Quote Originally Posted by HoreTore View Post
Because, jews.

It's rather hilarious that some people believe that people who have been in the country for a century counts as 'foreign'. The majority of the Swedish jewry(excluding some recent arrivals) are as Swedish as anyone else. And like all other Swedes, they are mostly secular and non-religious. For most, the only association to Judaism is a grandpa with a holocaust story and some slight alterations to holidays.
I'm going to take a punt at this, just for fun.

What's odd about Swedish Jews?

How about that they're still recognised as Jews, even if non-religious?

Ed Milliband makes a lot of being Jewish, despite being an Atheist, and has said that if he wins the election he will be Britain's "first Jewish Prime Minister". This begs the question of why Disraeli wasn't Britain's first Jewish Prime Minister - he was a Christian and Milliband is an Atheist.

So what gives?

I personally think that what gives is that Jewish identity is more robust than pretty much ANYTHING else, that's why Jews get persecuted throughout history - they refuse to stop being Jewish. Now - if you consider that from a political standpoint, given that Jews everywhere insist on being Jews (which is fine) then you can see why they might be perceived to have divided loyalties.

Bear in mind that, historically, the same was thought of Catholics - but Catholics have mellowed a lot since JFk. Roma would be another example of the phenomenon (and it's still popular to hate them).