A/HRC/55/47/Add.2
Gothenburg, Malmö and Norrköping. It works at the local level to promote the acceptance of
Jews within Swedish society. At the national level, it strives to promote awareness of Judaism
and to monitor and address issues of importance to the Jewish religious minority and the
Jewish ethnic community in Sweden.
78.
Since 1999, the Jewish community in Sweden has been recognized as one of the
national minorities in the country. Yiddish is an officially recognized, non-territorial minority
language and an estimated 3,000 Swedish Jews, mainly Polish-born, still speak the language.
79.
Antisemitism has been noted as a significant problem by treaty bodies and in the
context of the universal periodic review, 37 with the Human Rights Committee drawing
attention to the large number of incidents of religious intolerance against persons belonging
to religious minorities, including Jews, and attacks against their places of worship, and the
underreporting of such cases. 38 During the Malmö International Forum on Holocaust
Remembrance and Combating Antisemitism in 2021, the words “The Holocaust was a scam”
were projected onto the main synagogue in the city. The Nordic Resistance Movement
claimed responsibility for the incident.
80.
In its conclusions on combating racism and antisemitism, following up on the first
European Union strategy on combating antisemitism and fostering Jewish life, the European
Council noted that the Malmö International Forum on Holocaust Remembrance and
Combating Antisemitism served as a reminder that no effort must be spared in fighting all
forms of antisemitism, racism and xenophobia.
81.
The Living History Forum has carried out several perception studies on antisemitism
in Sweden. A comparative study on antisemitism in Sweden published in 2021 noted a fall
in the prevalence of antisemitic attitudes and ideas in the Swedish population between 2005
and 2020. According to the Government, possible contributing factors include increased
awareness and knowledge owing to educational and public awareness-raising initiatives on
antisemitism, the Holocaust and other genocides. Representatives of the Living History
Forum acknowledged that the picture might be incomplete owing to a lack of responses from
some sectors of society, and remained concerned at the persistence of antisemitic beliefs
among a significant minority of the population.
82.
The reported decline in antisemitism contrasts with a widespread view among the
Swedish Jews and the public at large that antisemitism is in fact on the rise, and the situation
has deteriorated even further following the serious escalations in the conflict in the Middle
East. The report concluded that the attitude surveys needed to be complemented by further
reports, including on hate crimes, antisemitic rhetoric in political debate and the media,
antisemitic propaganda on the Internet, the institutionalized nature of antisemitism within
specific political and political-religious movements, and the personal experiences of
antisemitism of Jews and others.
83.
In 2022 on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Nordic Resistance
Movement reportedly vandalized the building of the Living History Forum with antisemitic
messages and hung banners with antisemitic messages on walls of schools and shopping
centres in the cities of Borlänge and Jönköping. The Swedish Defence Research Agency
published a report in 2021 entitled “Antisemitism in social media – conspiracies, stereotypes
and Holocaust denial”, which mapped hate speech on social media. In the report, the Agency
called for joint efforts by governments and platform companies to stop antisemitic content
from appearing on the Internet, and stressed the need for preventive work and educational
and awareness-raising activities to stop the spread of antisemitism online. According to the
Official Council of Swedish Jewish Communities, antisemitism was a growing problem on
social media and in connection with the anti-vaccine movement, with some demonstrators
against coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic restrictions having reportedly compared
themselves to Jewish victims of the Holocaust and worn a yellow Star of David.
37
38
GE.24-04001
CAT/C/SWE/CO/8, para. 32; CERD/C/SWE/CO/22-23, para. 10; and CCPR/C/SWE/CO/7, para. 16.
See also A/HRC/44/12.
CCPR/C/SWE/CO/7, para. 16.
15