Swedish Jews

Swedish Jews
Svenska Judar
יהודים שוודים

The door at the top of the stairs at Fort Fredriksborg in Marstrand, leads in to where Sweden's first synagogue was established.
Total population
20,000
Languages
Swedish, Yiddish, Hebrew
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
other Ashkenazi Jews

The history of the Jews in Sweden probably began with arrivals from the Hanseatic League in medieval times, but there are no records. In the Elizabethan era, it was common for European royalty to have Jewish doctors at court, and there is a record of a Jewish doctor who served Gustav Vasa in the 16th century.

Church records at Stockholm Cathedral record several Jewish families entering Sweden and being baptised into the Lutheran Church, a condition at that time imposed upon any Jew who desired to settle in Sweden. In 1681 for example, the Jewish families of Israel Mandel and Moses Jacob in , 28 persons in all, were baptised in the German church of that city in the presence of King Charles XI of Sweden, the dowager queen Hedvig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, and several other high state officials.

King Charles XII (1697–1718) spent five years with an encampment in the Turkish town of Bender and accumulated a large number of debts there for his entourage. Jewish and Muslim creditors followed him to Sweden, and the Swedish law was altered so that they could hold religious services and circumcise their male progeny.

In 1680 the Jews of Stockholm petitioned the king that they be permitted to reside there without abandoning their creed, but the application was denied because the local consistory had refused to endorse it. On December 3, 1685, Charles XI ordered the governor-general of the capital to see to it that no Jews were permitted to settle in Stockholm, or in any other part of the country, "on account of the danger of the eventual influence of the Jewish religion on the pure evangelical faith." In case Jews were found in any Swedish community, they were to be notified to leave within fourteen days.

Through court patronage Jewish merchants were occasionally appointed royal purveyors. During his bellicose reign, King Charles XII (a.k.a. Karl XII) usually had one or more wealthy Jews with him in the field as the paymaster(s) of his army. In 1718, Jews obtained permission to settle in the kingdom without need to abjure their religion.