The City's First Jewish Cemetery

In the late 1700s, German merchant Aaron Isaak, the first Jew to ever reside in Sweden, was granted permission to live in the country without renouncing his faith. Isaak established the country's first Mosaic congregation and also financed the first Jewish cemetery in the city, where approximately 300 people were buried between 1782 and 1888. Aaron Isaak and his wife are buried in one of the graves enclosed by a fence.

"What's this park? I wondered.

"It's not a park," she replied. "It's a cemetery.",

"A cemetery in the middle of modern housing developments? I was surprised.",

"This is the old Jewish cemetery," she explained. "Certainly no one has been buried here in over a hundred years - At that time, this was on the outskirts of the city.",

I nodded. Since then, it seemed that the street level had risen, I noted and let my gaze sweep along rows of dark trees that seemed to rise up like an opening in the underworld.

"You can't see the gravestones down there," she said calmly. "But I know they're there and it's not particularly pleasant.",

She turned around and jingled with her key chain. "The cemetery was certainly designed to make one afraid of ghosts," she added.

I agreed.

"You should move from here," I said.

(Bright Landing, Stieg Trenter, 1946)