Re: Looking for Information On Jacob Birath-thank You
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In reply to:
Re: Looking for Information On Jacob Birath-thank You
J Christianson 1/16/14
Jews were not allowed to settle in Sweden unless they converted to the church of Sweden until 1780, when they were allowed to form a congregation in the smallest town in Sweden - the free port of Marstrand, which as a free port had special laws.
In 1782 Jews were allowed to settle in Stockholm, Göteborg and Norrköping where they had to belong to the Jewish congregations there. They were only allowed to engage in certain occupations, like trade (both whole-sale and retail), engraving, cutting precious stones and a few others. They weren't allowed to own land, and couldn't join a guild (necessary for most crafts). They couldn't become Members of Parliament either.
In 1838 Jews were made Swedish citizens "of the Mosaic persuasion", which meant that there were still some restrictions (e.g. as to where they were allowed to live). Only in 1870 were Jews granted full citizenship.
All this means that the vicar would have been most careful about noting down if someone was Jewish - not just something that slipped his mind.
There is one book about Jews in Sweden in general, "Judarnas historia i Sverige" by Hugo Valentin (I doubt it's been translated). However, many Jews were great patrons of the arts, some founded businesses in the 19th century that are still around today etc. and there are biographies of these people that may contain information of a general nature.
Ingela