPost) Rabbi Shneur Kesselman is used to running. When I asked him about the most serious anti-Semitic attack he has been victim of in his Swedish home town of Malmö, he recalled an incident when a car began backing into him and his wife as they were crossing the street.

How close was he when he stopped? I asked.

“I don’t know, we ran,” he said.

Another incident: The rabbi was walking to morning service at Malmö’s Orthodox synagogue, when a car stopped and the driver asked him aggressively to come closer. It was early Saturday morning and the streets around them were empty. When Kesselman started to walk away, the car turned and began to pursue him.

Again Rabbi Kesselman found himself running through the streets of Malmö. “I have never been so frightened,” he told me.

Anti-Semitic hate crimes are on the rise in Sweden, and as in France and Great Britain, the violence and harassment is increasingly a consequence of immigration from the Muslim world. And just as in other parts of Western Europe, there is no reciprocity between the two groups: the war in Gaza caused a sharp rise in anti- Semitic hate crime, while there were no reports of Jewish attacks on Muslims.

In the capital of Stockholm, such imported anti-Semitism has not yet provoked any dramatic changes in Jewish life – mainly because of the segregated nature of the city. Immigrants dominate housing projects in the suburbs, while most Jewish activity is downtown. Stockholm’s only kosher store, its main synagogue and the Jewish cultural center are located in Stockholm’s business quarters.

In Malmö it is different. In 2004 the most common name for baby boys in the city was Mohammed, and among 15-year-olds, ethnic Swedes are now in minority.

Unlike in Stockholm, these demographic changes are immediately reflected in city life, and for Malmö’s 1,500 Jews, life has changed considerably. It is telling that the city’s Jews don’t use slogans or carry signs during their recurring demonstrations against anti-Semitism; they simply wear kippahs and Stars of David. It has become a manifestation in itself to walk through town as a Jew.

According to the Malmö police, hate crimes in the city range from anti-Semitic remarks (a crime according to Swedish penal law) to violent assault. In late 2008, a peaceful Jewish demonstration was run off the main square by an aggressive mob of immigrants of Arab origin.

The police decided to evacuate the Jewish group when a homemade bomb exploded in its midst.

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