Judaism in Finland

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The Judaism is in Finland a numerically small minority. The country's two Jewish communities have a total of around 1,500 members. Finnish Jews are mostly descendants of Russian soldiers who stayed in Finland in the 19th century after their service term ended.

The Turku Synagogue

Position in society

Of the 1,500 Finnish Jews, 1,200 live in Helsinki and 200 in Turku . There are also the only two synagogues in the country, both Ashkenazi - orthodox are. There is also a Jewish school in Helsinki. Before the Second World War there was a Jewish community in the then Finnish city of Viipuri , the Jewish community in Tampere existed until 1981.

Finnish Jews are fully integrated into society. Traditionally, the Swedish language is widely spoken among Finnish Jews; today they mostly speak both Swedish and Finnish fluently. In the past, a north-eastern dialect of Yiddish was the common language, but now it is only spoken by a few elderly people.

history

In the 19th century

In the period until 1809, when Finland was part of Sweden , Jews were only allowed to settle in certain parts of Sweden; the area of ​​today's Finland was not one of them. In the so-called Old Finland , the areas of Finland that fell to Russia in 1721 and 1743 , isolated Jewish families settled in the 18th century.

When all of Finland became a Grand Duchy under Russian rule in 1809 , Swedish laws remained in force, so that the ban on Jews from settling in Finland initially continued. In the course of the 19th century, Jewish cantons , i.e. forced recruits, came to Finland as part of the Russian army . At the end of 1819, the Hep-Hep riots from Germany reached Helsinki, where only a few Jews were staying. The first Jewish prayer house was built in 1830 on the fortress island of Sveaborg (today Suomenlinna ) off Helsinki, the first synagogue in 1870.

In 1858, Tsar Alexander II allowed all retired soldiers to stay at the place of their military service. So it happened that around 500 Jews lived in Finland at the beginning of the 1870s. The Finnish Reichstag and the Finnish Senate were more hostile to the Jews because they were skeptical of Russian influence in the country. As a compromise, in 1889 the Jews who were already resident were granted a residence permit under strict conditions. Within Finland they were only allowed to move to the cities of Helsinki and Viipuri and only work in certain professions, primarily clothing. The immigration of new Jews to Finland was prohibited.

In the 20th century

The Jews only received civil rights after Finnish independence in 1917. The law came into force in 1918, making Finland the penultimate country in Europe, ahead of Romania, to grant the Jews civil rights. The number of Jews in Finland rose to around 2,000 due to the influx of Russian Jews who fled the October Revolution . In the 1930s, radical right-wing forces such as the Lapua movement occasionally tried to stir up anti-Semitic prejudices; the Jews in independent Finland were systematic anti-Semitism but never exposed.

Paradoxically, even at the time of the German-Finnish "Brotherhood of Arms", more than 300 Jews fought in Finnish associations, many of them doctors in the medical service, sometimes side by side with Waffen SS associations. Two of them, Salomon Klass and Leo Skurnik, were even awarded the Iron Cross by the German side , but both refused the honor. In the Continuation War , when Finland fought alongside National Socialist Germany against the Soviet Union, there was a field synagogue for the Jews fighting on the Finnish side, and on Independence Day in 1944, Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim paid a visit to the Helsinki synagogue and walked an honor guard of Jewish people Veterans. A rabbi was also provided to take care of Jewish Red Army soldiers who had become prisoners of war in Finland. The prisoners of war, who are often obliged to do forced labor in Finnish agriculture, also received food allowances from the Helsinki and Stockholm communities.

Demographics

year 1919 1928 1937 1950 1960 1965 1976 1999
number 2000 1745 1755 1800 1900 1500 1200 1100
Total population 3,300,000 2,810,592 3,834,662 3,958,000 4,376,000 4,635,000 4,779,000 5,200,000
Percentage ownership % 0.06 0.06 0.05 0.045 0.04 0.03 0.02 0.02

Source:

people

Persons of Finnish Jewish descent or Jewish persons with a connection to Finland are:

Surname birth country death country
Kim Hirschovits 1982 Finland, Helsinki Ice hockey player
Max Jakobson 1923 Finland, Vyborg 2013 Finland, Helsinki Diplomat and politician
Daniel Katz 1938 Finland, Helsinki writer
Elias Katz 1901 Finland, Turku 1947 League of Nations mandate for Palestine Track and field athlete
Roni Porokara 1983 Finland, Helsinki Soccer player
Benjamin B. Rubinstein 1905 Finland, Helsinki 1989 United States Mediciners
Marion Rung 1945 Finland, Helsinki Pop singer
Mauritz Stiller 1883 Finland, Helsinki 1928 Sweden Director and screenwriter
Abraham Tokazier 1909 Finland, Helsinki 1976 Sweden Track and field athlete
Abraham Werner 1837 Lithuania 1912 United Kingdom Grand Rabbi
Ben Zyskowicz 1954 Finland, Helsinki MPs

Chief Rabbi

The list contains a list of the chief rabbis of Finland: → States in Europe under Finland.

literature

  • Juha Pentikäinen: Judaism. In: Olli Alho (Hrsg.): Kulturlexikon Finland. (P. 156 f.) Finnish Literature Society, Helsinki 1998, ISBN 951-746-032-5 .
  • Tapani Harviainen: Suomen juutalaiset. In: Markku Löytönen, Laura Kolbe (Ed.): Suomi - Maa, kansa, kulttuurit. (Pp. 333–343) Finnish Literature Society, Helsinki 1999, ISBN 951-746-041-4 (Finnish).

Web links

Commons : Judaism in Finland  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hannu Rautkallio: Cast into the Lion's Den ': Finnish Jewish Soldiers in the Second World War. In: Journal of Contemporary History 29: 1. S. 59 ff.
  2. ^ [1] American Jewish Year Book on AJC, English, accessed on August 5, 2018