The first contact between Swedes and Jews. Vikings trade with the Khazars, a people living in an area between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. A large part of the Khazars professed Judaism.

No Jewish presence in Sweden (possibly a few of those many Jews who were expelled from their home countries in 1200-1400 might have ended up here).

Queen Christina consults the physician Benedictus de Castro (Baruch Nehemias), the first Jew undisputedly known by name to set foot upon Swedish soil.

The great baptism of Jews (four adults and eight children) in the German Church in Stockholm in the presence of the King and the Queen. Jews who convert to the Lutheran faith are granted privileges.

A small number of Jews who settled in Stockholm are ordered to leave the country within a fortnight. Up till then there was no legal prohibition for Jews to settle in Sweden.

During the Swedish Period of Liberty succesive decrees are issued, all of them aimed at the Jews. In Sweden as all over Europe the great majority of people are hostile to Jews and opposed to all thoughts of allowing Jews to settle.

Aaron Isaac settles in Sweden as the first Jew who is allowed to practise his religion here.

A Jewish congregation is founded in Stockholm. The town of Marstrand is made a free port where people of foreign faith enjoy unrestricted freedom of trade and religion; a Jewish congregation is maintained there until 1794.

The so-called Jew-regulation is proclaimed. The Jews are looked upon as aliens with certain limited rights. The regulation includes many restrictions, for example on settlement, and the right to engage in trade and manufacture.

Jewish congregations are founded in Gothenburg, Norrköping and Karlskrona.

The Jewish question is debated in Parliament; the Jews are accused of having caused the economic crisis of the time. A majority push through stringent immigrant rule which by and large stop any furhter settlement. The number of Jews in Sweden is about 800.

With a decree ”concerning the rights and duties of Mosaic believers in the country” the Jew-regulation is abolished and with it most of the adminis-trative restrictions on Jews’ rights.

Parliament passes a resolution which - in essence - means that the Swedish Jews are granted full civil rights.

Large immigration of East European Jews, mainly from Russia as a result of severe pogroms.The number of Jews in Sweden increases from about 3.000 to 6.500 people.

The Nazis seize power in Germany. Of those Jews who flee, however, only a small number find their way to Sweden.

Restrictive rules are introduced for permits to settle in Sweden. As far as the increasing number of Jewish immigrants are concerned this means that they are rejected if they can be suspected of having permanently abandoned their home country.

About half the Norwegian Jewry manage to flee to Sweden away the Nazi terror regime.

Almost the whole of the Danish Jewish community flees to Sweden.

From the Nazi concentration camps about 10.000 Jews are rescued to Sweden, most of them women, through the agency of the Swedish Red Cross and the American aid organisation UNRRA. About a third of the rescued people stay on in Sweden.

The State of Israel is founded.

Parliament passes a law on religious freedom. The law implies that the Jewish Congregations are free associations; no Jew need belong to a Jewish congregation.

Immigration of Jews from Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Poland in connection with political upheavals in these countries - totalling about 3.500 people.

The Jewish community in Sweden is estimated at 18.000 people.