Nordisk judaistik/Scandinavian Jewish Studies

‘Bombed back to the prewar period’

Noa Ben David — 2024-12-20

This study analyses Jewish reactions to anti-Zionism in Norway, from the 1967 Six-Day War to the 1982 Israel–Lebanon War, focusing on the shifting political climate towards Israel. Using archival records, press materials and interviews with Jewish community activists, it explores how they defined and countered antisemitism in relation to Israel’s legitimacy. Applying Stuart Hall’s representations theory, and Benedict Anderson’s imagined communities, the study shows how solidarity with Israel marked an additional sense of belonging, giving its defenders agency and something to fight for. As Norwegians, activists asserted inclusion in the national community by opposing antisemitism and defending democratic values. As Zionists, they subscribed to a group that was being attacked and needed defending. The study finds that methods used to combat anti-Zionism resembled those employed against antisemitism. Yet attempts to discredit anti-Zionism failed, furthering the confusion on the boundaries of antisemitism.

Om detta må ni berätta

Anna Sarri Krantz — 2024-12-20

Förintelsen är ett historiskt skeende som är närvarande i en svensk samtid och bearbetas inom kultursektorn, politiken, forsknings och skolvärlden av både det svenska majoritetssamhället och den judiska minoriteten. Under 2010-talet har de överlevandes barnbarn trätt fram och kallar sig för den tredje generationens överlevande. Några ur den generationen har självmant tagit på sig ansvaret att berätta sina mor och farföräldrars historier i både muntlig och skriftlig form. Tillsammans formar dessa skildringar ett transmedialt berättande som innehåller mytiska strukturer, element och språkbruk. Syftet med artikeln är därför att belysa detta mönster. Artikeln bygger på ett socialantropologiskt fältarbete i Stockholm som genomfördes under 2010-talet. Observationer genomfördes på ett flertal platser i Stockholm med omnejd, och därtill gjordes intervjuer med personer från den tredje generationen. Analysen fokuserar på det transmediala berättandet, framförallt texter och radioprogram som producerats av den tredje generationen, och den struktur, de mönster och de språkliga symboler som den tredje generationen valt att centrera berättelserna kring.

Yizkor Books, Yiddish, and Israel

Lior Becker — 2024-12-20

Yizkor books are memorial books commemorating Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust, which are also the result of communal activity. The books have been published since 1943, mostly in Israel. Based on a qualitative and quantitative survey of 613 books, the largest survey of Yizkor books done to date, this article repositions the books linguistically and geographically. It demonstrates that contrary to previous research, Yizkor books are a significantly more heterogeneous phenomenon that began in the Yiddish-speaking world but quickly changed into an Israeli- and Hebrew-based phenomenon, which also included Jews from non-Yiddish-speaking Ashkenazi, and even Sephardic, communities. Especially since the 1980s, the phenomenon further evolved to include more English-language books, published in the USA. Against this geographical and linguistic backdrop, I also show that the producers of the books were a diverse array of groups and individuals from varying backgrounds. The publishers were not only Yiddish-speaking landsmanschaftn (Jewish mutual-aid societies consisting of individuals originating from a particular place and their descendants) but a variety of organizations of different kinds, individuals, and even schoolchildren. Finally, I present examples of Yizkor books that were presented in previous research as landsmanschaft literature produced by Holocaust survivors and show that these assumptions regarding the authors are partially or wholly erroneous and that those books were, in fact, produced by a different set of actors.

Historiska perspektiv på judiska kvinnors berättelser om erfarenheter av antisemitism i Sverige under 1900-talet och 2000-talet

Malin Thor Tureby — 2024-12-20

This article adopts a historical perspective to explore Jewish women’s experiences of anti semitism in Sweden. The empirical foundation of the study comprises interviews with approximately thirty women born in the 1950s, 1970s or 1990s, all of whom selfidentify as Jewish. Employing a dialogical epistemology rooted in intersectionality and shared authority, the study emphasises both the content of the women’s lifestories and the ways they interpret and articulate their experiences. A key finding of this study is that the fear of antisemitism is a persistent presence in the lives of most participants. A notable continuity over time is the school, which emerges as a recurring site where Jewish women have experienced a sense of being different. However, there is a generational shift in how these experiences are interpreted. Women born in the 1990s are more likely to identify such experiences explicitly as antisemitism, compared to those born in the 1950s or 1970s. Another significant conclusion is that understanding Jewish women’s stories about antisemitism requires these accounts to be situated within broader relational contexts, encompassing both their own and others’ experiences as well as both contemporary and historical processes. Past experiences are often reactivated by current events, such as the attack of 7 October 2023. There is also a before and after 7 October. After 7 October, the fear of antisemitism increased, and some women describe the fear as constant or existential.

A general conclusion in the article is that the fear of antisemitism is present in most of the women's lives. A continuity over time is that the school is a place where Jewish women have experienced that they are different. Women born in the 1990s interpret these experiences to a greater extent, than the women born in the 1950’s and the 19970’s, as an experience of antisemitism. In this respect, our results differ from previous international research showing that older people in particular experience and regard society as antisemitic, while younger people do not do so to the same extent.

A further conclusion is that to understand women's narratives about experiences of antisemitism, these should also be understood in relation to the experiences of others both in the present and in the past, since these form layer upon layer of experiences that are actualized by current events such as October 7. There is also a before and after October 7. After 7 October, the feeling of insecurity has increased, and some women describe the fear as constant or existential.

Not of Bread Alone

Lars Dencik — 2024-12-20

Review of Helmut Müssener & Michael F. Scholz: Die jüdische Emigrantenselbsthilfe in Stockholm (1939-1973). Hilfe durch Selbsthilfe, De Gruyter, Oldenburg, 2023.

En upptäcktsfärd i Europas judiska 1800-tal

Anders Hammarlund — 2024-12-20

Review of Eva Ekselius: 'Vakna mitt folk!' Det judiska Europa mellan den franska revolutionen och den ryska. Volante 2023.

A Thorough Examination of Bosnia's Antisemitic History

Evin Ismail — 2024-12-20

Book review of Antisemitic Discourse and Historical Amnesia in Bosnia: The Case of Mustafa Busuladžić. Kjell Magnusson. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Uppsala Jewish Studies, 2024.

"They absolutely don’t want you to progress here"

Samuli Skurnik — 2024-12-20

Fascism and Nazi ideology cast a threatening shadow over Finland during its troubled 1930s. This manifested as antisemitism towards the few Jewish students pursuing higher degrees at Finnish universities. One glaring instance of discrimination involved our father, Leo Skurnik, whose advancement in his academic career was blocked at the Helsinki University Department of Medical Chemistry in the late 1930s. In this treatise, we aim to delve deeper into the challenges he faced and how they were intertwined with the antisemitic sentiments prevailing at that time.

Salomon Schulman (1947–2024)

Lars M Andersson — 2024-12-20

An obituary for Salomon Schulman (1947-2024)

Tapani Harviainen (1944–2024)

Riikka Tuori — 2024-12-20

An obituary for Tapani Harviainen (1944–2024).

Editorial

Ruth Illman — 2024-12-20

Editorial for Issue 35, Volume 2