The Northernmost Outpost: Kurt Wilhelm and the Wissenschaft des Judentums after the Holocaust

Abstract

This article examines the efforts of Kurt Wilhelm (1900–1965), Chief Rabbi of Stockholm from 1948 until his death in 1965, to interpret and advance the intellectual legacy of the Wissenschaft des Judentums in post-Holocaust Sweden. Wilhelm’s time in Sweden sheds light on both the possibilities and constraints of rebuilding German-Jewish scholarly and religious life after the Holocaust. In an attempt to preserve and transmit this tradition, Wilhelm trained and mentored a new generation of Jewish leaders, delivered sermons and public lectures, wrote extensively, and organized study groups and educational initiatives. These undertakings were made possible, at least in part, by Sweden’s relatively undamaged social and communal infrastructure following the Second World War, as well as by the earlier influence of German-Jewish intellectuals in Sweden. By highlighting neutral Sweden as a significant yet largely overlooked European site of Jewish intellectual rearticulation after the Holocaust, the article challenges the existing narrative that primarily locates the post-Holocaust continuation of the Wissenschaft des Judentums in Israel and the United States.