In Malmö, Rabbi Moshe David HaCohen’s message of hope – Technologist

LETTER FROM MALMÖ

Two days before the Eurovision final on May 9, Moshe David HaCohen hopped on his bike. With his sidelocks blowing in the wind and a kippah on his head, he rode through the center of Malmö, filming the sunlit alleys with his phone before posting the video on Facebook. The rabbi, 45, 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,” or 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 TV channel Keshet 12 News, without omitting to mention anti-Semitism in schools and parents’ concern for their children. But “everything that was nuanced and complex was cut out in the editing process,” he deplored, finding himself caricatured as a naive oddball. The Swedish media are no better. Several newspapers published editorials claiming that the organization of the contest in Malmö was an absurdity. The right and the far right agreed.

The situation indeed seemed explosive. With the terror 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 residents – 35% of whom were born abroad – for a Eurovision that promises to be one of the most controversial in history, the police authorized two demonstrations on May 9, in virtually the same place and at the same time: one pro-Palestinian, the other pro-Israeli.

But there were no incidents, just as there have been “no attacks on Malmö’s Jews or the synagogue” in recent months, despite the tensions, underlined the rabbi when we met him at the Amanah organization premises two weeks later. The organizers of the pro-Palestinian demonstration made clear that they would not tolerate any anti-Semitic outbursts or threats against Jews. As the march passed within a few hundred meters of the square, where members of Malmö’s Jewish community were singing in Hebrew and waving Israeli flags, volunteers formed a human chain to prevent the demonstrators from approaching the police vehicles cordoning off the area. No police intervention was required.

‘Bridge builder’

“Some will say that it’s setting the bar too low to be happy that nothing happened, especially as some Jews didn’t come because they were scared. On the contrary, I see it as an essential foundation on which we can continue to build, thanks to the work we did before October 7.” Far from being the bogeyman that some like to portray, Malmö “could serve as a model at European level,” said HaCohen.

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