Jewish Heritage tour of Stockholm for cruise and land clients
10:00. Start a Jewish tour of Stockholm (04 hours) in a modern private mini bus and an authorized English speaking Jewish specialist guide.
History
This Northern city is one of the most stunning capitals in the world. It is situated on 14 islands and is surrounded by water so clean that you can swim and fish right in the heart of the city.
Between 1850 and 1920, there was a large influx of Ashkenazi Jews from Russia and Poland, and by 1920, the Jewish population of Sweden had grown to 6,500.
In the years preceding World War II, Swedish Jews were alert to the dangers facing their coreligionists to the south, but Sweden’s hostility towards the acceptance of refugees prevented many Jews from finding safety there. From 1933 to 1939, 3,000 Jews were admitted into Sweden, and another 1,000 were allowed to use Sweden as a point of transit.
Neutral Sweden opened its doors to 900 Norwegian Jews in 1942, setting a precedent for the rescue of Danish Jewry in October 1943. At that time, some 8,000 Danish Jews and partly Jewish relatives escaped to Sweden on fishing boats and other small ships.
Today, the Swedish Jewish community is the largest in Scandinavia and is primarily composed of descendants of pre-war refugees and Shoah survivors who arrived after the war.
Most Swedish Jews live in the capital Stockholm. It is a unified community, and all three synagogues in the city belong to the same organization.
Kosher food is available in Stockholm at the Jewish community center.
Tour 4 or 6 hours
We will start the tour with our first stop at the impressive panoramic viewpoint Fjallgatan.
Here you have the opportunity to snap some photographs while your guide points out the sights before you start your scenic drive towards Gamla Stan (Old Town). Old Town is an intriguing place where trade, betrayal and even murders took place.
You will get insight into the long lasting German influence and the many attacks of the Danes during the Middle Ages. Due to the Swedish neutrality nothing has been destroyed here in the last 400 years.
We will then walk through the narrow cobblestone streets, passing the Royal Palace and to Tyska Brunnsplan square, named after the German community that once occupied this area, where you will see the outside of the building which was Stockholm’s first synagogue, founded in 1790.
Afterwards we will continue to the Conservative Synagogue, also known as the Great Synagogue. Inaugurated in 1870, it still has an active congregation with more than one thousand members. On the walls of the entrance you can actually read the names of the victims of the Holocaust.
We’ll also see the Raoul Wallenberg monument, which commemorates the Swedish diplomat who helped save thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Nazis.
Leaving the Synagogue you pass by the beautiful Jewish cemetery before heading to the next highlight on the itinerary, the Vasa Museum.
Please note: synagogue visit is subject to confirmation. Synagogue is closed for visits on Saturdays.
It is possible to arrange shabbat with Jewish community with advance notice.
The Jewish Community Library, under the guidance of Lars Raij, is located beneath the Great Synagogue of Stockholm. Its multilingual collection consists of books in Swedish, German, English, French, Hebrew, and other languages. It includes the library of Rabbi Marcus Ehrenpreis (1869 – 1951), who was Chief Rabbi of Sweden from 1914 to 1951.
The highlights of the tour are a visit to the Jewish Museum in Stockholm. The museum was founded in 1987 by its former director Aron Neuman, who together with his wife Viola provided the funds necessary to get the museum started. The museum, which is one of the few Jewish museums in the Nordic countries and is a member of the Swedish Association of Museums, is since 1992 accommodated in premises, consisting of entrance hall and three rooms. Two of the rooms are used for exhibition purposes, one for the permanent displays, the other one for special temporary exhibitions.
The permanent displays include a number of show-cases, in which the artifacts are presented mainly in terms of categories such as Thora, sabbath, circumcision etc. Since its start the museum has set up a number of special exhibitions covering different aspects of Jewish life in Sweden.
Tour end approximately 2pm at hotel or port .
Inquire re: Price. This is private tour with a guide and transportation, price depends on number of people and length of the tour including hotel/port pickup and dropoff
Extra: entrance fees, lunch, gratuities Tour can be extended to 6 hours with visiting Vasa Museum, etc..