The New York Times was right. It’s not very often we say that. Two days ago, the newspaper began a story about the country of Sweden’s official Twitter account with, “Chances of embarrassment are unusually high when you are @Sweden, the nation’s official Twitter spokesperson.” Every week, a new Swede is handed control of the country’s Twitter feed and gives a personal face and voice to the country of more than nine million. The social media strategy behind the Twitter account is meant to showcase a “typical Swede” and promote the diversity of the Nordic country as a possible tourist destination. This morning, this week’s “tweeter” (and in my opinion the entire country) have some explaining and soul-searching to do.
Whats the fuzz with jews. You can’t even see if a person is a jew, unless you see their penises, and even if you do, you can’t be sure!?
— @sweden / Sonja (@sweden) June 12, 2012
That’s the first of a series of tweets sent this morning surrounding who is a Jew and how exactly one is supposed to identify one. Here’s another:
In nazi German they even had to sew stars on their sleeves. If they didn’t, they could never now who was a jew and who was not a jew.
— @sweden / Sonja (@sweden) June 12, 2012
Sonja, this week’s tweeter, seems to believe there are no Jews in her country (despite there being more than 18,000 nationally).
Where I come from there is no jews. I guess its a religion. But why were the nazis talking about races? Was it a blood-thing (for them)?
— @sweden / Sonja (@sweden) June 12, 2012
This led me to do a search for the history of the Jewish community in Sweden. Knowing Europe’s infamous relationship with anti-Semitism (increased attacks on French Jews, an attempted ban on kosher slaughter in the Netherlands, the rise of a neo-Nazi party in Greece, etc.) I wasn’t surprised to see this headline from a 2010 edition of the Telegraph, “Jews leave Swedish city after sharp rise in anti-Semitic hate crimes.”
Sweden’s tweeter seems to have backed off after getting some heated responses and already a few unflattering articles, but perhaps the country should take this as an opportunity to have a discussion about Sweden’s Jewish community and Swedish anti-Semitism. How has a country that was once known for being a safe harbor for Jews fallen this low? While the country’s seven-month-old Twitter account has pushed the edge a number of times (the vulgarity is what led to my unfollowing it several months back), today’s tweets moved beyond sensationalist. Instead of demanding an apology and moving forward, Sweden and the tweeter in question should evaluate why the tweets were so offensive and how this mother of two and other “typical Swedes” could learn about Jews both in Sweden and beyond.
These tweets do not seem to be anti-semitic per se. What they reveal is a very typical, rigidly uninformed, ignorant, low thought processing capability, victim of a public educational system; in other words a quintessential liberal.
Lionel Trilling is the quintessential liberal.Ditto for J.F.K.,Scoop Jackson Sidney Hook,and the young Norman Podhoretz….It seems that the moderate guy a)thinks that today's politically correct,multi-cultural fascists are liberals.Which sets his comment about at the level of those Sweedish tweets.And that b)stupidity and ignorance are exculpatory factors-as if anti-Semitism was merely a sub-set of Liberalism and people like Pat Buchanan and his ilk did not exist. Scapegoating contemporary pseudo-liberalism is not the answer.
today's politically correct, multi-cultural fascists n nRight that! Liberalism was hijacked by the extreme left the way conservatism — more properly the GOP — has been hijacked by the extreme right. The result: gridlock.
I recall how the Swedish government refused recently to reign in anti-Semitic verbal and physical assaults by Muslims, dismissing it as "motivated by disapproval of Israel and thus political expression not rising to hate." There is indeed an undercurrent is anti-Semitism in Swedish society. But face it, anti-Semitism is still alive and well, to varying degrees, in all of Europe.
As a Swedish Jew, I can say that most, if not all, of the recent uptick of anti-Semitism is by muslim immigrants. Sonja’s Jewish rants are an isolated incident.
Also, there’s probably about 150,000 thousand Jews in Sweden, but the vast majority don’t belong to any denomination so they are not counted.
The problem is that the Jewish establishment here in Sweden are more than willing to support further mass immigration from muslim countries where at least 50 % are incoming islamists. As so often in Northern Europe, the Jews here are trying to be more Swedish than the Swedes(thereby engaging in extreme leftism, bashing Israel, supporting mass immigration, far-left policies etc).
Disgusting.
Going by Sonja Sweden should be renamed Moronia.
She obviously does not know what Muslims look like either if she can only tell Jews apart by undressing them.
Resurgent anti-Semitism is Sweden and in most of northern Europe is directly related to the European Left’s (and its cohort of pseudo-intellectual followers) to the increase in the Muslim populations and the infatuation of the Left in Europe and in America with Muslims as the latest-fashion victim “other” – most especially the “Palestinians.” n nTo the extent that modern Liberalism has embraced – and been devoured by – the “intellectual” Left, modern anti-Semitism is a Liberal doctrine now. “Pro-Palestinian” is a handy “righteous” disguise for the Liberal anti-Semite. One wonders what self-identifying Jewish Liberals could possibly be thinking of in closing their eyes to this reality. n
That is not difficult to understand. The West is in an unholy alliance with the Muslims because both fear the Jews who cannot retaliate. Furthermore there are plenty of anti-Zionists inthe E
"And how can you really tell if somebody is Jewish?" n nAsk them. n nBut more important, why does that even matter to you?
You canu2019t even see if a person is a jew, unless you see their penises,r nr nFunny how ignorant they are of the Muslim culture.
Thank you for being reasonable. Should be unnecessary, but isn't. You're right that nobody should be offended by a serious wish to learn, but you'll come to understand, if you don't already, why we Jews are sensitive about identifying Jews. We are an "extended family," a "tribe" with many "adoptions" by conversion, so Jews can look like anyone. Most of us don't "look like Swedes," but some do. Our "tribe" was originally created and defined by religion, but some have rejected the religion and do not consider themselves part of the "tribe," while others have rejected the religion but are still proud of their Jewish ancestry and consider themselves part of the "tribe." You'll get used to it.