Major Swedish TV Network Turns a Lens onto Chabad

By the hundreds of thousands, Swedes tuned into SVT2, Sweden’s biggest TV network last Wednesday to watch a new TV series, From Sweden to Heaven. Its second installment turned the cameras to the Chabad family in Gothenburg, and gave viewers a close-up of life in the religiously observant, lively Chasidic home of Rabbi Alexander and Leah Namdar.

In a predominantly atheistic country—a 2005 Eurobarometer poll found that 77 percent of Swedish citizens do not believe G-d exists—the show aims to provide viewers with a better understanding of religious life. The Namdars, Chabad representatives to Sweden, settled in Gothenburg in 1991 and today offer the country’s Jews a range of social and educational programs.

“This was a groundbreaking step for Jewish life in Sweden. The show touched the consciousness of Jews here,” says Leah Namdar, 41. After it aired, she was inundated with a flood of calls, emails and texts from viewers, who were “happy to be Jewish and proud of their identity. It was an incredible opportunity to reach thousands of people.”

The show opened as Anna Lindman Barsk, host of the program, joined Leah leading a Lunch ‘n’ Learn in her home with other women from the community. New to Judaism, Barsk observed curiously, as Leah explained the reason for blessings before the meal, and her daughter Mushky talked about why she would only marry a Jew. Observing the unique way of life in the book-lined Namdar household, Barsk was inquisitive, following the parents as they helped their children with their homework, and elicited enlightening explanations from the Namdars for the reasons behind many of the daily Jewish practices and customs.

The show segued into a family dinner with several of their eleven children. Barsk followed Rabbi Namdar at the morning prayers in the synagogue, then accompanied him to the supermarket, where Rabbi Namdar fills a wagon with kosher-certified products as he explains kashruth to Barsk.

For Sweden’s profoundly secular society, From Sweden to Heaven is a positive step toward fostering acceptance and tolerance of Judaism. Channel SVT2 has an audience share of 10.4 percent in a country of 9.3 million people. One viewer from a small, far-flung village who had never been to Chabad, called the Namdars after the show, to reserve a place at their Passover Seder.

In the pre-war years and during the Holocaust, the Jewish population in Sweden swelled as thousands of Jews seeking asylum from Nazi persecution fled to Sweden. Dr. Joseph Frisher, a psychologist who lives in Gothenburg is the son of Holocaust survivors; his father lived in Oswiecim and was one of the town’s 300 residents who built Auschwitz.

“The Holocaust certainly had a powerful impact upon the second generation. The children of the survivors aren’t so open to Judaism, and many have tried to run away,” he says. “This show had a positive impact on Jewish people and on the general public.”

The second generation of these survivors tends to associate Judaism with suffering, says Leah. But in From Sweden to Heaven, Judaism is presented as a meaningful and joyful way of life. The show ends as Barsk joins the family in their large, airy kitchen as they prepare for Shabbat, braiding challahs and setting an elegant table for a dinner for at least two dozen, and the Shabbat candles are lit.

“This show was a very rare thing for Jewish people in Sweden,” says Susan Bentov, a social worker in Gothenburg. It showed that living Jewishly is a purposeful, enriching way to live. “What I enjoyed most about the show was that the Namdars came across as a fun and happy religious family.”

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