Metadata: Jewish Community of Malmö: population records
Collection
- Country:
- Sweden
- Holding institution:
- Malmö City Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Malmö stadsarkiv
- Postal address:
- Bergsgatan 20, 205 80 Malmö
- Phone number:
- 040-10 53 00
- Web address:
- https://www.malmo.se/stadsarkivet
- Email:
- stadsarkiv@malmo.se
- Reference number:
- SE/MSA/00705 (The Jewish community of Malmö): A–H
- Title:
- Jewish Community of Malmö: population records
- Title (official language):
- Mosaiska/Judiska församlingen i Malmö: församlingsböcker och -listor
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish community of Malmö
- Date(s):
- 1848/1983
- Language:
- Swedish
- Extent:
- 35 volumes
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
This collection consists of the so-called community books (församlingsböcker) with appended documents. The community books are registers of the members of the community and records of their immigration, births, Jewish confirmations, marriages, death and emigration. The main books (series A) consists of two volumes in which the members of the community are listed alphabetically by their last name; the first from 1879 to 1894 and the second from 1895 to 1911. Most of the founding congregants were immigrants from what is now Germany and Poland. For the years before the foundation of the community population records of Jews living in Malmö could be found in the books of the Christian parishes Sankt Petri and Caroli, also in Malmö City Archives. Details about Jews living in Malmö at this time can also be found in the archives of the Jewish communities in Gothenburg and Copenhagen.
One volume, B: 1, also includes records of Jews immigrating to Malmö from other countries as well as from other cities in Sweden, between the years 1895 and 1911. The records show that at the end of the 19th century and the early 20th century the Jewish population in Malmö increased considerably, due to immigration from what is now Poland, Russia, Ukraine and the Baltic countries. For the years 1876–1894 the records are preserved in volume H II. In another series (C I: 1–3) births within the community between the years 1876 and 1942 are recorded. Unlike the Jewish communities of Stockholm and Gothenburg, the Jewish community of Malmö never formally adopted Reform Judaism and its main synagogue is still formally Orthodox. Nevertheless, there is one volume (D: 1) consisting of lists of the names of youths who underwent Jewish confirmation between the years 1896 and 1906.
The E-series consist of four so-called marriage books with lists of marriages in the community from 1878 to 1983 and the F-series (also four volumes) records the deaths and burials of the congregants from 1876 to 1983. Since the community’s jurisdiction also included Jews in other towns of southern Sweden, such as Lund, Kristianstad, Landskrona and Helsingborg, similar population records can, for some years, be found for these parts in three separate volumes in the H I series.
The H II series includes two volumes of additional documentation to the records from the years 1876–1923. This documentation includes interesting details about the families of immigrants, certificates from foreign state and municipal authorities as well as from foreign Jewish communities, passports etc. Similarly, in the series H III and H IV and H V, there are additional documentation about the births, marriages and deaths recorded in the books, including different forms of certificates and medical statements. In L VI: 1-3, there are also taxation lists, based on the congregants’ income.
- Archival history:
- The records were deposited at the Malmö City Archives in 1915, 1923, 1926, 1970, 1984, 1988 and 2016.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- This collection is part of the archive of the Jewish Community of Malmö (Judiska/Mosaiska församlingen i Malmö). The community was founded in 1871 as a result of increased Jewish immigration to the city following the liberalisation of Sweden’s industrial legislation. At this time there were around 250 Jews in the Malmö area. Before the creation of the official community the Jews in the area had belonged to the Jewish community of Gothenburg but they also had close ties to the Jewish community in the nearby Danish capital, Copenhagen. The community’s official administration first came into effect in 1873. Thus, the records in the collection are from that year and later. From 1879 the community had the obligation to keep population records of all its congregants. This obligation was abolished through a law in 1911. However, the community continued to keep records for practical reasons.
- Access points: locations:
- Malmö
- Subject terms:
- Jewish community
- Migration
- Taxation
- Vital records
- Access, restrictions:
- Access is restricted to researchers with written permission from the Jewish community of Malmö. For contact details, see: https://www.jfm.se/the-jewish-community-of-malmo/
- Finding aids:
- A detailed index of the archival records is available in the NAD database at the [Swedish] National Archives website. The Swedish historian Carl Henrik Carlsson has also written an excellent archival guide to Jewish sources in Swedish archives which also deals with the archive: Carl Henrik Carlsson, Källor till judarnas historia i Sverige. Skrifter utgivna av Riksarkivet 44 (Stockholm: Riksarkivet 2021).
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum in Stockholm