History of the Jews in Sweden

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Swedish Jews
Svenska Judar
יהודים שוודים‎

The door at the top of the stairs at Fort Fredriksborg in Marstrand, leads in to where Sweden's first synagogue was established.
Total population
20,000
Regions with significant populations
Stockholm, Gothenburg, Malmö, Helsingborg, Norrköping
Languages
Swedish, Yiddish, Hebrew
Religion
Judaism
Related ethnic groups
other Ashkenazi Jews

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The history of Jews in Sweden can be traced from the 17th century, when their presence is verified in the baptism records of the Stockholm Cathedral. Several Jewish families were baptised into the Lutheran Church, a requirement for permission to settle in Sweden. In 1681, for example, 28 members of the families of Israel Mandel and Moses Jacob were baptised in the Stockholm German Church in the presence of King Charles XI of Sweden, the dowager queen Hedvig Eleonora of Holstein-Gottorp, and several other high state officials.

King Charles 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 children.