Abstract: This article conducts a multi-scalar analysis of the dynamics between secularism and religion in contemporary Sweden and highlights a growing divide between them, in the wake of neoliberal reconfigurations of the welfare state and a stronger religious pluralism in public space. In the first part of the analysis, we examine the public debate around conversion attempts and state funding for religious organizations. We show that a stronger culturalization and politicization of religion has resulted in a growing secular/religion divide, shaping religion as the Other and as the opposite of secularity, which, in return, becomes equated with values of equality and freedom. In the second part of the analysis, we highlight how such a secular/religion divide constructs religion as the main problem of religious queer people. Drawing on an analysis of the lived experiences of trans and queer people from Muslim, Jewish and Christian traditions, we challenge this divide. Ultimately, the article proposes that there is a need for more spaces that are both queer inclusive and religiously affirmative, rather than stronger state regulation and limitation of religious spaces, and we present some routes ahead for further research in response to the challenges and vulnerabilities detected.
Abstract: In memory of Dr. Paul Levine, my friend and mentor during the last years of his life, this chapter honors his commitment to research, write, and teach about the Holocaust and the entangled histories of Sweden and the Holocaust. In this chapter, I demonstrate how traces of the Holocaust in Sweden—including former refugee camps, cemeteries, schools, and hospitals, etc.—help educate students and the public about the events of the Holocaust, its historical significance in Sweden, and its relevance today. I argue that “authentic sites” of Nazi persecution—often regarded as the most pedagogically authoritative locations—are not only the places where the destruction and persecution were perpetrated (a conception that vests authenticity with the perpetrators). Rather, I contend that “authenticity” in relation to Nazi persecution (and the pedagogical authority carried with it) is conferred by the victims and survivors. Authentic sites of Nazi persecution can thus be understood not only as sites of destruction but also as sites of survival and death in the aftermath of the destruction. As such, many authentic sites of Nazi persecution exist in Sweden. This chapter draws on examples from my own and other scholars’ research on places in Sweden where traces of the Holocaust may be found, as well as on grassroots efforts conducted by educators and activists, for three purposes. First, to explore theoretical and practical approaches to uncovering the significance of place. Second, to examine the potential of local history for teaching about broader, national and transnational histories of the Holocaust and Sweden’s complex connection with the Holocaust and its aftermath. Finally, to investigate what can be—or is already being—done to enhance past and current efforts to educate the public about these important issues.
Abstract: This study explores how students negotiate complex and sensitive issues in schools, focussing on the October 7, 2023, attacks and their consequences. Drawing on discourse analysis informed by Foucault and discursive psychology, we analyse students’ talk in focus group discussions as situated social action, examining how they make sense of events, construct accounts and position themselves and others. The analysis provides empirical insights into how students navigate a contested topic and contributes to pedagogical approaches that support democratic dialogue and critical engagement. The results show that students negotiate meaning through a knowledge positioning discourse, which shapes students’ willingness to engage amid epistemic ambiguity; a moral positioning discourse, which introduces pressures to take a stance and challenges deliberative ideals; and an anti-antisemitism discourse, which exposes tensions between critique of Zionism and antisemitism. Findings reveal that reliance on media-informed narratives, moral framings and contested identity categories can both enable and constrain dialogue, sometimes reinforcing polarisation and feelings of alienation. The study argues for pedagogical strategies that foster epistemic security, promote perspective-taking and critically engage with the politics of language to dismantle stereotypes and prevent dichotomous narratives.
Abstract: Представленное в статье исследование посвящено репрезентации памяти о Холокосте в медиа Центрально-Восточной и Северной Европы во втором десятилетии XXI века (на примере Германии, Австрии, Польши, Литвы, Латвии, Эстонии, Швеции, Дании, Норвегии). В соответствии с гипотезой авторов, в каждом из этих государств существует особая память о Второй мировой войне, которая встраивается в национальные нарративы, но сочетается с глобальной памятью о Холокосте (механизм, ранее описанный Д. Леви и Н. Шнайдером). Сравнение образа Холокоста в различных публикациях СМИ позволило выяснить общие интерпретации и национальную специфику нарратива о трагедии, уточнить его значение для разных социальных групп. Целью исследования стало выявление особенностей сочетания глобальной и локальной памяти о Холокосте в Центрально-Восточной и Северной Европе в 2010-е гг. Источниками исследования являются отобранные по ключевым словам материалы СМИ 2011, 2018 и 2020 гг. Методологическую основу работы составляет концепция «мест памяти» П. Нора и развивающая ее концепция «общих мест памяти» в интерпретации Р. Трабы, через призму которой можно рассматривать память о Холокосте в различных национальных контекстах, а также дискурс-анализ (в соответствии с подходом Э. Лаклау и Ш. Муфф). В результате исследования было определено, что память о Холокосте играет большую роль для национальных нарративов. Она встраивается в цепочки эквивалентности с другими событиями локальной и всемирной истории, сопоставляется с геноцидами других народов. Через дискурс о Холокосте происходит формирование представлений о Второй мировой войне и праворадикальных движениях. При этом в публикациях проявляется и глобальная память о Холокосте, противодействие его релятивизации. Эта последняя тенденция связана прежде всего с деятельностью переживших Холокост граждан самих рассматриваемых в работе стран.
Abstract: Public concern about antisemitism has increased globally in the twenty-first century, sparking renewed interest from social scientists. However, the crucial question of why trajectories of antisemitic hostility differ between countries remains unanswered due to a lack of studies designed to track temporal and cross-national variation. Addressing this gap, I evaluate the explanatory power of two main lines of argument that divide the literature: generalist and particularist. While generalists see antisemitism as a manifestation of general outgroup hostility common to various forms of prejudice, particularists stress the contextual specificity of antisemitism and posit that its twenty-first-century expressions are distinctively linked to anti-Zionist sentiment (enmity toward Israel and its supporters). I derive observable implications from these positions and conduct a comparative, longitudinal case study of antisemitic hostility in Germany, Sweden, and Russia (1990–2020), using a mixed-methods approach to integrate incident counts, victimization surveys, media analysis, and expert interviews. Findings match predictions from the particularist position, with flare-ups in the Israel–Palestine conflict generating or catalyzing antisemitic hostility depending on the strength of local anti-Zionist sentiment, thus demonstrating the centrality of the “Israel factor” in contemporary antisemitism.
Abstract: The interest in the Holocaust – Nazi Germany's concentrated attempt to exterminate European Jewry – has become increasingly noticeable in the Scandinavian countries during the last decades, with a growing number not only of dissertations, monographs and other publications, but also public debates and controversies relating to this event. This new upsurge of interest in the Holocaust reflects the dynamics and the contested nature of collective memories of wartime Scandinavia more broadly. This article highlights, broadly speaking, the development of Holocaust historiography in Scandinavia; the changing perspectives, interpretations, debates and focus from the immediate post-war years to the present day. It argues that, despite the fact that the Holocaust was truly a European-wide phenomenon transcending national borders, Holocaust studies have mainly been produced as nation-centred histories. Only with the end of the Cold War and with a paradigmatic shift from ‘the event’ to ‘the memory’ has a new form of Holocaust remembrance begun, ‘the cosmopolitanization of Holocaust remembrance’, which transcends borders and makes memory cultures coincide. In Scandinavian historical cultures and historiography, then, the 1990s marks the starting point of a process by which Holocaust remembrance has become officially embedded into European memory.
Abstract: This article deals with a subject that has been sensitive in the Jewish community in Sweden since the time of the Holocaust, namely the widespread image of the Stockholm Jewish Community as being negative towards letting Jewish refugees find a safe haven in Sweden during the Nazi persecution and mass murder. This image has previously been explained by the alleged ineffectivity of the Stockholm Jewish Community to aid the refugees and Swedish Jewry's failure to integrate them into the community. The present article, however, shows that this image was also a result of political differences between Jewish organizations, groups, and individuals, internationally as well as in Sweden. It was also due to an exaggerated belief in, and misconception of, the influence of the Swedish Jews on the Swedish administration of refugee aid, and resulted in personal feuds in which this negative image was accentuated. Furthermore, the image of the reluctant Swedish Jews has been reproduced and used by Swedish officials to avoid taking responsibility for the country's previous restrictive policy towards Jewish refugees. These accusations have cross-fertilized with the allegations from the inter-Jewish debate, further cementing the negative image of the Stockholm Jewish Community's responses to the Holocaust and the preceding persecutions.
Abstract: This roundtable offers a collaborative, multi-vocal forum on the topic of teaching Jewish Studies in the Nordic region, featuring contributions from scholars and instructors based in Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Conceived as a reflective platform, it weaves together critical insights, pedagogical experiences, and institutional perspectives. Topics include national contexts, classroom practices, both conventional and experimental curricular offerings, strategies for integrating Jewish Studies into broader academic frameworks, and reflections on the impact of 7 October 2023. Beyond mapping current conditions, the roundtable aims to envision what Jewish Studies in the Nordics could become, foregrounding both the challenges and the possibilities that shape its future
Abstract: The study examines antisemitism and anti-Israel attitudes in Sweden, analyzing their links to prejudicial attitudes, conspiracy beliefs, and institutional trust. Based on a representative survey of 3,507 individuals, the findings reveal that antisemitism and anti-Israel attitudes are related, but differ in important ways. Antisemitism is associated with anti-immigrant and sexist attitudes and greater endorsement of conspiracy beliefs, but is unrelated to institutional trust. By contrast, anti-Israel attitudes are unrelated to anti-immigrant attitudes and are positively associated with governemnt trust and media confidence. Cluster analyses have identified three profiles: Neutral Moderates (low antisemitism and low anti-Israel attitudes), Critical Engagers (low antisemitism but moderate anti-Israel attitudes), and Distrustful Sceptics (heightened levels of both). These profiles differ in socio-demographic characteristics, prejudicial attitudes, and conspiracy beliefs, with higher institutional trust increasing the likelihood of belonging to Critical Engagers. The findings suggest that institutional trust may channel individuals toward stronger anti-Israel attitudes, particularly in Sweden.
Abstract: The research presented in this article was inspired by an interest in analyzing how antisemitism features in civic orientation courses for newly arrived immigrants in Sweden. In Sweden, as elsewhere in Europe, migration policies have changed in recent years emphasizing integration and adaptation to national norms and values, including ideals such as democracy, gender equality, freedom of speech, etc. One novel task assigned to the course organizers and the teachers (referred to as civic orientation communicators) is to address issues of antisemitism among immigrants. The data for this article have been generated through interviews with communicators and leaders of such course activities. Two research questions are explored: First, how antisemitism is interpreted by the interviewees, and, second, what experiences of encountering antisemitic expressions during courses they report. The data have been analysed using Thematic Analysis. The results show that a clear majority of the communicators holds a reductionistic interpretation of antisemitism, limiting it to specific historical events and violence against Jews, rather than viewing it as a type of discourse that is contemporary and continuously reproduced. It is argued that the reductionistic interpretation of antisemitism leads to a situation where antisemitic attitudes and comments are not perceived as antisemitic, nor responded to at an ideological level during the courses.
Abstract: Based on interviews, the purpose of the article is to study how Roma and Jews experience everyday violations and hate crime and how the victims deal with this exposure. The victims’ narratives are analysed using, for example, theories and research on anti-Semitism, anti-Ziganism, everyday racism and power relations. During the post-war period Jews have largely been seen by the majority population as belonging to the white ”Swedishness”, while the Roma belong to one of many deeply despised minorities that often are exposed to everyday violations and hate crime. However, there is anti-Semitism in Sweden that in certain situations and circumstances is explicitly expressed in the form of abuse, threats or violence. The article describes and analyses how the victims of hate crime deal with this exposure and how the crimes affect them. Some Roma and Jews ”are forced” to live a kind of double life because they are afraid of being ”exposed” as a Roma or a Jew. For example, Jewish and Roma symbols are often spontaneously concealed. The damage that hate crime causes is spread beyond the individual to the victim’s entire group, a form of ”message crimes”. The consequences for the individual concerned can be very serious. Roma and Jewish groups as a whole can also be affected by the restrictions imposed on their lives.
Abstract: Although digitization has become a word that is almost synonymous with democratization and citizen participation, many museums and other cultural heritage institutions have found it difficult to live up to this political vision of inclusivity and access for all. In Sweden, political ambitions to digitize the cultural heritage sector are high. Yet, institutions still struggle to reconcile their previous practices with new technologies and ethical guidelines for collecting and curating material. In this article we identify, analyse, and try to find resolutions for the current gap that exists between cultural heritage practice and government policy on digitization, open access, and research ethics. By examining two Swedish examples of Holocaust collections that have not been digitized because of internal policies of secrecy and confidentiality, we attempt to demonstrate how discourses about vulnerability affect the ways in which certain archival practices resist policies of accessibility and ethical research. In order to unpack the discourses on vulnerability, Carol Bacchi’s post-structural approach to policy analysis has been used together with Judith Butler’s theories on vulnerability and resistance. In addition to understanding how cultural heritage institutions in Sweden have protected some of their collections and how this has obstructed efforts to make these collections more accessible, we also offer some suggestions on how these issues can be resolved by reimagining digitization as transformation.
Abstract: Swedish textbooks take a respectful and structured approach to complex historical subjects, including Jewish identity and the Holocaust, according to IMPACT-se’s Swedish textbook review. The study finds that Swedish textbooks generally align with curriculum guidelines and present Jews in a historically, demographically, and religiously neutral way. The Holocaust is comprehensively covered, with clear recognition of Jewish victimhood and historical events. Judaism is treated on equal footing with other world religions, and Jewish history and culture are described in detail. Stereotypical or prejudicial depictions are avoided.
However, the report also includes recommendations to further improve the curriculum. These include a critical refutation of antisemitic stereotypes and a full exploration of the reasons behind historical and modern antisemitism. Similarly, while the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is included with the intent of balance, it is frequently oversimplified, and consequently greater explanation of ideological perspectives and clarity around key terms is recommended.
Abstract: This report from B’nai B’rith International, democ and the European Union of Jewish Students (EUJS) documents the surge of antisemitism on university campuses across Europe in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023 Hamas terrorist attack in Israel. Since then, Jewish students and faculty have faced harassment, intimidation and violence, creating a climate of fear and exclusion across campuses.
Universities that should safeguard open debate and diversity have instead seen antisemitic rhetoric, Holocaust distortion, glorification of Hamas and calls for “intifada.” Professors, radical student groups, and outside organizations have often fueled this atmosphere, while administrators too often failed to act.
Covering Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom, the report identifies repeated patterns: threats and assaults against Jewish students, antisemitic vandalism, incitement to violence, and weak or inconsistent institutional responses.
Abstract: Since long before the October 7 attacks, Jewish communities in Europe have experienced growing hate, harassment and hostility on social media. This policy paper articulates the key challenges of online antisemitism, and provides comprehensive and practical policy steps which governments, platforms, regulators and civil society organisations can take to address them. Built through 42 interviews with Jewish organisations and experts in antisemitism and digital policy from across CCOA’s five geographies (France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden), it collates local experiences and channels them into a cohesive pan-European strategy, uniting communities and sectors in joint responses.
Interviewees identified five central challenges with online antisemitism:
Jewish communities and organisations across the five geographies report the significant behavioural, social and psychological impacts of online antisemitism, which have created a chilling effect on participation in public life.
Concerns exist not just over fringe violent extremist content, but the prevailing normalisation of mainstream antisemitism and a permissive culture which facilitates its spread across all areas of society.
There are a wide range of social media platforms in the social media ecosystem each adopting distinctive approaches and standards to content moderation, however the widespread accessibility of antisemitism suggest that significant barriers remain to the effective implementation of Terms of Service, and that many platforms are failing in this regard.
There is limited awareness and understanding of the Digital Services Act (DSA) in Jewish civil society, little capacity to implement it, and a lack of confidence in its efficacy in addressing antisemitism.
Law enforcement has lacked both the capacity and legislative tools to effectively respond to the scale of illegal activity on social media.
Mainstreaming Digital Human Rights
This policy paper presents policy recommendations for Governments, Tech Platforms, Digital Regulators, and Civil Society. These approaches constitute a collective pathway, but may be diversely applicable across different geographies, communities and jurisdictions.
Topics: Antisemitism: Education against, Schools: Primary / Elementary, Schools: Seconday / High Schools, Schools: Non-Jewish, Main Topic: Antisemitism, Teachers, Surveys, Teaching and Pedagogy, University Students: Jewish Students, Interviews, Antisemitism: Jewish Perceptions and Experiences
Abstract: What drives antisemitic hostility in the 21st century? Competing theoretical frameworks provide different answers: the generalist framework views antisemitism as a manifestation of general outgroup hostility common to various
forms of prejudice, while the particularist framework posits that antisemitism today is distinctively linked to antizionist sentiment—enmity toward Zionism, Israel, and its supporters. This study evaluates these frameworks through a comparative, longitudinal case study of antisemitic hostility in Germany, Sweden, and Russia (1990–2020), using a mixed-methods approach to integrate incident counts, victimization surveys, media analysis, and expert interviews. Findings suggest that the particularist framework better explains observed patterns of variation in antisemitic hostility, with flare-ups in the Middle East conflict generating or catalyzing antisemitic hostility in other societies depending on the strength of local antizionist sentiment. The results support new directions
in prejudice research that differentiate between generalized and group-specific forms of hostility, where the latter are highly context-dependent.
