Life Lesson I Learned From My Mother: ... "Shut Up And Fade Into The Woodwork!

 ... How do you survive as a Jew in Sweden?
... Shut up and fade into the woodwork.

In a letter published by Mosaic Magazine, Hernroth-Rothstein writes about what it's like for Sweden's small Jewish population of 20,000 living in a country of nine million, 900,000 of which are Muslim.

"[In] Sweden kosher butchering was outlawed in 1937 and has been illegal ever since," writes Hernroth-Rothstein. "The threat is not a threat but a reality—for me as, on a much graver scale, it had been for my grandparents, forced into hiding in a Sweden silently collaborating with the Nazis throughout the world war. The next threat on the horizon is a ban on even importing kosher products, compelling me and many of my friends to smuggle kosher meat from Israel on our return trips from that land.

By contrast, hallal slaughter is not banned in Sweden. My government, when asked about the disparity, replies that the methods of slaughter in Judaism are uniquely barbaric."

Hernroth-Rothstein makes reference to a recent brush with anti-Semitism that involved her and her young son, who was wearing a yarmulke as they rode the train early Friday afternoon to attend Shabbat services. They were accosted by a middle age Arab man, but Hernroth-Rothstein knew better than to make a scene.

"I did not summon the railway police. I did not scream back at the man," she writes. "I know better.
I know that the only way to survive as a Jew in my country is not to be seen as one.

Not to be exposed but to shut up and fade into the woodwork. I’ve known this for quite some time. Unfortunately, my son knows it now, too."
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