Swedish Jews boycott Holocaust memorial co-organised by nationalist party
Around 40 people from the Gothenburg Jewish community issued their disapproval at the memorial being co-organised by a far right group
Dozens of Swedish Jews said they would skip a Holocaust commemoration event in the southern city of Gothernburg due to the involvement of a nationalist party in organising it.
The Göteborgs-Posten daily on Wednesday published a full-page ad by some 40 Jews, of which only two were identified by name, about the involvement of the local branch of the Sweden Democrats party in the event scheduled for Jan. 27, International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
“That the Sweden Democrats, with their ties to both old and new Nazism and xenophobia, are invited to co-organise the memorial ceremony is more than an affront. It is extremely offensive of us as Jews and our history,” wrote cosignatories Lisa Granér, Erik Nilsson and others whose name was not published, citing security fears.
The Sweden Democrats, which have participated in organising the Holocaust commemoration in Gothenburg since 2010, are among several Swedish parties that have sanctioned members for making offensive statements about Jews and have consistently denied allegations that they condone such behaviour.
But the Sweden Democrats, which describes itself as critical of immigration from Muslim countries and its effects of Swedish society, are the “only party with a clear xenophobic agenda where people are pitted against each other solely on the basis of their background and where Sweden’s survival as a country is contrasted with an alleged wave of mass immigration,” the co-signatories wrote. “There is only one party that makes history’s bells ring so loud.”
George Braun, the head of the Jewish Community of Gothenburg, told JTA Thursday the Sweden Democrats’ involvement in the ceremony is “problematic” but is a result of a system meant to be inclusive to all political parties that predates the Sweden Democrat’s entry to parliament.. The community is in talks with other partners on how to proceed, he said, but “we don’t believe that boycotting the event and essentially leaving it to Sweden Democrats is the answer.”
In October, a Sweden Democrats lawmaker called for action against what she called the “control of media by any family or ethnic group.” Anna Hagwall named in an interview specifically the Bonnier Group — a privately held Swedish media group controlled by the Bonnier family, which has Jewish roots.
Mattias Karlsson, a leader of the Sweden Democrats, said in a statement Thursday that Hagwall’s actions “have damaged our confidence in her” and “will have consequences for her future activities in the party and its parliamentary work.”
Also that month, Sweden Democrats senior lawmaker Carina Herrstedt was widely criticised in media for writing a racist joke in an email. It was about attempts to promote diversity in soccer and featured language deemed offensive to gays, blacks, nuns, Roma and Jews. Separately, Swedish media published a recording in October of Sweden Democrats finance spokesman Oscar Sjöstedt jokingly comparing Jews to sheep being killed in German abattoirs.
Sweden Democrats more than doubled its gains in the 2014 parliamentary elections, which left the party with 49 seats out of 349 in the Riksdag, the kingdom’s parliament.
Separately, protest by the Swedish Committee Against Anti-Semitism prompted a Muslim youth movement in Sweden to distance itself from a Muslim cleric who was invited to speak to its members in Stockholm last month.
The Ibn Rushd association said in a statement that it would not have invited the Muslim Brotherhood theologian Zaghloul el-Naggar, who wrote a book entitled “The Plot: Milestones in Zionist and World Subversion of the Palestinian People,” had it known of his anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
