Helsinki

August 18, 2006- Foreign Birthday
(photos:Rug washing,
Synagogue)

Today is David’s birthday. He has celebrated it all over the world since we tend to travel during the summer. I asked Yves if he could get a little something for the occasion. He had the hotel send two pieces of cake with candles and a bud vase of flowers to our room. We were on our own for lunch and dinner so there was no opportunity to share with the group. Those of you who know about our trip to S. America know how David wanted to see Lake Titicaca because he liked to say the name of it. The card I got him said, “See? There really is a Lake Titicaca! Happy birthday to a suave and sophisticated guy.”

About Suome?

Christina led our morning city tour. Yves was along for color. Just when we thought we had a handle on things he told us that Finland in Finnish is Suome. Christina pointed out that there’s nothing old in Finland. It was established in 1550 and although it had a fondness for art nouveau architecture it now has a love affair with modern. It was convenient to transition from style to style since they seem to have a major fire every century. The population is 560,000 but it seems more cosmopolitan. Greater Akron is the same size. Because there are two official languages there are two theaters. One is Swedish and one Finnish.

There are only 1500 Jews and 1000 Moslems in Finland. Religious studies are compulsory in school but if your religion is not represented you may study privately. Comparative religion is also offered. Pre-school through grade nine is free. After that there is a charge for books and lunch. One-third of the students are accepted at the university of their choice. The others must settle for alternative schools. Most want to go into professions creating an extreme shortage of skilled labor.

As far as medical care goes people are assigned a doctor by their address. You have the freedom to change but it’s unusual. Each office visit is $13 up to three visits in a year. Then the visits are free. Doctor visits for children up to age eighteen are free. Hospitals charge $28 a day. Emergency surgery is done immediately. For elective surgery there’s a wait.

Timeless Briefs

Our first stop was to watch carpet washing by the sea. Tables, rollers, and drying racks were set up at dockside. It’s a summertime ritual for families to lug their rugs for an annual washing. They use pine soap and rinse with seawater. Yves said the scent lasted all year.

We moved on to the Church in the Rock built along organic lines. In 1969 architects dug a cave into natural rock and sunk the church inside. The walls are rock and the dome is made of concentric coils of copper wire. Looking up from inside it appears to be a giant kepah (yarmulke/beanie). There’s only one small removable cross and the sanctuary would be comfortable for any religion. While we were there a Japanese choir sang. The acoustics are marvelous. Vertically hung windows placed under the dome circle the room affording wonderful light.

We paid homage to John Sibelius, the national composer. His monument looks like frosted stainless steel organ pipes. His bust is to the side like an afterthought. If it had been in aluminum I would have thought that Akron artist Don Drumm had a hand in it.

As we drove towards the Olympic stadium we thought we’d gone far into the country. We rode through thickly wooded areas where trees were already losing their leaves but we were only 1.5 miles from the city. Finland was to have the summer games in 1940, but the war intervened. They finally got them in 1952. We noticed that several commemorative statues around the stadium and the city in general were naked. Yves said that when you dress a statue it dates it. This way it is timeless.

Finding Shabbat

The bus dropped us at the hotel and we walked across to the synagogue to see if we could get in. This would be an “only in America” story except it happened in Finland. A rabbi was entering as we waited to be admitted. There was no problem with getting inside. In fact the young men who were at the gate spoke such good English we thought they were Americans. We introduced ourselves to the rabbi and when I saw that he wore tzitzit I though he might be a Chabad rabbi. On a lark I asked if he knew the Chabad rabbi in Akron, Ohio. It's his cousin! The rabbi invited us to come to the 7:00pm service (it ends at 7:30pm) and to dinner at his house. We accepted. The rabbi is not the rabbi of the synagogue. The official orthodox rabbi comes once a month from Sweden but this rabbi holds a small service for the intervening weeks.

The synagogue was built in 1906 and was recently refurbished. It includes a grade school and old-age home. The domed interior has pale green and white walls a central reader’s stand, and gilt and blue designs on the bimah (pulpit). They have acquiesced to girls becoming bat mitzvah but they’re not allowed to read Torah. Being Jewish in Finland has not been a problem even when the Nazis came. The greater community never gave up its Jews and there was a Jewish military unit with kosher food that served with German troops. The Nazis must have been desperate by then.

The Jewish community of today is aging but even though numbers are shrinking there’s a renewed vibrancy by young people. An organization of Scandinavian Jews meets periodically but the inter-marriage rate is at 90%. Conversion is more common than not. Finnish Jews originally came from Russia with Peter the Great. More recently they come from Poland and from Israel when Israeli men marry Finish women.

More Wanderings

We ate lunch in the Kampi, the bus station mall, and wandered the Esplanade, through Stockman’s Department Store, and Marimieko. In one mall we needed a toilet card to enter the facilities but when we went to the store to get them there was no charge. Why the card? The fashions are as good as any in New York, the designers are familiar and some not so, but the prices are outrageous. Everything is on “ale” now, Finnish for sale. Even at that I will not pay $60 for a book or $40 for a childs t-shirt.

Our TV turned itself on and told us we had a message. It was from Yves. He was going to meet the gang at 10:15pm and walk to a viewing spot for the fireworks. We probably will not make it. It’s a shame but we’ll miss the annual national fireworks competition of Finland. We were told it could last as long as three hours. There will be lots of drinking. That brought up the alcoholism problem again. At one event 80,000 people gathered. The next morning police were out loading drunks into their cars and an ambulance bus was taking them to the hospital. A street-cleaner was working to rid the streets of broken glass. The second most popular sport here is beer bottle kicking.

We’ve once again messed up our return stay in New York. We thought we were off not one but two days and checked into extending our hotel yet again but as it turns out we were doubly wrong. We erroneously thought we were leaving Stockholm on Aug. 30 and it’s Aug. 31. So now we’ll have only one extra day in New York. You’d think we’d never traveled.

We told Yves of our plans for Shabbat and he shared with us that his 94-year old mother was still an Orthodox Jew. He seems fascinated with our quest. I will not be able to take notes at the rabbi’s house tonight but I’ll do my best to remember and write tomorrow.

Post Chabad

I decided to write about Shabbat with the rabbi even though it’s late. Tomorrow will be busy too and I’d rather organize my thoughts while they’re fresh. Services were held in the library since the crowd numbered only twenty-five adults and four children. I was the only woman until the very end when a lady joined me behind a gauze mahizah dividing the men from the women. I sat on a wobbly bench with my back to the wall. Whenever I stood up my head brushed the underside of a hanging bookcase and I couldn’t quite stand straight. When wine was passed out for Kiddush I was included. The familiar typically Ashkenazic service was a half-hour long as promised. They managed to race through the service minha (afternoon services) and maariv (evening services) in that time. We walked to the rabbi's apartment for dinner. Seven other physically fit people joined us for the ten-block jaunt. I cannot imagine doing it in January. When we got to the building we were joined by the wife of one of the men who was with us. The Wolffs live on the 6th floor. There was an elevator but we didn’t use it since it was Shabbat.

The rabbi & his wife are very young. I’d guess still in their twenties ( David thinks they may be in their teens-ha). He’s been in Helsinki for three years and it’s his first pulpit as a married man. She was raised in Bogota, Columbia by an American Chabad family. She was educated in New York and Israel. The rabbi’s sister made the match. They have two daughters. One is about 2 ½ years and one is ten months. She's a very attractive woman who dresses in a more modern style than I’ve seen among Chabad women. She wore nail polish and her dress barely covered her knees. Her sheitel (wig) was pretty awesome. They’re a gracious couple and enjoy opening their home each week. The other guests were several Finns and two American men who work for Nokia. One Finnish woman who was married to a Jewish man was hoping to start learning Hebrew this year.

The rabbi's wife is a marvelous cook and everything was homemade. The challah was so good I almost made it my main meal. Her gefilte fish was to die for. The rabbi kept the conversation going by raising philosophical questions that were typical Jewish mind games. When the subject of keeping kosher came up David raised the old argument that if the restriction was originally that an animal could not be cooked in the milk of its mother then chicken should be pareve (neither milk nor meat.) With that, ice cream was served. We joked that it had to be made of chicken milk. We were surprised that even non-dairy ice cream would be acceptable since the appearance to the eye is important. I was also surprised that the toilet paper in the bathroom was on a roll and not pre-torn for Shabbat.

We excused ourselves at 10:15pm and started to make our way down the dark staircase. I finally realized that they wouldn’t turn on the hall light but we could. The hall lights abroad are frequently on timers and must be turned on for each use. We managed to make it down the six flights safely and were out the door when we realized we’d left our umbrellas upstairs. The outer door was locked and the only way in was to buzz the apartment. Of course they wouldn’t buzz back. I tried buzzing other tenants like you see in the movies but it didn’t work. I think everyone went to watch the fireworks. Finally some other guests came downstairs and I ran up for the umbrellas. We did see some fireworks on our walk back to the hotel but decided that July 4th was enough. We’re flying to Copenhagen tomorrow afternoon and have to pack tonight. We have a tour before we leave, of course.

Toby