Paper short abstract:

The study presents the narratives of Jews from the former USSR prior to and after their migration to Finland. Its specific focus is on the antisemitism they have experienced in the Soviet Union as opposed to the prejudices they encountered in Finland.

Paper long abstract:

Finland is often regarded as one of the world’s most secularied countries even though the biggest percentage of its population belongs to the historically dominant Lutheran church. The local Jewish minority, numbering approximately 1500 people organized into three communities - two Modern Orthodox and a newly established Reform community. The local Jewish communities are among the few countries in Europe with a surviving East European (Litvak) Jewish community post-Holocaust. The rapidly increasing diversity of Finland is present in its Jewish community too, where the blend of different traditions, religious views, languages and nationalities is colorful. Part of the diversity of the local congregations stems in the migration of Jews from the former Soviet Union, who started to join the two Modern Orthodox congregations in the 1990s. This study presents their narratives on religious practices pre- and post-migration, with a specific focus on the antisemitism they have experienced in the Soviet Union as opposed to the prejudices they encountered in Finland. The study is based interviews conducted with Russian Jews in 2019-20 as part of the data collection of the Minhag Finland Project.