History of The Jews in Sweden

History Of The Jews In Sweden

The History of the Jews in Sweden probably began with arrivals from the Hanseatic League in medieval times, but there are no records. In Elizabethan times 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 Stockholm, 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 Hedwig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, and several high state officials.

King Carl 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.

Read more about History Of The Jews In Sweden:  Early History, Permission To Settle, Restricted To Three Cities, Reactionary Decree of 1838 and Afterwards, 20th Century, Status of Yiddish in Sweden

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