In Malmö, the message of hope from Rabbi Moshe David HaCohen

LETTER FROM MALMÖ

Two days before the Eurovision final, on May 9, Moshe David HaCohen got on his bike. With his sidelocks flying and a yarmulke on his head, he wandered through the center of Malmö, filming the sun-drenched alleys with his phone before posting the video to Facebook. The 45-year-old rabbi, who divides his time between Sweden and Israel, where his wife and five children live, is tired of seeing his city described as “a black sheep”, even “the world capital of anti-Semitism”. . “If that were really the case, it would be great news for Jews around the world,” he joked.

This is what he tried to make clear a few days earlier to journalists from the Israeli television channel Keshet 12 News, without forgetting to mention anti-Semitism in schools and the concern of parents for their children. But “everything that was nuanced and complex was removed during editing,” he lamented, finding himself caricatured as a naive weirdo. The Swedish media are no better. Several newspapers published editorials claiming that holding the competition in Malmö was an absurdity. The right and the far right agreed.

The situation indeed seemed explosive. With a terrorist alert level at four out of five since the summer of 2023, and tens of thousands of visitors expected in the city of 360,000 inhabitants – 35% of whom were born abroad – for a Eurovision which is announces itself as one of the most controversial. In the story, the police authorized two demonstrations on May 9, practically in the same place and at the same time: one pro-Palestinian, the other pro-Israeli.

But there have been no incidents, just as there have been “no attacks against the Jews of Malmö or against the synagogue” in recent months, despite the tensions, the rabbi stressed during our meeting in the premises of the Amanah organization two weeks later. The organizers of the pro-Palestinian demonstration made it clear that they would not tolerate any anti-Semitic outbursts or threats against Jews. As the march passed a few hundred meters from the square, where members of Malmö’s Jewish community sang in Hebrew and waved Israeli flags, volunteers formed a human chain to prevent demonstrators from approaching the vehicles. police who cordoned off the area. No police intervention was necessary.

“Bridge Builder”

“Some will say that it is setting the bar too low to be happy that nothing happened, especially since some Jews did not come because they were afraid. On the contrary, I see in it an essential basis on which we can continue to build”, thanks to the work we carried out before October 7.” Far from being the bogeyman that some like to describe, Malmö “could serve as a model at the European level”, believes HaCohen.

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