Posted on 02/26/2011 3:21:50 AM PST by WesternCulture
A year after claims about an exodus of Jews from Malmö made global headlines, many Jewish residents still don't feel safe in southern Sweden, The Local's Karen Holst discovers.
The past couple of years have been turbulent for Malmö's Jewish community. A spike in anti-Semitic attacks in 2009 prompted a number of Jews to leave the city altogether, concluding they would never feel accepted there.
Controversial comments by the town's long-serving Social Democratic mayor Ilmar Reepalu also put Malmö in the spotlight, drawing criticism from within his own party, as well as from influential Jewish organisations aboard.
And in December 2010, the US-based Simon Wiesenthal Center issued a warning urging Jews to exercise "extreme caution" when traveling in southern Sweden.
While current statistics show a significant decline in anti-Semitic attacks in 2010 when compared to 2009, the nearly 3,000-member Jewish community in Skåne continues to shrink.
“People wonder if there will even be a Jewish community here in 10 years,” Fredrik Sieradzki, spokesperson for the Jewish Community of Malmö (Judiska Församlingen i Malmö), tells The Local.
Despite the decrease in reported attacks, as well as community efforts to ease racist rancor, many of south Sweden’s Jewish residents continue to feel dangerously threatened.
According to Sieradzki, many young Jewish families are relocating because they feel Skåne is not a safe area to raise their children. Coupled with an aging baby-boomer generation, there are few willing or present to take vacated leadership positions within many of the area's Jewish organisations.
“Some of us feel there is no hope and we are losing people because of anti-Semitism,” he adds.
Police reports show the number of anti-Semitic incidents nearly doubled in 2009 but have declined in 2010 by more than half.
“We believe the number of attacks increased in 2009 due to the Davies Cup and two big demonstrations against Israel. Now the statistics show hate-crime against Jews going down dramatically in 2010,” explains Susanne Gosenius, a hate crime coordinator for Skåne police.
Sieradzki argues, however, that the numbers may not reflect reality as many Jewish residents choose not to report every incident, such as intimidating slurs and other verbal attacks.
“Maybe the numbers are lower or maybe not. It doesn’t matter because the feeling is the same – many of us cannot and do not feel at home here,” says Sieradzki.
He points out that the severity of attacks is also intensifying.
Last October a group of about 20 teenagers attacked the Jewish community’s residential education centre during a youth retreat.
“The first night they shouted vicious, nasty slurs. The next night it escalated and they broke down the fence and were banging on windows and doors,” Sieradzki explains.
“It was quite frightening.”
Sieradzki, who applauded the nearby municipality of Vellinge for its swift response to the incident, also points out that the teenagers in the attacking group were not Muslim as many are quick to assume.
“These boys were not Arabs. They were all Swedish. And I assure you the Jewish people are not attacking anybody.”
Despite the year’s decline in reported attacks, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the largest international organization for Jewish human rights, nevertheless went ahead with its decision to issue a travel warning for Jews visiting southern Sweden.
The move put Skåne to the same plane as countries that have experienced heinous, even fatal attacks and bombings on Jewish people, such as Turkey, Greece and Belgium.
“We made a very serious statement by putting Malmö on our advisory list,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Center, tells The Local.
“It’s a serious move and we hope to take serious measures to rectify it.”
But the warning rankled some members of Malmö's Jewish community, who claim they weren't informed about the move ahead of time, and surprised local authorities as statistics showed that attacks were on the decline.
“I can understand that Jewish people feel threatened in Malmö,” hate crimes specialist Gosenius explains.
“We have a huge population from the Middle East, West Bank and Gaza and most (Jewish) victims describe their perpetrators as young Muslim men.
“But I’m not sure the warning for Malmö fits. It’s a very drastic act.”
Sieradzki has mixed emotions about the Wiesenthal Center's "surprise" advisory.
While he understands the Center’s point, he argues the move may have been too severe and feels the Jewish leaders in Skåne could have helped moderate the message had they known about it.
“They should have talked to us first,” argues Sieradzki.
“We are trying to create an atmosphere in Malmö where we co-exist and I’m not sure that this travel warning is good.”
Rabbi Cooper rejects the idea that the Center's warning came as a surprise, pointing to a meeting in Stockholm prior to the advisory where prominent members of south Sweden’s Jewish community were in attendance.
“The analysis comes from the ground up,” says Cooper.
“Experiences from Jewish members in Malmö and a previous colleague there led to what we did.”
He stated that families should be able to go to any house of worship, whether it’s Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays, without fear of intimidation, violence or something worse.
“People of faith, or no faith, should be able to walk on the street and feel equally protected. There is a climate of intimidation in Malmö and we need to take steps to address it,” says Cooper.
In response to 2009’s hike in attacks, Malmö city officials created the Dialogue Forum to ease hostilities between Jews, Muslims, the Roma, and other victimized minorities.
As the Forum's one-year anniversary approaches, the Jewish community believes the dialogue has had little effect.
“It’s sad we have to have a group, and we do hope something good comes of it but there hasn’t been anything yet,” says Sieradzki, adding that the 6,000-member Islamic Centre, of their own initiative, recently invited members of the Jewish community to their mosque.
Mayor Reepalu, who was also singled out by the Wiesenthal Center last year for comments about the city's Jewish community in which he "blamed the situation on the Jews themselves as the community did not 'distance itself from Israel,'" according to the Center.
While Reepalu refused to be interviewed for this article, he has undertaken efforts in the last year to make amends and further understand the hostilities Jewish people encounter in Malmö through meetings with Sieradzki and other Jewish community leaders.
Since then the 15-year mayor has invited members from the Simon Wiesenthal Center to Malmö, although an exact date for the visit has not yet been set.
“I can confirm we are coming to Sweden and we are coming next month,” says Rabbi Cooper.
While the agenda for the meeting is still being hammered out, the focus will likely be on improving the situation in southern Sweden.
The meeting will be also accompanied by a seminar on anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
"It’s good that something is happening," says Sieradzki.
"There are Jews is Malmö. We live here, we are here to stay and we won’t gain anything by attacking each other."
- Considering the facts that;
1) Around 500 Jews live and prosper in the old parts of Hebron while being surrounded by appr. 165 000 Palestinians
and
2) Most parts of Skåne/Scania (including the infamous city of Malmö) are not dominated by Muslims
I find the quote above rather puzzling, to say the least.
Some neighborhoods of Malmö (read Rosengård) might not be safe for Jews, but taken as a whole, Skåne/Scania is probably one of the safest parts of this world to raise a family in.
I'm not saying there is no problem, but this is how Malmö looks in reality: (simply click “Malmö” to explore the city at street level):
- No, but according to what I've seen in a TV documentary, their children throw stones at Muslims under the protection of Israelian soldiers.
Hebron is holy to the Jews, so therefore they will never abandon the city.
However any place that the Muslims wish to conquer they tend to “make” sacred to them as well. It's the same situation in Ayodhya, India, which is sacred to the Hindus as it is said to be the birthplace of Rama:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayodhya_debate
I won't be surprised if the Muslims soon will find out that some aunt of Mohammad was buried in Malmö before it became Swedish..
Correction:
“Israeli soldiers”
neither
iy belongs to the swedes.
Actually watching TV in Sweden you probably never did.
There is a heavy Israeli Army presence in Hebron.
Is the Swedish Army protecting Jews in, what is it, Malamo?
- I didn't mean to say the Palestinians are peaceful and innocent, I was simply describing the situation down there.
“Actually watching TV in Sweden you probably never did.”
- While it sure is true SR and SVT (the Swedish equivalents to BBC) appear very pro-Islam, Swedish TV of today is much more than SVT. Just like most other people on Earth, we Swedes have access to a multitude of TV channels.
But just like in America, Britain, France, Germany, Italy etc, etc, most journalists are very PC and oriented towards the left in my corner of the World. Fortunately, lots of people are skeptical to what they read, hear and watch..
Absolutely turning into a Muslim hellhole.
I’ve heard various estimates of the % of Muslims there, from about 17% to more than 50%.
Shoot, I can’t see how ANY Western people would feel secure in that part of Skåne anymore, let alone Jews.
- Naturally, the rate of Muslims in Malmö depends on how you define Muslims and how you define Malmö.
Lots of people originating from Muslim countries in Sweden are either secularized or don't wish to have anything to do with Islam. I'd say the Iranians are the most and the Somali the least secularized. Few refugees from Somalia can even function in a modern society (- the unemployment rate is sky-high among them despite the fact that the Swedish economy is booming and education of all sorts is free).
“Malmö” might refer either to the City of Malmö (or, sooner, Malmö Kommun) which has a population of 250 000 or the metro region of Malmö/Greater Malmö which has around 650 000 inhabitants.
Correction:
The city of Malmö itself has 250 000 inhbitants while Malmö Kommun (”Kommun” means the local government entity) boasts 300 000 residents.
Are residing in Malmo???
No-—I live in Florida.
Dad’s folks were from Skanör and little Gunnarp in Halland (both part of historic Skåne, or Scania).
I maintain communication with some folks in Helsingborg who are, BTW, anti-big government and anti-high taxes. They do well but life has to be tough for them with socialism, multi-clti, PC, and Islam all attacking normal folks at once.
Nope. I live in Gothenburg, Sweden. Scanian seems to reside in Fla.
Anyhow, something of a more general interest:
A guy called Felix Baumgartner has actually invented a method for Jews to safely visit Malmö. It is a bit complicated, but I think it would work (the spectacular Malmö skyscraper featured in the clip is named Turning Torso. It is a work by the Spanish architect Calatrava):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUXjEd83mwI
“I maintain communication with some folks in Helsingborg who are, BTW, anti-big government and anti-high taxes. They do well but life has to be tough for them with socialism, multi-clti, PC, and Islam all attacking normal folks at once.”
- I know people in that part of Sweden too. They seem to be much more opposed to Islam than the rest of us.
Fortunately, the attitudes the inhabitants of Skåne/Scania and Denmark are spreading rapidly across Scandinavia.
And I’m sure many of them live like our own alien communities do-—in the shadows and in avoidance of authorities and census takers.
Last time I was there in 2002 I noticed mostly Arabs but the big influx hadn’t really started yet.
Lots of Pallies demonstrating in Copenhagen also.
I wonder if Geert Wilders can get into Sweden?
I wish theose people could hear him re. immigration and the West.
How to Swedes feel about safety in Malmö? It is actually their country, Sweden, after all.
...........
Fortunately, lots of people are skeptical to what they read, hear and watch..
But what about you? ;-)
For many years we had an apartment in Malmo, Mariedalsvagen, short distance from then "skyscraper" Kronprinsen where we would stay up to a month @ time on business trips, and we could walk through the parks coming back from Copenhagen on last hydrofoil/catamarans after midnight!!
Our last visit was in 2000 and you could no longer promenading safely through the parks. My American wife just loved it before in the 80/90, but not anymore after 2000 and she refused to stay there and finally two years ago she relentlessly agreed to give up our beautiful art decorated apartment in Malmo!!!
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