In Malmo, record number of anti-Semitic attacks reported

Swedish Jews, particularly those who reside in Malmo—the country’s third-largest city—are growing concerned over an increasing number of anti-Semitic incidents, many perpetrated by “young men with roots in the Middle East,” said Jehoshua Kaufman, a member of the city’s Jewish congregation.

The synagogue in Malmoe, Sweden. The city's Jewish community is growing concerned over increased anti-Semitic incidents it says are perpetrated mainly by Muslim immigrants. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

About one-third of Malmo’s 310,000 residents were born abroad, including many in the Middle East. 

There are about 2,000 Jews in the city. Sixty-six anti-Semitic incidents were reported in Malmo in 2012, according to the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention. 

About halfway through 2013, there have been 35 reports of anti-Semitic incidents. In all of 2010 and 2011 combined, there were 44 such incidents reported.

Malmo police said the number of anti-Semitic incidents in Malmo is twice as large as the number in Stockholm, whose population is three times as large.

Although there are other types of right-wing extremism in Sweden besides for radical Islam, in Malmo it is “the young Muslim guys that are the problem,” said Barbro Posner, a member of city’s Jewish community, according to Israel National News.

“[Muslims behind anti-Semitic incidents in Malmo] come from countries where there are racist, anti-Semitic TV programs,” Posner said.