In this March 3, 2010 photo, the secured doors of the Jewish community center in central Malmo, Sweden are shown. (AP Photo/Pamela Juhl)
JTA — The Swedish city of Malmo will allocate some $2 million to initiatives to protect its Jewish community from anti-Semitism.
Malmo, a city where one third of the population hails from Muslim countries, is home to several hundred Jews and has dozens of anti-Semitic incidents annually.
Among the initiatives proposed by the city’s officials are educational programs in schools to uproot racism against Jews, promotion of Jewish culture, and a study to gauge the public’s perception of Jews, Ynet reported.
The government is planning to hold an international conference on fighting anti-Semitism in Malmo and plans to open a Holocaust museum in the Swedish city.
Police cordon off an area after four people were shot and injured on an open street in central Malmo, in southern Sweden, on June 18, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / TT News Agency / Johan NILSSON)
The population of the Swedish city has dropped over the past 10 years from 3,000 to 1,500, according to the report.
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In June, two philanthropists – one Jewish and one not – donated more than $4 million to security for Jews in Malmo.
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The war with Iran has been draining for all of us in Israel. But when I heard about a high casualty incident – ballistic missile impacts in Arad and Dimona that left nearly 200 people wounded – I drank a cup of coffee, packed a bag, and headed south.
There, I spoke with Shilgit, the head of an after-school program for underprivileged youth. Standing outside her destroyed center, Shilgit said it was a miracle that no children were hurt and spoke about the community coming together in the hours since.
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