The Stockholm Jewish Community By Lena Posner-Körösi September 24, 2009 Lena Posner- Körösi was a Fellow at the 2nd Nahum Goldmann Fellowship in 1989 held in Carmel College (near London) in England, and at the 7th Fellowship at Glamsta, Sweden in 1997. She also participated in several Nahum Goldmann Fellowships in Glamsta as president of the host community. A psychologist who founded and heads a marketing and organizational management consulting firm in Stockholm, Sweden, Lena is married and has two sons. She attended a one-year eduational program in Israel in 1977 with the support of the Memorial Foundation. Lena will take part in the upcoming European Nahum Goldmann Fellowship in Croatia with other Fellowship alumni representing the leadership of their respective communities.

I was born in Sweden. My farther immigrated to Sweden from Germany in 1939. My mother was born in Sweden from parents of Russian origin who arrived in Sweden in 1906.

In 1999, I was elected president of the Stockholm Jewish Community and of the Central Council of Jewish Communities in Sweden, the first woman ever to hold those official posts. It is a lay position which during the past ten years has been both inspiring and challenging. I also serve as Vice-President of the European Council of Jewish Communities, a member of the Executive of European Jewish Congress as well as a co-Chairperson of the Committee for Youth, Leadership and Continuity of this organization.

Sweden has approximately 20,000 Jews. The Stockholm Jewish Community is the largest of the communities in Sweden. It reaches out to Jewish families, providing Jewish education, both formal and informal. I firmly believe that Jewish education is the key to strengthening and enriching Jewish life in Sweden. In 2000, I helped establish Paideia, the European Institute of Jewish Studies in Sweden.

It has been important for me that all our activities and institutions in the Swedish Jewish community are of the highest professional quality. We compete with so much in the general society that we cannot afford not to provide the best in Jewish services, whether it is in education, social activities or cultural programs.

We manage activities for five hundred children and counsellors every summer, and for families and for seniors at our summer camp facilities Glämsta, which celebrates 100 years this year. Many of you will recall that Glämsta was the site of the several Nahum Goldmann Fellowships.

The success of the Holocaust education program in Sweden as well as the establishment of Paideia, the European Institute of Jewish Studies in Stockholm, is the result of our good relations with the Swedish government.

Respect and courage are values I have tried to embrace in my leadership position both in contact with other Jews, as well as with politicians and the media throughout the years of my service for the Swedish Jewish community.