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JEWISH HERITAGE EUROPE
An Online Resource Centre
FINLAND
Helsinki
Hameenlinna [HÄmeenlinna]
Tampere
Turku/Abo [Åbo]
The Jewish community of Finland is small, its history relatively recent. Jews were only allowed to enter what is now Finland during the first half of the 19th century, and they only achieved civil rights in the 20th.
The territory that is now Finland was until 1809 part of the Swedish Kingdom, where Jews were allowed to settle in only three centres - none of which were within the boundaries of modern Finland. Swedish law remained in place even after Finland was absorbed into the Russian Empire. Some Jews, however, came to Finland as Russian soldiers (so-called 'Cantonists'), and these men and their families were allowed to stay temporarily in Finland after their discharge following 25 years of service. By the end of the 19th century other Jews had been given special status and allowed to reside there, too; but usually only for limited periods and in specified places. By the end of the 1880s there were about a thousand Jews living in Finland.
Only when Finland attained independence in 1917 did Jews receive civil rights. On 22 December 1917, Parliament approved an Act - promulgated on 12 January 1918 - concerning 'Mosaic Confessors'. Under the Act, Jews could for the first time become Finnish nationals, while Jews not possessing Finnish nationality would be treated equally to other foreigners in the eyes of the law.
In the period leading up to the Second World War, there were about 2,000 Jews in Finland. This increase in population was mainly due to immigration from Soviet Russia after the Russian Revolution. During the Finnish-Russian War of 1939-40 (the 'Winter War'), Finnish Jews fought alongside their non-Jewish fellow countrymen. During the Finnish-Russian War of 1941-44, in which Finnish Jews also took part, Finland and Nazi Germany were co-belligerents. Despite strong German pressure, the Finnish Government refused to take action against Finnish nationals of Jewish origin: Finnish Jews continued to enjoy full civil rights throughout the War. On only one occasion did Finns allow the deportation of Jewish refugees from Austria and the Baltic countries, and this was stopped after the first eleven Jews were deported and murdered.
Today, there are about 1,500 Jews in Finland, of whom about 1,200 live in Helsinki, about 200 in Turku, and about 50 in Tampere. Helsinki and Turku have organized religious communities that use synagogues built in the early 20th century. The Jewish community of Tampere discontinued its activities in 1981. These communities are members of the Central Council of Jewish Communities in Finland, a consultative body dealing with matters of general interest concerning Finnish Jews.
This impressive synagogue was designed by the Finnish architect Jac Ahrenberg and built in 1906. It was renovated and enlarged in 1926. It is a white building surrounded by a fence, its Byzantine-style cupola a Helsinki landmark. The main façade is articulated by three two-storey windows flanked by rows of circular windows. On the front wall is the inscription from Proverbs 4:2: 'For I give you good instruction; do not forsake my teaching'. The main sanctuary, located on the first floor above ground level of the building, is a relatively austere rectangular room with elevated side galleries. It culminates in a high decorative 'triumphal arch' which spans the Ark. Set over the Ark, within the arch, is a tall Decalogue, flanked by lions and surmounted by a crown. The synagogue seats six hundred in wooden, straight-backed pews surrounding a central Bimah. A library was added at the time of the 1926 enlargement. The congregation is one of the few in Scandinavia holding daily services.
The Jewish Community Centre is the heart of Finland's Jewish community. Located next to the synagogue, it was built in 1967. Facilities include an Old Peoples' home, an auditorium, meeting rooms, and a Mikveh. The Helsinki Jewish community sponsors a day school here, continuing a tradition that goes back to 1918.
A wide range of Jewish organisations meet at the Community Centre, one of which is the oldest existing Maccabi sports club in Europe. Pictures of the club's most famous athletes adorn the walls of its club room. The community also publishes a bi-monthly magazine called Ha'Kehila.
The synagogue preserves a wreath presented by Field Marshall Carl G. Mannerheim, President of Finland from 1944-46, in 1944. The wreath memorialized the 23 Jewish soldiers who died in the Finnish-Russian War. There is also a sculpture by Harri Kivijarvi and Sam Vanni commemorating the martyrs of the Second World War.
Services take place Monday to Friday at 7:45am; Friday at 6:45pm and Sunday at 9am. They follow Orthodox Lithuanian ritual.
Address
Malminkantu 26
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pinelife/140281371/in/photostream/
Eric Adler has transcribed 1,282 names from the headstones in the Helsinki Jewish Cemetery in September 2000. The information is now in the Online World Burial Registry (OWBR) format and been submitted to that database:
http://www.geocities.com/eladler/helsinki.htm. The material does not include burials in Helsinki's old Jewish cemetery. For more information, contact Eric Adler at eladler@yahoo.com.
Helsinki University Library contains an important collection of documents relating to Jewish history in Finland. The Slavonic Library also houses a remarkable collection including many 19th- and early 20th-century Jewish publications, including encyclopedias, magazines, almanacs, and music, mostly in Russian.
Helsinki University Library
Slavonic Library
Rikhardinkatu 3
Neitsytpolku 1b
http://www.lib.helsinki.fi/english/services/collections/hebraicaeng.htm
The Old Cemetery is reputed to have graves of Russian Jewish soldiers, with the earliest tombstones dating from 1835.
A small community centre serves this Jewish community of fewer than two dozen people.
Address
Nasilinnankatu 38
The two-storey, domed, brick building has - like that in Helsinki - a distinctive cupola that can be seen from a distance. Built in 1912, the structure mixes Byzantine and Art Nouveau styles. The exterior is white with an ivory trim. The main prayer hall upstairs, now white with blue trim, has pillars and pews decorated in an Art Nouveau style. The display downstairs includes a Talmud printed in Vilna in 1885, photos of the committee that built the synagogue, a scroll listing the 23 Finnish Jews killed in World War One, and an award from President Mannerheim to Jewish mothers who lost their sons.
The adjoining community centre was erected in 1956. Several hundred Jews support it. The community maintains a Burial Society, a Bikur Cholim society, and a Maccabi Sports Club. Talmud Torah classes are also held there.
Address
Brahenkatu 17
The Jewish cemetery is hidden behind a high stone wall with iron gates, standing in the midst of hundreds of Lutheran burial plots. In 1993, in a rare occurrence in Finland, vandals overturned 125 gravestones there.
Eric Adler transcribed information (326 names) directly from the headstones in the Turku Jewish Cemetery in September 2000. His material is in the Online World Burial Registry (OWBR) format and has been submitted to that database:
http://www.geocities.com/eladler/turku.htm.
For more information, contact Eric Adler at eladler@yahoo.com.
In the heart of old Turku are two libraries of Jewish interest. The Institutum Judaicum of the Faculty of Theology at Åbo Akademi University pursues research on topics relating to Jewish religion and culture, and houses a Judaica Library. The Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History Steiner Memorial Library has the largest collection relating to comparative religion in the Nordic countries.
Address
Website
The Donner Institute for Research in Religious and Cultural History
Opening hours
Monday to Friday, 9am to 4pm; closed in July
Address
Email
Website
Biskopsgatan 13
20500 Åbo (Turku)
Or (post box):
20501 Åbo
donner.institute@abo.fi
http://www.abo.fi/
Address
Website
Address
Website
Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 6, 1295-1299
Frank, Ben G.
A Travel Guide to Jewish Europe: Second Edition, Gretna: Pelican, 1996.
Freedman, Warren.
World Guide for the Jewish Traveller (New York, 1984).
International Jewish Cemetery Project:
http://www.jewishgen.org/cemetery/w-europe/finland.html
Jewish Community of Helsinki, 'A Short History of the Finnish Jewry' online at:
http://www.jchelsinki.fi/english/community.htm
Medovy, George, 'Nordic Tracks - through storybook Finland: Endless lakes, endless summer nights & 1,400 hardy Jews,'
Jewish World (27 January-2 February 1995).
Tigay, Alan M.
The Jewish Traveller. Northvale: Jason Aronson Incorporated, 1994.
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