GRÄNSLAND – ETT (JUDISKT) ÄVENTYR MELLAN TYSKLAND OCH SVERIGE

Abstract

Aaron Isaac is considered to be the first Jew who was allowed to settle and work in Sweden without being forced to convert to Christianity. After having arrived in Stockholm in 1774, he founded the first Jewish congregation and was involved in reforming the legal status of Jews. The Jewish minority was eventually given the right to live (in selected cities) and work (as merchants or craftsmen not organized by the guild system) in Sweden. Furthermore, Aaron Isaac became an author: his 'memoirs' are the topic of this article, in which I read his autobiographic book as a form of transgressive literature. The book describes Aaron's long and eventful journey across many borders from his German hometown to Stockholm. The book itself crosses many borders: written in a form of Yiddish-Swedish using Hebrew letters, it becomes almost impossible to decipher the text "correctly". Rather, the text demands that the reader copes with a literary no-man's-land.