Barbara Spectre returned to Stockholm in 2025 at the center of a milestone unlike any other: the 25th anniversary of Paideia – The Institute for Jewish Studies in Sweden – unfolding during Stockholm’s commemoration of 250 years of Jewish life. That two such anniversaries aligned in one city, in one week, was more than symbolic. It was a rare moment of convergence between history and vision, a celebration of Jewish life that looked simultaneously backward and forward, both grounded and expansive. Over the course of three days, May 5–7, alumni, scholars, and leaders from more than 25 countries gathered to honor the legacy of Barbara Spectre and the enduring role of Paideia in shaping contemporary Jewish cultural life across Europe and beyond.
From its founding in 2000, Paideia has represented a bold experiment in pluralistic Jewish education. Rooted in the study of classical texts yet explicitly engaged with the questions and urgencies of modern Europe, the institute took shape through Barbara Spectre’s conviction that Jewish learning must be both deeply rigorous and openly accessible. Over the past two and a half decades, Paideia has educated almost 900 alumni from more than 40 countries who now lead, teach, build, and inspire communities across the continent. The 2025 Alumni Conference was a vivid display of that legacy, a homecoming of minds and voices shaped by shared study and nourished by ongoing collaboration.
The academic theme for the 2025 conference, “Living with Difference: Jewish Paradigms,” resonated deeply across the week’s lectures, discussions, and reflections. With democratic values under pressure in many countries, and pluralism itself increasingly contested, the conference invited participants to turn to Jewish tradition for intellectual and ethical frameworks. Through Talmudic sources, modern philosophy, literature, ritual, and personal narrative, presenters engaged with the tension between truth and peace, between unity and diversity, between memory and change.
The keynote address by renowned scholar Prof. Moshe Halbertal set the tone, examining how Jewish thought has historically balanced disagreement and cohesion, rigor and compassion. Throughout the three days, sessions returned to this tension in different forms—how diaspora communities construct belonging; how Jewish texts contend with civic difference; how intergenerational memory shapes moral identity in the aftermath of rupture. The discussions were not only academic. They were grounded in the real-time experiences of Paideia alumni who live and work in conflict-affected regions, in towns rediscovering Jewish roots, in schools navigating complex histories, and in synagogues where tradition meets reinvention.
What emerged was a portrait of Jewish life not in crisis but in motion. While many acknowledged the challenges of antisemitism, marginalization, and communal fatigue, what dominated the conversations was creativity—about how to teach, how to commemorate, how to build institutions, and how to dream. The idea that difference is not something to be managed or erased but something to be inhabited, became not just the subject of the conference but its practice.
One of the most celebrated components of the conference was the Alumni Project Marketplace, where dozens of participants presented ongoing initiatives in education, cultural memory, artistic expression, and spiritual life. The format encouraged not only the showcasing of ideas, but their testing and refinement in a collaborative environment. What united these projects was not a single ideology or method, but a shared impulse to make Jewish thought active in the world.
Some alumni shared educational models developed in public schools to challenge antisemitism and foster empathy. Others brought work rooted in heritage preservation, from memory walks in post-Soviet cities to oral history archives. One alumnus explored synagogue design as a spiritual architecture of welcome. Another detailed a theater-based curriculum for engaging young adults with biblical texts through improvisation and movement. In each case, the work reflected not only the passion of its creator, but the intellectual habits formed at Paideia—habits of inquiry, care, and ethical responsibility.
The international character of the alumni was unmistakable. Presenters came from Scandinavia, the Balkans, Germany, the UK, Italy, Ukraine, and beyond. Their projects, while grounded in local needs, carried cross-border relevance, generating a sense of continental collaboration that is at the very heart of Paideia. The Marketplace didn’t feel like a retrospective of what alumni had accomplished—it felt like a workshop for what Jewish Europe could become next.
As the epicenter of Jewish life in Sweden, Stockholm was the natural selection for the 2025 Paideia Alumni Conference as well. As the site of Sweden’s first formally recognized Jewish community in 1775 and the birthplace of Paideia in 2000, the City of Stockholm partnered with Paideia in organizing a week of cultural events, academic sessions, public exhibits, and civic reflections on Jewish life. The academic conference, anchored at Paideia, was at the center of it all—drawing not only alumni and scholars, but civic leaders and cultural stakeholders from across Sweden and beyond.
Barbara Spectre’s vision for Paideia was always about more than education in the narrow sense. It was about civic participation—about the idea that Jewish culture, when nurtured, could enrich the whole society around it. That vision was palpable throughout the week, as guests from across sectors gathered to explore how Jewish intellectual and spiritual traditions intersect with democracy, inclusion, and cultural life.
A celebratory reception on Tuesday, May 6, provided a moment for formal reflection and renewed commitment. It brought together alumni, city officials, partners, and key European dignitaries such as Jan Eliasson (former Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations), Göran Persson (former Prime Minister of Sweden), and Katarina von Schnurbein (EU Commission Coordinator). Their remarks acknowledged not only the importance of Jewish life in Europe but the role that Paideia and Barbara Spectre have played in placing Stockholm on the map as a European center of Jewish scholarship and leadership. The reception was not merely ceremonial—it was a space where gratitude and future commitments were shared in equal measure.
Sweden has recently launched a governmental inquiry into a new strategy to support Jewish life from 2025–2034. The Paideia conference directly contributed to that process, not only by surfacing challenges but by offering working models of success. From alumni who are revitalizing small-town Jewish communities to those leading transnational arts festivals, developing new educational materials, or coordinating cross-denominational partnerships, the strategy discussions are rooted in lived practice.
Paideia itself, with its alumni association, Project-Incubator, and pan-European reach, has become a vital platform for sustaining Jewish continuity in an age of disconnection and change. By fostering culturally rooted, community-oriented leadership, the institute offers a model that adapts to local needs while remaining globally connected—an approach that has proven both scalable and enduring.
And at the center of it all remains Barbara Spectre. Her founding presence shaped not just the curriculum, but the ethos. She was not merely honored during the week’s events; she was referenced again and again in testimonials, speeches, and private conversations. Her insistence on intellectual seriousness, her embrace of difficult questions, and her unwavering belief that Jewish life in Europe could and should thrive again—these were foundational to the genesis of Paideia and will sustain its gravitational force going forward.
As the final sessions concluded and the corridors of the conference hall began to empty, what remained was not ceremony but momentum. The gathering had been more than a commemoration—it was a working platform for the future of Jewish culture and education in Europe. Participants returned to their cities and communities with new partnerships in motion, new ideas sparked, and shared strategies for navigating both continuity and change.
Barbara Spectre’s presence throughout the week underscored the enduring relevance of the institution she helped found. Her vision for Jewish learning—one that invites complexity, encourages dialogue, and insists on ethical engagement and social activism—was not simply referenced but in evidence and actively demonstrated by the alumni and scholars at the heart of the event.
The conversations that took place in Stockholm—on pedagogy, memory, tradition, and public life—are already being taken up elsewhere. And Paideia, now 25 years strong, continues to serve as both a point of return and a launching ground.
Barbara Spectre’s work has shaped a generation of Jewish thinkers and practitioners who understand that the task ahead is not preservation alone—but innovation, responsibility, and renewal. And that work continues.
