Welcome to Stockholm’s Jewish Museum!

The Museum is located in Sweden’s oldest preserved synagogue at Själagårdsgatan 19 in Gamla stan. Now the story of the past can continue into the future.

Minority heritage is often hidden under layers of supposedly more important history. It echoes the relationship between majority society and its minorities. The Jewish Museum showcases Jewish thought, Jewish practices, and Swedish history to everyone who is curious about Jewish and Swedish Jewish heritage.

Själagårdsgatan 19

In 1795, Stockholm’s Jewish congregation moved into a former auction house at Själagårdsgatan 19. The building was to be the focus of Jewish life in Sweden for almost a century. It was home to a synagogue, a religious school, a rabbi, a cantor and a kosher butcher. A Mikveh, or ritual bath, was in the basement, and matzo bread for Passover was baked in the kitchen and distributed to congregation members.

A special law, the Judereglementet or Jewish Ordinance, was in force between 1782 and 1838. It determined how Jews were allowed to live in Sweden and referred to the Jews as a separate nation. Själagårdsgatan 19 therefore became the heart of a kingdom within a kingdom. The old synagogue at Själagårdsgatan 19 may be one of the few German-style synagogues remaining in Europe.

History of the Jewish Museum

In 1987, Viola and Aron Neuman founded the Jewish Museum Foundation. The idea attracted a great deal of interest at an early stage. However, finding suitable premises was not easy. No institution was prepared to house the new museum under its roof.

In the end, the museum could open in a former carpet warehouse in Frihamnen, Stockholm. Exhibitions about Jewish life were shown there until 1992, when the museum moved to Hälsingegatan in Vasastan, in a former high school building. In 2019, the Jewish Museum moved to Själagårdsgatan 19 in Gamla Stan, Stockholm’s old town.