Swedish Shliach on High Alert

By COLlive reporter

Jewish communities across Europe have been ever-vigilant to the impending Islamic terror threat in the wake of the recent terror attacks and mass killings in Paris, France.

Malmö’s Jewish community definitely stands out amongst them.

Synagogues across Sweden were shut down this week –including the famed city’s only Malmö Synagogue– as a precautionary measure against possible attacks by terrorist groups.

The measure was put in place after government officials were made aware of a suspect planning an attack. This led Swedish national security agency Säpo to raise the national terror threat level to “High.”

Malmö’s Jews number at approximately 1,000 people, with an additional 700 living in the southern region of Sweden. In comparison, over 20% of the city’s 300,000 population are Muslim, leading to a spike in anti-Semitic attacks.

The chief target of the Muslim hostility is Rabbi Shneur Kesselman, the Chabad Shliach in Malmö who was dubbed by The Atlantic as “almost certainly the most persecuted Jew in Europe.”

Rabbi Kesselman has been the victim of over 200 anti-Semitic incidents in the 11 years since his family arrived in Malmö. While complaints are always brought to police, not a single conviction has been made in the hundreds of anti-Semitic incidents experienced by the Jewish community.

This week, the Kesselmans and the local community are on higher alert than before.

The suspect planning to attack synagogue was apprehended, yet the chairwoman of the Official Council of Jewish Communities in Sweden, Lena Posner-Körösi, said the security situation would be re-assessed on a daily basis.

And it is during such times that the dedicated work of the Kesselmans shines brightest.

Notwithstanding the turbulent nature of their town, Rabbi and Raizel Kesselman provide a host of programs including Friday night community dinners, youth clubs, summer and winter camps, holiday programs and Torah classes.

Many praise the Kesselmans for their dedication to the Jewish community that strengthened Jewish identity and has raised the morale amongst many who would otherwise be shuttered within their home.

Paulina Klein, former vice president of Malmö’s Jewish community and the child of Holocaust survivors, stated: “Without the Kesselman family, Jewishness in Malmo would suffer an enormous loss. So much of the community’s Yiddishkeit is provided by them.”

“We draw the strength to continue our Shlichus in Malmo from the guidance and teachings of the Lubavitcher Rebbe who embodied total love and dedication for each individual Jew,” says Rabbi Kesselman.

Pointing out that the Rebbe compared the worth of a single Jew to a diamond, Rabbi Kesselman says “Malmö’s community is adorned with hundreds of ‘diamonds,’ and we are determined to help them maintain their dazzling Jewish glow, no matter the level of adversity we face when ‘mining’ for them.”

Friends of Chabad Malmö are currently preparing to launch a campaign to provide better security options to the Kesselman family as they continue their selfless work despite many challenges and even dangers.