Jewish Stockholm tour

Stockholm has had presence of Jews since at least the 17th century. Sweden stands out as one of few European countries unaffected by the Holocaust, and much remains of the Jewish community's artifacts. Since 2000, Jews are recognized as one of five Swedish national minorities.

Understand

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The first Jews in Sweden might have been Hanseatic merchants; records about them are however difficult to find. Gustav Vasa, the first king of independent Sweden in the 16th century, had a doctor who was in government documents referred to as "the Jew".

With the expansion of the Swedish Empire in the 17th century came immigration of Jewish merchants and scholars, in particular from German-speaking lands. The Protestant Church of Sweden had concerns that Jews challenged the state religion, and Judaism was prohibited until the 1770s, requiring Jews to be baptized at immigration. Jews could reside in a few cities, but travelling Jewish salespeople, as well as Roma travellers, were treated as vagrants and detained to forced labour. In 1775, King Gustav III gave sealmaker Aaron Isaac a charter to practice the Jewish faith in Sweden, and in 1782 the Jew Reglement legalized the Jewish religion, still barring Jews from rights such as land ownership, membership in craft guilds, marriage with non-Jews and voting, and requiring some wealth for residency. The Jews could normally only reside in Stockholm, Gothenburg and Norrköping; there was also a Jewish community in Marstrand on Sweden's west coast, with a synagogue inaugurated in 1782, as well as the naval base in Karlskrona, where Jewish craftsmen were in high demand.

In the 19th and early 20th century, Sweden gradually increased civil rights for the whole population. Most of these rights were first limited to members of the Church of Sweden, and only over time granted to Jews; the increasingly influential Swedish bourgeois saw Jews as rivals, with anti-Semitic backlashes more than once. Since 1870, Jews and Christians are equal before the law in Sweden. The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw immigration of Jews from the Russian Empire, As most of them were poor, Yiddish-speaking, and practicing orthodox faith, they had difficulties to integrate both in the existing Jewish community, and in Sweden. Some of them moved on to the Americas.

As the Nazi Party came to power in Germany in 1933 and gradually increased oppression against Jews, Sweden remained reluctant to accept Jewish immigrants, and no more than 3,000 Jews came to Sweden before the beginning of World War II in 1939. Sweden made many concessions to Germany during the beginning of the war, but in 1942, as the tide of the war turned against Germany, and the horrors of the Holocaust became commonly known, making Sweden more open to Jewish refugees. Around 2,200 Jews lived in Norway; around half of them escaped to Sweden. Out of the 7,000 Jews of Denmark, most managed to escape to Sweden, thanks to the Danish resistance movement. Through diplomatic efforts, Sweden saved thousands of Hungarian Jews from death. Around 12,000 Jewish Holocaust survivors came to Sweden in the aftermath of the war; around a third of them remained. In the 1950s and 1960s, Jewish refugees came from Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland due to Soviet-led oppression in these countries.

Since 2000, Jews have been recognized as one of Sweden's national minorities, together with the Romani, Sami, Finns and Tornedalians. These ethnic groups have resided in Sweden since before modern times. Thereby, Sweden is the world's only country granting official status to the Yiddish language; spoken as a mother tongue by around 1,000 Swedish citizens. As of the 2020s, there are around 20,000 Jews in Sweden, many of them in Stockholm.

Get around

The tour can be completed on foot in a calm manner within an hour. The streets of the Old Town are less suitable for wheelchairs, strollers, bicycles and personal electric vehicles. Driving is not recommended.

The Jewish Museum hosts walking tours with similar waypoints.

Destinations

• 1 Jewish Museum (Judiska museet), Själagårdsgatan 19. This 17th-century building was an auction chamber until it became Stockholm's first synagogue from 1795 to 1870; the year when Jews got full civil rights, and the Great Synagogue was inaugurated. The building has been used for many purposes, such as a police station. The Jewish Museum was founded in 1992 on different premises, and relocated to this building in 2019.  

On 29 September 1681, the Israel Mendel och Moses Jacob families were baptized, with King Charles XI and Queen Ulrika Eleonora as godparents.

• 2 German Church (Tyska Kyrkan), Svartmangatan 16A. Officially named Sankta Gertrud, this 1642 church is the home to the first German-speaking parish outside Germany. As most Jews in Sweden came from German lands, this was the site for baptizing Jewish immigrants.  
• 3 Forum för levande historia. A museum with exhibitions focused on human rights and crimes against humanity. Previous exhibitions have depicted Sweden's role in World War II in Europe and the Holocaust.  
• 4 Gustav III statue. Gustav III ruled Sweden from 1771 to 1792. Inspired by the Enlightenment, he was a patron of the arts, and promoted religious tolerance, and the rule of law. He invited many scholars, artisans and investors from continental Europe, one of them being sealmaker Aaron Isaac, who in 1775 got a charter to live as a Jew in Sweden, and found a Jewish congregation of 10 men. In 1782, his Jew Reglement legalized the Jewish religion. Immigration remained selective, as every Jewish housemaster would need to bring a wealth of 2,000 riksdaler (20 years' wages for a worker). These wealthy men could however bring families and servants. Still for decades to come, Jews could not own land, join guilds, marry non-Jews, vote, or testify in court.  

Aaron Isaac, the first legally practising Jew in Sweden.

• 5 Charles XVI John Statue. A Napoleonic general who was King of Sweden and Norway from 1818 to 1844, overseeing many liberal reforms, as well as anti-Semitic backlashes. 1838 he signed a reformed Jew Reglement, recognizing Jews as citizens of Sweden, allowing them to settle anywhere. Some proposed rights were delayed; they could not own farms or testify in court.  
• 6 Sjöfartshuset. In the mid-19th century, this palace was the residence of Carl David Skogman, a bureaucrat who wrote the 1838 Jew Reglement. During summer 1838, a row of protests (the Crusenstolpe riots) against the government took place in Stockholm. A main reason for the protest was the imprisonment of liberal publicist Magnus Jacob Crusenstolpe. However, many people in Stockholm were also dissatisfied with immigration and integration of Jews, adding anti-Semitic elements to the protests. A mob smashed the windows of Skogman's home. Some Jewish homes in the Old Town were also attacked. In 1838, Jews and Christians were allowed to marry, but some of the proposed reforms were delayed; only in 1849 Jews could testify in court, and in 1862 Jews could vote in city elections.  
• 7 Swedish Parliament building. Sweden's legislative building. Sweden's parliament traditionally had four estates: nobles, clergy, burghers and peasants. As tenant farmers and workers were thought to be represented by the master of the house (who was in most cases male), only a fraction of the population could vote. Both the Lutheran clergy and the guild-connected merchants and craftsmen saw Jews as rivals. By the 19th century, a growing class of businesspeople and scholars lacked representation, paving the way for the 1866 reform creating a two-chamber parliament elected by property-owning men regardless of birth. Up to 1870, Lutheran faith was required both for voting and holding public office, excluding Jews, Catholics and others. The current parliament building opened in 1905.  
• 8 Norrbrobasaren. The place which today is a lawn in front of the parliament building, hosted a market hall for fashion, books, and other goods during the 19th century. Well-dressed aristocrats paraded along the street to get attention. As Jews were barred from joining most craft guilds, many of them made a living as retailers, including the Bonnier family, who ran a bookstore here. In 1864, Sweden abolished guild privileges, allowing Jews to take on most professions. The market hall was torn down to make room for the Parliament building.  
• 9 Charles XII statue. Charles (Karl) XII, born in 1682, reigning from 1697 to 1718, spent most of his adult life at war, for many years in exile in the Ottoman Empire. He brought an entourage of Jewish and Muslim scholars to Sweden, as well as some merchants who lent money to the Swedish Crown. Charles XII was the first Swedish king to allow Jews to hold service in Sweden; though the policy was that they would either assimilate or emigrate. As usual for war-time leaders, his legacy is complex and has been re-evaluated with the times; in the late 20th century, Swedish neo-Nazis tried to claim him as a national hero, but he has also been credited for his curiosity for foreign culture.  
• 10 NK (Nordiska Kompaniet), Hamngatan 18-20. The retail company Nordiska Kompaniet was founded in 1902 by Swedish-Jewish businessman Josef Sachs. From 1902 to 1915 they had their premises at nearby Stureplan. The current flagship store was finished in 1915 and is recognized as a legacy department store; since the 1990s it is however run as a shopping centre for independent vendors. Josef Sachs also founded the low-cost retail chain EPA (Enhetsprisaktiebolaget), translating Unit price company in 1930, which raised protests from competitors, with anti-Semitic elements. While NK has arguably been Stockholm's most famous fashion retailer (see legacy retailers), the word EPA became a prefix for cheap goods of poor quality (one example being epatraktor, a geared-down automobile re-registered as a tractor).  
• 11 Great Synagogue, Wahrendorffsgatan 3B. Stockholm's largest synagogue opened in 1870, the same year Jews got full civil rights. Architect Fredrik Wilhelm Scholander designed the Synagogue as an Assyrian temple with floral ornaments. It was of great size for its time with nearly 1,000 seats, while the congregation only had around 450 members. Since 2015 led by Ute Steyer, Sweden's first female rabbi. The 1945 bronze statue is called Escape with Torah.  
• 12 Raoul Wallenberg Monument. A 1999 monument for Raoul Wallenberg. The aesthetics have been questioned, and a more traditional bust has been set up at Strandvägen 7. A pair of ornamental railroad tracks lead to the synagogue. 
• 13 Strandvägen 7 (Hotel Diplomat). In World War II, Germany occupied Denmark and Norway in 1940, while Finland was co-belligerent with Germany. With Europe at war, Stockholm became a haven for diplomats, with an opportunity to spy on their enemies. The palace at Strandvägen 7 hosted several embassies; for the United States, Italy, Yugoslavia and Turkey, and the German military attaché. On the backstreet was the local branch of the German Nazi Party. While Sweden had an established partnership with Germany, the Nazi movement remained marginal in Sweden despite intense German propaganda. In the early years of the war, Sweden made many concessions to Germany; however from 1942 the Holocaust became well known, and the tide of the war was turning. Sweden had to mend its reputation through humanitarian missions. On Strandvägen 7 was the trading company Meropa. The War Refugee Board approached its owner Kálmán Lauer; as he was a Hungarian Jew and could not carry out the mission himself, he recommended his employee Raoul Wallenberg. As a Swedish diplomat, Wallenberg travelled to Budapest, issued diplomatic passports to Jews, and housed them in Swedish embassy buildings, rescuing around 10,000 people from certain death. Wallenberg was detained by the Soviet Union in January 1945, was never found again, and was long rumoured to be alive. He was declared dead in 2016. The building is today a hotel, appropriately named Diplomat.  

Adat Jeschurun's interior.

• 14 Adat Jeschurun. Orthodox synagogue. The interiors come from the Synagoge Bornstrasse in Hamburg, which survived the 1938 November pogroms (Kristallnacht) as it was in a tenement building. Due to the threat against the Jews, director Hans Lehmann, a German Jew residing in Stockholm, had the furnishing imported in March 1939. The pews, prayer books and the Torah Ark were labelled as "old furniture" to avoid suspicion from German authorities. Since 1940 the synagogue has been active in Stockholm.  
• 1 Bajit, Nybrogatan 19 A. Jewish cultural centre and the site of the Stockholm Jewish Congregation, with a library, a school, a café, and a kosher grocer. 
• 2 Schmaltz, Nybrogatan 19. A restaurant and deli inspired by the Jewish-American cuisine. 

Go next

• 15 Swedish Holocaust Museum, Torsgatan 19. Sweden's first museum dedicated to Holocaust remembrance was founded in 2022, and opened its first exhibition in 2023.  
• 16 Adrat Jisrael Synagogue, S:t Paulsgatan 13. The synagogue of an orthodox congregation founded in 1871, featured in the Millennium series; see Millennium Tour. 
• 17 Heckscherska huset, Klippgatan 19. Built in 1913 to accommodate Jewish immigrants from Eastern Europe, state-of-the-art with flush toilets, but tight quarters. Received refugees during World War II. 
• 18 Kronoberg cemetery. In use from 1787 to 1857. This cemetery was opened in opposition to Aaron Isaac's authority of the Jewish community.  
• 19 Aronsberg cemetery. Named for Aaron Isaac, in use since 1782; back then, the island was a farmland, far from the city.  
• 20 Southern Jewish cemetery. Part of Skogskyrkogården (the Woodland Cemetery), a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  
• 21 Northern Jewish cemetery. On the large Northern Cemetery in Solna. The chapel, in Moorish style, was inaugurated in 1857. The burial place for Holocaust survivors who died shortly after arriving to Sweden. 

Stay safe

As of 2024, many sites of the Jewish community have elevated security routines, and might require advance booking.

Timeline

• 1557: First written record of an individual Jewish resident in Sweden; Gustav Vasa's doctor, known only as "the Jew"
• 1648: Westphalian Treaty expands Sweden's territory and heralds Jewish immigration
• 1775: Aaron Isaac receives a Royal charter to live as a Jew in Sweden
• 1782: Gustav III:s Jew Reglement legalizes the Jewish religion
• 1838: A new Jew Reglement expands civil rights of Jews; some are delayed due to anti-Semitic riots
• 1870: Jews receive full civil rights. Great Synagogue opens
• 1945: End of World War II
• 2000: Jews recognized as a national minority