As discussed before, one of the first things I do when visiting another city is to check if there's a Jewish museum in town. This time, I get to add Stockholm - the capital of Sweden - to my list of Jewish musems visited. Heja Sverige!
Located in the beautiful area of Vasastaden, the museum isn't something you would come accidentally across with. Compared to the fellow museums in Paris or New York, where there's a whole building dedicated to the cause, the museum in Stockholm is in more humble settings - downstairs a typical apartment building. You need to ring a bell to get in, and be aware of the opening ours (12:00-16:00 daily, except for Saturdays of course).
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| But don't worry, once you're round the corner, the signs will lead you there. |
The museum has a permanent exhibition that is the size of a large livingroom. It presents the basics of the Jewish faith as well as some Swedish aspect to Judaism. You get your classic introduction to Torah and the Jewish holidays, but also family trees of Swedish-Jews and a small shrine to Raoul Wallenberg. There are also authentic memorabilia from the Holocaust, provided by the survivors. The Red Cross of Sweden arranged the so-called "White Buses" (army buses painted white) after the WWII ended and transported 30.000 survivors of the concentration camps to Sweden. Around 10 000 of them were Jews.
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| A long time since I saw a mezuza somewhere else than at my home. And first time I could actually read something in Hebrew when visiting a Jewish museum! |
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| Barbie converts to Judaism? Not quite, but there were miniature doll settings of Jewish holidays (a wedding chuppah and sukkot), as well as artifacts used in Passover and Hanukkah. |
A smaller room is dedicated to exhibitions with changing themes, and when I visited the theme was Jesus Christ Super-Star. Well, not quite, but Jesus the Jew anyway. It was a kind attempt to bridge the gap between Judaism and Christianity with the one thing that both connects but separates the two religions. There were artifacts from exclavations from Jesus' times, and points how Jesus was a Jew. Even his "golden rule" in the New Testament is actually just a borrowed mindset from the Old Testament.
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| A false prophet or the son of G-d, the man that creates controversy even after 2000 years... |
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Today, the Jewish population in Sweden is estimated to be around 20.000, half of them living in Stockholm or the nearby region. In Stockholm, there are three synagogues with conservative and orthodox services. And of course, let's not forget the small gift shop of the museum, where I bought the below article. It replaced my old Sex and the City movie "Love" key chain replica. The message stays the same, though!
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| Ahava. |
A nice museum visit all in all! Convenient and compact, but I must say that my command of Swedish language came handy - not all the information was available in English too. And a small tidbit that also the Finns will recognize: the gherkins & pickles, ketchup etc. branded
Felix that you find in every supermarket here --- well, a company founded by a Jewish immigrant in Sweden!
I just visited the museum, and I was puzzled by a number of things related to the Jesus the Jew exhibit. Because, unlike you, I do not speak or understand Swedish, and I may have misunderstood the purpose and the significance of this exhibition. I thought that the discussion between the 3 different clergy was probably essential to understanding the installation in a Jewish Museum, but it was lost to a non-Swedish speaker. Anyone with half a brain knows that Jesus was born to Jewish parents in the "Holyland", so why the need to depict this information? In the permanent collection in those burgundy slots, the last comments refer to the assimilation of Swedish Jews. I cannot say if I detected any lamentation in these matter of fact notations. I truly was wondering if the message of Jesus the Jew was somehow conveying that there really isn't much difference between Christians and Jews and that assimilation is inevitable and okay! Have I missed the mark? With all Sincerity,
ReplyDeleteMarsha Kazman
Hi Marsha, and thanks for your comment! It was a while back since I visited the exhibit so I can't remember all the details but I did leave with an impression that Jesus the Jew was in a way trying to bridge a gap or something between the two religions, or trying to show the few things that the religions have in common.
DeleteAbout the assimilation of the Swedish Jews, again as a non-Swedish speaking you might have missed these turning tiles right near the inner entrance of the museum. It demonstrated Swedish Jews talking about being Swedish, Jewish and what this means to them. All in all, I think in the Scandinavian countries the Jews are very well assimilated in the society (I can definitely say that for Finland, at least) but there were some comments from the Swedish Jews also saying that abroad they are Swedes, in Sweden they are Jews. I hope you had a nice visit in the museum and enjoyed the capital city of Sweden anyway. :-)