This Wednesday, Sweden hosts an international forum against anti-Semitism and in memory of the Holocaust in Malmö, a multicultural city in the south of the country, which is trying to contain a recent wave of hatred against Jews.
The city received the president of the European Council, Charles Michel, representatives from the UN and from 40 countries, invited by the Swedish prime minister, the social democrat Stefan Löfven.
“Remembering is not enough. The last survivors of the Shoah are leaving us, but anti-Semitism lingers. It’s on the rise again. That’s why we must do something more than remember. We must act,” said Charles Michel, just days after the European Union presented its first strategy to fight anti-Semitism.
Stefan Löfven, who will step down as prime minister in November, has made the fight against anti-Semitism one of his last battles and has pledged to more effectively protect Sweden’s 15,000-20,000 Jews.
Reports for crimes of hate against Jews increased by more than 50% between 2016 and 2018, from 182 to 278, and represent 6% of allegations of racism in the country, according to the most recent statistics from the Crime Prevention Council.
“Some do the Nazi salute when they see my Star of David, or they laugh because I’m Jewish,” said Mira Kelber, a resident of Malmö.
“Once, a girl said to me, ‘She’s Jewish. Let’s use gas!’” added the 21-year-old daughter of a Holocaust survivor.
Authorities have pledged to increase the resources of police and protective devices for the most threatened congregations, as well as strengthen prevention among young people.
Unrest in the city began in the early 2000s with the insults and beatings suffered by its small Jewish community of just 500-600 people today, four times fewer than in 1970.
The Scandinavian port, where Danish Jews fled the Nazis and where buses were sent with several survivors of Nazi extermination after their release, began to gain prominence as a focus of a new hatred in Europe.
“Today, Malmö has a better reputation than five or 10 years ago, because we work much harder to fight anti-Semitism,” Ann Katina, head of the local Jewish community, told AFP. “But it’s a fight that isn’t over,” he warned.
“There is general concern,” summarized Mirjam Katzin, coordinator of the fight against anti-Semitism in schools in Malmö, a unique position in the country.
Fears center on hate attacks on the internet and representatives of major technology companies were invited to the forum.
Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, stated that “what (young people) have learned, they learned on the internet, social media, what they see today on social media is hate.”
The American group Google announced that it will allocate 5 million euros (5.7 million dollars) to the fight against anti-Semitism online.
According to the European Union’s Fundamental Rights Agency, nine out of 10 Jews believe that hatred against them has increased in their countries and 38% are thinking about emigrating because they don’t feel safe.
See too
+ Until 2019, there were more people in prisons than on the Brazilian stock exchange
+ Aloe gel in the drink: see the benefits
+ Lemon-squeezing trick becomes a craze on social media
+ Chef playmate creates aphrodisiac recipe for Orgasm Day
+ Mercedes-Benz Sprinter wins motorhome version
+ Anorexia, an eating disorder that can lead to death
+ US agency warns: never wash raw chicken meat
+ Yasmin Brunet breaks the silence
+ Shark is captured in MA with the remains of youngsters missing in the stomach
+ See how much it costs to eat at the MasterChef judges’ restaurants
+ Auction of cars and motorcycles from Kombi to Nissan Frontier 0km