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Reilly Plays A Jew in Malmo

 

Fear and giggles: A day as a Jew in Malmö

Patrick Reilly of the Local Passes for a Jew

Based on a report in the LOCAL.  http://www.thelocal.se/50790/20131014/

The statistics show that antisemitism in Malmö is quite real. So real that ‘Kippah walks’ involving hundreds of Malmö residents and other Swedes are held on a regular basis to show support for the city’s dwindling Jewish community.

Patrick Reilly an Irish  reporter living in Malmö, experimented with living as a Jew for a few hours.  He did this after learning that Jewish organization were warning Jews to avid this city. “Sixty anti-Semitic hate crimes were registered in Malmö in 2012 – almost three times the number in previous years. None of these resulted in a conviction. A school teacher told me some parents pulled their children out of her classroom once they discovered she was Jewish and she quit working in Malmö as a result.  Meanwhile, the sole Jewish kindergarten is protected with bullet-proof doors after the bomb attack last year. When the children go out on field trips wearing their high visibility vests the name of the Jewish preschool isn’t written on the vests for fear of potential attacks.”

Jews open about their identity in Malmö are few and far between in Malmö and Jewish tourists about the city because of its record of anti Semitism.  There is the Rabbi Shneur Kesselman, who dresses in full traditional Jewish attire, and there is chef Shmuel Goldberg who wears a kippah.  Most of the other 600 pass for goyem.  Kesselman had the word ‘Palestina’ carved into his car while Goldberg says he is frequently verbally abused.
Goldberg  warned Reilly that he was going to walk around Malmöwearing a kippa. I “Don’t do anything you wouldn’t ordinarily do. Be careful as at times it can be unpleasant,” he advised.Reilly felt like he was display as he walked in the bohemian quarter of Malmö.  Coffee drinkers were open mouthed.  Shoppers and the largely immigrant stall workers stared at him.   When he tried to make a purchase, the  stall worker started to giggle and beckoned his boss to come over and witness this transaction. Both were friendly though the laughter was strange for Reilly who had lived in Malmö for two years.

The rest of his essay may reflect his fears more than reality. Reilly asked a friend to shadow him from a discrete distance just in case things got ugly. They  ordered drinks at a  the local coffee between the falafel and ethnic food stores.  Reilly felt the eyes of  two men in the corner, eyes burning into the back of his borrowed shiny white kippah . His friend told Reilly  that another group of men had been staring solidly at him for 30 minutes from a cafe across the street.

After a while Reilly began to forget he was wearing the kippah,  a burly man walked aggressively in my direction and mouthed “fucking Jew” to his friend. It was a reminder that making your Jewish identity in Malmö obvious carries its own risk.

Reilly says he was relieved after the kippa came off.

*The Local Editor’s Note: Some names have been changed in order to protect identities.


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  1. 1

    “enough is enough…put an end to the hcouoalst industry…by constantly reinventing victims…”Also, I used it in the comment to show that we lack that kind of organization to actually create an effective mechanism to make Germany pay for its crimes.