Final 2024 meeting of the Task force for Jewish life in Sweden
Published
On Thursday 28 November, the Task Force for Jewish life in Sweden held its final meeting of the year. The main topic was education, which has been the task force’s main focus in 2024. Representatives from a number of organisations were invited to take part and talk about their work in this area.
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Anna Florén, Program Director at Voksenåsen, and teachers Helena Hermansson and Fredrik Sjöholm.
Photo: The Government Offices of Sweden
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Hugo Wester from the National Agency for Education and Karin Åhrman from the Living History Forum.
Photo: The Government Offices of Sweden
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Katherine Hauptman, director of the Swedish Holocaust Museum.
Photo: The Government Offices of Sweden
Anna Florén, Program Director at Voksenåsen, Norway’s national gift to Sweden after the Second World War, held the first presentation accompanied by the teachers Helena Hermansson and Fredrik Sjöholm. Voksenåsen conducts courses and conferences in Norway, and its cultural activities include organised remembrance trips to Norwegian Holocaust remembrance sites. Ms Florén and the teachers presented a new educational material on the Holocaust to be used by pupils prior to a Holocaust remembrance trip.
Hugo Wester from the National Agency for Education and Karin Åhrman from the Living History Forum shared information about their democracy-reinforcing initiatives to combat antisemitism and other forms of racism within the model Democracy Step by Step which provides tools and resources for teachers.
Katherine Hauptman, director of the Swedish Holocaust Museum, talked about how the museum receives school classes and educates pupils and teachers on the Holocaust. She also showed how the Swedish version of Dimensions in Testimony can be used all over Sweden.
The task force for Jewish life in Sweden has a special focus each year. In its first year, the focus was on safety and security. This also continued into 2024, when the task force primarily focused on education. The issue of safety and security will remain on the agenda into 2025 as the task force shifts its main focus to Jewish life. This coincides with next year’s celebration of 250 years of established Jewish life in Sweden.
Task force for Jewish life in Sweden
The Government’s Task Force for Jewish life was presented in January 2023. It is an interministerial working group tasked with collaborating and conducting dialogue on preventive measures and efforts to improve the conditions for Jewish life and prevent and combat antisemitism in Sweden. The Government’s efforts to combat antisemitism are a priority and focus on three areas: education, increasing the safety and security of Jews in Sweden, and fostering Jewish life in Sweden.
The task force is led by State Secretary to the Prime Minister Johan Stuart and also includes state secretaries from six different ministries. The task force includes three civil society organisations: the Official Council of Swedish Jewish Communities, Judiska Ungdomsförbundet (the Jewish Youth Association) and the Jewish Committee Against Antisemitism. Representatives of relevant government agencies, organisations and other experts also take part.
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