Finland's Jewish community has strongly denied media reports that one of its security officers had advised Jews in the capital Helsinki not to wear Jewish headgear in public for fear of anti-Semitic attacks.
A Jewish security official who had allegedly said in an interview that community members should not wear a kippah when walking in the streets due to the rise of anti-Semitic attacks in the area had been misquoted, Dan Kantor, executive director of the Helsinki Jewish Community, told the World Jewish Congress. He made it clear that the story was false and that there was "no reason" to give such an advise.
The Israeli news service 'YNet' and other media had reported about the issue.
Around 1,500 Jews live in Finland today, most of them in the capital Helsinki. Kantor said that of the estimated 1,200 Jews in Helsink "only a very small number wear a yarmulke in public and those who do so have not experienced any hatred or similar expression of anti-Semitism."