General Information

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 aims that were set up are to show

• the history of the Swedish Jews
• the adaption of the Jews to the Swedish society and their contribution to culture, art, literature, trade, industry etc
• the culture and religion of the Jews, their manners and customs, in the synagogue and in their homes

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 accomodated 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 artefacts 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.

The museum has met with lively response from the general public. The number of visitors amounts to about 12 000 a year which is very satisfactory for Swedish conditions. About 40 percent of the visitors consist of school-classes.

 

In support of the museum there is a Friendship Association with about 1 100 members.

Along with the sheer exhibition activities the museum pursues informative activities. This is done mainly through lectures about the Swedish Jews, their history and their relations to society and about Jewish culture and religion. These lectures are given in connection with the demonstration of the exhibits.

It is also worth mentioning that the museum has started to organize a research library within its premises, intended to assist research work at different levels.

Regarding the economy of the museum it should be pointed out that the museum - apart from a manager, an information officer and a controller – only has voluntary employees. These helpers, amounting to about 35 people, carry out all occurring tasks, such as demonstration of the artefacts, surveillance, keeping of the cash and operation of the museum cafeteria. It is quite clear that the museum could hardly be managed without the efforts of these voluntary workers. As a matter of fact the museum has to a great extent to confide in grants from the community and from private institutions. The museum has received substantial allowances from the City of Stockholm and from the Swedish Parliament and the County as well.