Chabad Lubavitch of Sweden
Chabad-Lubavitch in Sweden: centres in Gothenburg (from about 1991), Stockholm (from 2001) and Malmö (from 2004), run as separate non-profit associations
| Chabad Lubavitch of Sweden
| |
|---|---|
| Logo |  Logo of Judiska Centret Chabad Lubavitch Sverige |
| Type | Jewish religious organisation (Chabad-Lubavitch) |
| Founded | Early 1990s (Gothenburg); 2001 (Stockholm); 2004 (Malmö) |
| Headquarters | Gothenburg, Stockholm and Malmö |
| Location | Carl Skottsbergs gata 22A, 413 19 Gothenburg; Gotlandsgatan 61, 116 38 Stockholm; Jöns Filsgatan 2, 211 33 Malmö |
| Area served | Sweden |
| Key people | Alexander Namdar and Leah Namdar (Gothenburg); Chaim Greisman and Mina Greisman (Stockholm); Shneur Kesselman (Malmö) |
| Website | https://www.chabad.se |
Chabad Lubavitch of Sweden is the collective name used here for the Chabad-Lubavitch centres in Sweden. There is no single national body: the centres in Gothenburg, Stockholm and Malmö are registered as separate non-profit associations. According to Chabad's world headquarters, the first Chabad emissaries in Sweden were Rabbi Alexander Namdar and Leah Namdar in Gothenburg; Rabbi Chaim Greisman and Mina Greisman opened Chabad of Stockholm in 2001, and Rabbi Shneur Kesselman arrived in Malmö in 2004.[1][2][3]
History
Gothenburg
According to a 2009 article on lubavitch.com, the website of Chabad's world headquarters, Alexander and Leah Namdar "were the first Chabad representatives to Sweden", and "under their leadership, Chabad has since come to Stockholm and Malmo". The article described Leah Namdar as having lived in Gothenburg "for the past 18 years", which would date the couple's arrival to about 1991.[1] A 2022 study of Chabad in Finland says more generally that Chabad emissaries arrived in Denmark and Sweden in the 1990s.[4] Chabad's world headquarters lists the Gothenburg centre at Carl Skottsbergs gata 22A, 413 19 Gothenburg, with the Namdars and Rabbi Yechezkiel Yehuda Malka and Chana Malka as emissaries, and with a Talmud Torah, a mikveh and a summer camp.[5]
In December 2009 surviving members of the Schijveschuurder family, five of whom were killed in the Sbarro restaurant suicide bombing in Jerusalem in August 2001, dedicated a Torah scroll to the Gothenburg Chabad centre. According to the Chabad.org report, more than 100 people paraded the scroll through Gothenburg to the centre, and a family member said: "We await the coming of moshiach, when this Torah will return with the Jews of Sweden to the Land of Israel."[6]
Stockholm
According to its website, Chabad of Stockholm was "established in January 2001" and is directed by Rabbi Chaim Greisman and Mina Greisman. Its Chabad House is at Gotlandsgatan 61 on Södermalm, which the website describes as about a 15-minute walk from the Adat Israel synagogue.[2] The association Chabad Lubavitch i Stockholm was registered on 19 November 2001.[7]
Malmö
Rabbi Shneur Kesselman, a native of Detroit, moved to Malmö in September 2004 to open a Chabad house, at a time when the local community did not have a rabbi, according to Moment.[3] A 2013 lubavitch.com profile said that, with no other rabbi in the city, Kesselman was "unofficially, Malmo's chief rabbi".[8] Swedish news reports have described him as the rabbi of the Jewish Community of Malmö (Judiska församlingen i Malmö).[9][10]
Registered entities
- Chabad Lubavitch i Stockholm – ideell förening (non-profit association), organisation number 802411-1786, registered on 19 November 2001. Its registered address is Box 5053, 102 42 Stockholm, a post-office box also used by other Jewish and Zionist organisations, including the Stockholm Jewish Center foundation (Stiftelsen Stockholms Judiska Center), the Zionist Federation of Sweden, Keren Kajemet (the Jewish National Fund) and WIZO. It has been registered for F-tax since 29 March 2012 and as an employer, with 10–19 employees. Its activity code is SNI 94990 (other membership organisations).[7] The Chabad House's own address is Gotlandsgatan 61, 116 38 Stockholm.[2]
- Judiska Föreningen Chabad Lubavitch Malmö – ideell förening, organisation number 802428-7479, registered on 8 September 2005. Its address is c/o Chabad Malmö, Jöns Filsgatan 2, 211 33 Malmö; its activity code is SNI 94910 (religious communities) and it has 1–4 employees.[11]
- Ideella föreningen Judiska Föreningen Chabad Lubavitch med firma Chabad – ideell förening, organisation number 857206-7216, registered on 27 January 2005, with its address at Torild Wulffsgatan 20, 413 19 Gothenburg. Its registered purpose is buying and letting property and trading in shares and currencies, with activity code SNI 68201 (letting of residential property).[12] The Gothenburg centre's website uses the name Judiska Centret Chabad Lubavitch Sverige.[13]
Funding
The County Administrative Board of Stockholm (Länsstyrelsen Stockholm), which administered state grants to national-minority organisations until the end of 2025, lists "Judiska Ideella Föreningen Chabad Lubavitch" among the organisations representing Jews that were granted a state organisational grant for 2025, alongside the Official Council of Swedish Jewish Communities (Judiska Församlingarnas i Sverige Centralråd), the Swedish Yiddish Association and the Association of Holocaust Survivors. The amount is not given on the page, and from 2026 responsibility for these grants passed to the Swedish Agency for Youth and Civil Society (MUCF).[14]
Relations with the Jewish communities
The Stockholm centre describes its Chabad House as about 15 minutes' walk from the Adat Israel synagogue.[2] In Malmö, Kesselman has served the local Jewish community, which, according to lubavitch.com, had previously struggled to keep rabbis hired from abroad.[8][3]
In a 2022 academic study of Chabad in Finland, Chabad on Ice by Mercédesz Czimbalmos and Riikka Tuori, a Finnish Jewish interviewee who feared Chabad's influence in Helsinki said that in Gothenburg Chabad had "split the community by founding its own synagogue, kindergarten and school". The study reports this as the informant's view.[4]
Antisemitic harassment in Malmö
Rabbi Shneur Kesselman has been the target of repeated antisemitic abuse in Malmö.
- Incidents and reports. In August 2014 Expressen/Kvällsposten and Aftonbladet reported that Kesselman had been attacked twice in one Saturday evening while walking with Hugo Klein, chairman of the synagogue. A glass bottle was smashed against a wall near them and abuse including "judar" (Jews) was shouted at them.[9][15] Moment reported in 2022 that Kesselman had also described a car reversing in an attempt to run him down and being threatened and chased off a city bus.[3]
- Police response. In January 2015 SVT's Uppdrag granskning reported that 137 suspected antisemitic hate crimes had been reported to police in Skåne in 2013–2014, and that the crimes against Kesselman made up a large share of the reports received by Malmö police. Thomas Bull, coordinator of Malmö's hate-crime police, told the programme that none of the cases in which Jews had reported threats or verbal abuse in the street had led to prosecution.[16]
- Conviction. On 31 May 2016 Omni, reporting Sydsvenskan, said an 18-year-old had been convicted of a hate crime for shouting "jävla jude" (damned Jew) at Kesselman from a car on 11 April 2015; Kesselman had noted the car's registration number.[10] Writing for the Swedish Committee Against Antisemitism, Willy Silberstein said it was the first of Kesselman's many police reports to lead to a prosecution and conviction, for molestation (ofredande) with a hate-crime motive.[17]
Israel
In August 2009, after Aftonbladet published an article alleging that Israeli soldiers had harvested organs from Palestinians, lubavitch.com reported that Leah Namdar called it "a modern-day blood libel" and said the Swedish media "tends to be consistently anti-Israel". The Namdars organised a Shabbat event of "Jewish Pride" for the Gothenburg community in response.[1] The 2009 Torah dedication in Gothenburg commemorated a family killed in a bombing in Jerusalem.[6]
See also
- Chabad-Lubavitch movement
- Jewish, Zionist and Israeli connections to Sweden
- Chabad Lubavitch of Denmark
- Chabad Lubavitch of Norway
- Chabad Lubavitch of Finland
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Miriam Davids, "Chabad of Sweden Jewish Community Stands With Israel", lubavitch.com, 25 August 2009, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Chabad of Stockholm", Chabad of Stockholm, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Liam Hoare, "Can Malmö Solve Its Antisemitism Problem?", Moment, 6 July 2022, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Mercédesz Czimbalmos and Riikka Tuori, "Chabad on Ice: Jewish encounters with fundamentalism in Finland", Approaching Religion 12(2), June 2022, pp. 38–58, doi:10.30664/ar.112800, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "Chabad Lubavitch of Sweden – Gothenburg", Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Tamar Runyan, "Swedish Torah Memorializes Family Lost in Jerusalem Bombing", Chabad.org, republished by CrownHeights.info, 4 January 2010, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 "Chabad Lubavitch i Stockholm, 802411-1786", Bolagsfakta (data from Swedish registers), accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Baila Olidort, "As Jews Leave Malmo, One Family Stays Put", lubavitch.com, 9 December 2013, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Jennie Aquilonius, "Shneur Kesselman attackerad i Malmö", Expressen/Kvällsposten, 3 August 2014, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 "18-åring dömd för hatbrott mot Malmörabbin", Omni (reporting Sydsvenskan), 31 May 2016, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "Judiska Föreningen Chabad Lubavitch Malmö", Allabolag, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "Ideella föreningen Judiska Föreningen Chabad Lubavitch med firma Chabad", bolag.hk-r.se, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "Judiska Centret Chabad Lubavitch Sverige", chabad.se, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "Organisationsbidrag nationella minoriteter", Länsstyrelsen Stockholm, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "Rabbin attackerad i Malmö", Aftonbladet, August 2014, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ "137 anmälningar i Skåne – på två år", Uppdrag granskning, SVT Nyheter, 21 January 2015, accessed 25 October 2026.
- ↑ Willy Silberstein, "Inte endast i Malmö", Svenska kommittén mot antisemitism, June 2016, accessed 25 October 2026.