The Portrait Gallery

Life returns to the old synagogue – Själagårdsgatan 19 was the center of early Jewish life in Sweden. Many of the first Jews lived in the Old Town and were active in both business and royal affairs. Our new exhibition invites you to meet some of them.

Here was, among others, David Hirsch, the German tensioner whose rage broke the windows of the synagogue, but who later came to run Stockholm’s largest calico printing house. Or Recha Michaelsson who married in the Swedish national costume and survived two men.

The synagogue was a place of prayer and religious authorities have always been careful to keep the sexes separate during worship. At Själagårdsgatan the Women’s Gallery is still intact, it is a raised balcony with a wonderful view of the room, where the women were secluded.

In the Portrait Gallery we meet a selection of all these life stories, as they return to Själagårdsgatan in gilded frames and testify to long-forgotten stories about Jewish life in Sweden.