Jewish star of Scandinavian BBC drama quits due to anti-Semitism

The Jewish star of Scandinavian BBC crime drama ‘The Bridge’ has said he quit the show in part because he did not feel safe filming in the Swedish town of Malmö, which is quickly becoming known as a hotbed of anti-Semitism.

Danish actor Kim Bodnia left the TV series after two seasons playing character Martin Rohde, and in an interview with Walla, said anti-Semitism “is growing, especially in Malmö where we shot it”.

He added: “It’s not very comfortable to be there as a Jewish person. So of course this has something to do with why it’s easy for me to say no to working in Sweden”.

Last year, the Simon Weisenthal Center in Los Angeles re-issued a travel advisory to Jews, warning against going to the town, after 137 anti-Semitic incidents in two years. The Rabbi of the Malmö synagogue, Shneur Kesselman, says he has been spat upon and verbally abused, with a bottle thrown from a car narrowly missing him.

The Jewish community in Malmö has shrunk by 50 percent in the past decade to about 1,000 residents, many of whom are seeing an increase in racial tensions, with this year’s influx of refugees from the Middle East