The purpose of this examination is to investigate how Judisk Krönika, a periodical which was introduced in 1932 with the aim of disseminating Jewish culture and tradition in Sweden, uses history to make comments about its role in contemporary history, specifically during the first two years of the First Intifada. A second purpose was to examine how this use of history differed from results shown in earlier studies comprising the 1960s and the 2000s. The method in use is qualitative; the source material has been read thoroughly and scrutinized in search of the authors open and hidden messages and intentions. The main finding shows that four major themes could be identified: anti-Semitism(anti-Zionism); memory; ethnonational and media. The most dominant theme during the 1980s, as opposed to the 1960s and the 2000s focus on Zionism and Jewish culture respectively, is memory, that could be described as hegemonic and as a part of a existential use of history, which aims for survival and preservation of the Jewish culture in times of conflict.

This thesis on Swedish-Jewish identity studies shows that this identity has been constructed between three points that can be found in Lars Dencik’s model “the diasporas star of David”, these points being “the Swedish” “the Jewish” and “the Israeli”. The thesis studies the period between 1948 to 1988 and uses Judisk Krönika as source material. The thesis looks at two keywords of importance to the Swedish Jews, the first being the summer camp “Glämsta” and the second being “religious freedom”. The usage of Albert O. Hirschmann and his theory of people in exile is used to try and se how the Swedish-Jewish group react to when questioned or when they have the need to explain their rights for maintaining a Jewish identity.  The Swedish-Jewish identity was constructed and based explicitly on “the Jewish” and the “Israeli” with a small tendency to favor “the Jewish”. “The Swedish” aspect was not mentioned but can be seen as implicit because of the fact that the Jews live in Sweden.  The main issue was not internal conflict within the Jewish group but rather with the Swedish majority. The results suggest that the Swedish-Jewish group based their identity on a mixture of all of the parts, just at different times. The Swedish-Jewish group changed their reasoning behind motiving their identity over time, firstly they tried to argue that there are no need to react towards Jewish traditions but later during the period they started to protest more when questioned or denied their Jewish traditions.

I detta arbete skriver jag om judisk identitet i Sverige så som den framkommer i Judisk Krönika 2010-2011. Vad det finns för knep för att skapa och upprätthålla en judisk identitet. Vad identifierar man sig med? Jag har använt mig av tidskriften Judisk Krönika årgång 2010-2011 som primärkälla, med chefredaktören Jackie Jakubowski. Jakubowski har även skrivit vetenskapligt om judendom i Sverige. Teorier härstammar från Lasse Dencik, Anthony Giddens och Alberto Melucci. Melucci och Giddens använder en konstruktivistisk syn på identitetsbildande och Dencik skriver om en Davidsstjärna där han beskriver olika aspekter av judisk identitet. Arbetet belyser hur det är att vara jude i Sverige idag, vilka möjligheter som finns och också vilka hinder som kan tänkas finnas, så som det framställs i Judisk Krönika. Judar har genom historien varit förföljda och utsatta för försök till assimilation istället för integration, detta skulle kunna leda till att man är rädd för att visa att man är jude, att våga vara stolt för sitt ursprung. Undersökningen visar att det går att leva ett judiskt liv i Sverige, med vissa komplikationer. I skapandet och upprätthållandet av en judisk identitet i Sverige läggs fokus på såväl traditioner, familj som andra världskriget.