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“The Customs of Our Ancestors Are in Our Hands” Negotiating Tradition and Change in the Jewish Communities in Finland
Author(s): Muir, Simo; Tuori, Riikka
Date: 2024
Topics: Jewish Identity, Religious Observance and Practice, Religious Belief, Baal Teshuvah, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: The Jewish community of Finland represents a continuum of Eastern European Ashkenazic Orthodoxy that survived the Shoah intact. During recent decades there have been significant changes in the demography of the local congregations, and these changes have influenced the religiosity of the members: while secularism and indifference to religion have grown, many members have turned toward stricter observance of Halakhah. This article looks at these changes and how the informants relate themselves to the customs of past generations in their everyday lives by means of an analytic model developed in the study of vernacular religion.
Turn to Traditions – Calls for Change: Negotiations over Liturgy in the Synagogues of Finland
Author(s): Muir, Simo; Illman, Ruth; Tuori, Riikka
Date: 2023
Topics: Jewish Music, Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Synagogues, Religious Observance and Practice, Liturgy
Abstract: This article explores how Jews in Finland relate to the musical traditions of their synagogues and the changes that have occurred in the customs over time and as the result of various cultural and spiritual influences. Based on ethnographic data, it focuses on rituals, liturgy, and music as contexts for negotiating relationships between the institution and the individual, memory practices, and contemporary innovation – being and doing Jewish, to use concepts from the vernacular religion framework. The article outlines the historical development of Minhag Finland, the vernacular liturgical customs. It concludes that the “turn to traditions” should be stated in the plural, as several Jewish customs, cultures, and context are engaged in the negotiations around liturgy. This is not just a way to freeze time and preserve the status quo. Instead, seeking for meaningful models in the past paves the way for change – especially when turning toward a broad range of traditions.
The Study of Antisemitism in Finland Past, Present, and Future
Author(s): Ahonen, Paavo; Muir, Simo; Silvennoinen, Oula
Editor(s): Adams, Jonathan; Hess, Cordelia
Date: 2019
Topics: Antisemitism, Main Topic: Antisemitism, Holocaust, Memory
Abstract: Finland’s vulnerable postwar position impacted interpretations of its wartime history. This is likely the reason why the study of antisemitism was marginal or almost non-existent in twentieth-century Finland. The lack of research led to a widespread view that antisemitism was a marginal phenomenon in Finnish society, both before and during the Second World War. In the last twenty years there have been a growing number of studies making it clear that this was not the case - Finland was no exception when it came to antisemitism. This article will present the history of the study of antisemitism in Finland from three different vantage points: (1) fascism and the Holocaust, (2) religion and the Church, and (3) from the perspective of Finnish Jews, via several case studies of latent antisemitism.
Arjessa eletty uskonto: Suomen juutalaisten muistitietoa keräämässä
Translated Title: Religion lived in everyday life: Collecting memories of Finnish Jews
Author(s): Tuori, Riikka; Muir, Simo; Illman, Ruth
Editor(s): Savolainen, Ulla; Taavetti, Riikka
Date: 2022
Topics: Interviews, Oral History and Biography, Memory, Religious Observance and Practice, Main Topic: Other
Linguistic, cultural and history-related studies on jews in finland: a look into the scholarship in the twenty-first century
Author(s): Ekholm, Laura Katarina; Muir, Simo; Silvennoinen, Oula
Date: 2016
Topics: Jewish Community, Jewish History, Jewish Studies, Bibliography and Literature Reviews, Main Topic: Culture and Heritage
Abstract: There has been a significant growth in volume and disciplines working on Jewish history and culture in Finland for the past fifteen years, yet no systematic overview of scholarly efforts have been available. This article aims to fill this gap. Our focus is on the disciplines of linguistics, cultural studies and history. Our overview covers monographs and articles that have appeared in academic publications since 2000, with a focus on Finland. Consequently we have left out Finnish research on Jews in other parts of the globe from our review. About half of the works introduced in this article have been published in Finnish and will now be briefly introduced to a wider Nordic scholarly community. The article consists of four parts. First we discuss Jewish studies and social history pursued in Finland. We then discuss studies focusing on antisemitism in Finland. The third part introduces the relevant literature on Finland’s role in the Second World War and its responsibility towards the conflict’s Jewish refugees and prisoners of war, after which studies on Finnish history culture and memory politics are presented. The final part presents biographies and general studies about the Jewish community in Finland.
Jiddišistä ruotsin kautta suomeen: Helsingin juutalaisten kielenvaihdoista ja etnolekteistä
Translated Title: From Yiddish via Swedish to Finnish: On the language shifts and ethnolects of the Jewish community in Helsinki
Author(s): Muir, Simo
Date: 2009
Topics: Yiddish, Language, Theatre, Humour, Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Linguistics
Abstract: Artikkelin tarkoituksena on kuvata sosiolingvistisestä näkökulmasta Helsingin juutalaisten kontakteja ja kielenvaihtoja ja analysoida joitakin juutalaisten etnolektisen puheen ilmiöitä. Artikkeli tarkastelee tätä kenttää etnolektin yleisten määritelmien sekä jiddišinjälkeisen juutalaisen etnolektin (Post-Yiddish Jewish Ethnolect) käsitteen valossa.

Artikkelin ensimmäinen osa tarkastelee Helsingin juutalaisen yhteisön muodostumista, juutalaisen yhteisön monikielisyyttä ja yhteisössä tapahtuneita kielenvaihtoja jiddiaistä ruotsin kautta suomeen. Myös venäjän, saksan ja (nyky)heprean kielellä on on ollut roolinsa yhteisön monikielisyydessä. Vastoin yleistä käsitystä, Helsingin juutalainen yhteisö säilytti jiddišin kielen verrattain pitkään ruotsin ja suomen rinnalla. Jiddišin kielellä oli tärkeä sija kulttuurielämässä sekä uskonnollisessa toiminnassa. Artikkeli pohtii myös eri tekijöitä, jotka johtivat lopulta jiddišin kielen syrjäytymiseen.

Artikkelin toinen osa tarkastelee lehdissä ja juutalaisissa revyyteksteissä esiintyviä vanhan juutalaisruotsin ja juutalaissuomen parodioita. Nämä osoittavat omalta osaltaan, että valtaväestöllä oli selvä kuva siitä, mitkä olivat juutalaisruotsin tai juutalaissuomen ominaispiirteet ja että Helsingin juutalaisten kielelliseen repertoaariin kuului jiddišinvaikutteinen varieteetti. Myös tänä päivänä on havaittavissa ryhmänsisäisessä kanssakäymisessä niin ruotsin kuin suomenkin kielessä erityinen etnolektinen rekisteri, jota voidaan käyttää tunnusmerkkisissä tilanteissa (marked situations). Tämä etnolektinen rekisteri esiintyy erityisesti tilanteissa, joissa etnisen ryhmäidentiteetin rooli on keskeinen. Artikkeli tarkastelee ilmiötä kirjallisten ja suullisten lähteiden avulla ja tuo esille sen keskeisiä piirteitä.
Yiddish in Helsinki and its Swedish Component
Author(s): Muir, Simo
Date: 2000
Topics: Yiddish, Language, Main Topic: Culture and Heritage
Abstract: Yiddish has been spoken in Helsinki since 1850s when the Jewish Cantonist soldiers and their families were allowed to settle in the town. The first generations born in Helsinki had the possibility to attend heders and a Talmud-torah where religious subjects were conducted in Yiddish. In the wake of Yiddishizm many Yiddish-speaking societies were founded before and after the First World War. My research attempts an analysis of Helsinki Yiddish and a survey of Yiddish culture in Helsinki. The material used for this paper comprises both written and oral stories. Most Yiddish speakers in Helsinki have been bilingual. The over hundred years of coexistence with Finnish-Swedish has given Helsinki Yiddish its own distinctive character, which deserves to be recorded and studied. Especially unique is the interference of Swedish morphology with its peculiarities.
Jiddišistä suomenjuutalaisten etnolektiksi
Author(s): Muir, Simo
Editor(s): Granqvist, Kimmo; Rainò, Päivi
Date: 2012
Topics: Yiddish, Language, Main Topic: Culture and Heritage, Linguistics
Yiddish in Helsinki. Study of a Colonial Yiddish. Dialect and Culture
Author(s): Muir, Simo
Date: 2004
Topics: Yiddish, Jewish History, Interviews, Main Topic: Culture and Heritage
Abstract: This dissertation concentrates on various aspects of the Yiddish dialect and culture in Helsinki. The monograph is divided into two main parts: Historical and Sociolinguistic Perspectives and Linguistic Study. The aims of the first part are to investigate the origin of Helsinki Jewry and their Yiddish and the manifestations of Yiddish in the social and cultural life of the community. The period of time dealt with in this study spans from the first heders of 1860s to the Yiddish articles in the Jewish press of Helsinki in the mid-1950s. The linguistic part of this study investigates the relation of Helsinki Yiddish to Yiddish dialects, chiefly North-Eastern Yiddish sub-dialects, and the way in which the co-territorial languages, i.e. Finland Swedish, Finnish, Russian and Baltic German, influenced the local variant of Yiddish. The general description of the dialect has been compiled on the basis of information gathered from interviews conducted during field-work in Helsinki and Turku.