05 September 2006
Finland has marked the 100th anniversary of the Helsinki synagogue. Sunday’s celebration, led by the Jewish community, was attended by the country's president Tarja Halonen, parliament speaker Paavo Lipponen and Israel’s tourism minister Isaac Herzog. The synagogue is the seat of the capital’s 1,200 Jews; an estimated 600 more live outside of Helsinki. Jewish community's president Gideon Bolotovsky said representatives of the Finnish Catholic church and the small Islamic community took part in the festivities as well. "This proves that dialogue between different religions works on a very practical level in this country," Bolotovsky told the local YLE radio, stressing the tolerant religious atmosphere in the Nordic nation of 5.2 million, which is predominantly Lutheran. A large part of Finland's Jews are descendants of soldiers who served in the Russian army in Finland in the mid-19th century, when Finland was an autonomous grand duchy of the Russian empire. The soldiers eventually gained the right to settle in Finland and created basis for the Jewish community, establishing a synagogue in Helsinki in 1906. When Finland became independent in 1917, Jews were given full civil rights. During World War II, Jews served along with Finns in the national army, fighting aggressions from both the Soviet Union and, later, Nazi Germany. Despite repeated pleas from one-time ally Germany, the Finnish government refused to take action against Jews or deprive their civil rights during the war.