The Jewish Bourgeoisie in Sweden, 1838-1938



This project deals with the Jewish bourgeoisie in Sweden 1838-1938; the Swedish case being an almost totally neglected field of research. The aim of the project is to study the genesis, formation, and renewal of the Jewish bourgeoisie in economic, social, and cultural terms. This, in turn, is designed to shed light upon the endeavours of the group towards integration and assimilation, but also upon its openness and/or isolation in relation to society as a whole. An important topic is whether the strategies of the Jewish community included an additional dimension that the Swedish bourgeoisie did not have, namely, the need for acceptance through economic, social, and cultural success. Criteria for being bourgeois will be studied both as economy and culture (from Bourdieu´s concepts of economic, cultural, and symbolic capital), and from the starting-point of the concepts of Wirtschaftsbürgertum (entrepreneurs in industry, commerce, finance, and other kinds of enterprises), and Bildungsbürgertum (lawyers, judges, physicians, engineers, university graduates, and higher public officials) which are common in German research. Similarities and differences between two Jewish immigrant groups, the "Verbürgerlichung," will be studied: the early "Western Jewish" group; and the later "Eastern Jewish" group. The Swedish Jewish experience will then be studied in connection with results from comparable European research in Germany, France, and England.