The Heritage Guild

Historical roots

Finland's Jews were granted full civil rights in 1918, only a short time after Finland gained its independence. When the country went to war in 1939, Jewish men and women were ready to fulfil their duty to defend their homeland. More than 350 Jews served on the various fronts and 22 gave their lives in battle defending their homeland, and one civilian was killed in enemy bombings.

Veteran activity began soon after the wars, but the Soviet-led Control Commission, while it was still operating in Finland, banned it. Veteran activity therefore had to be suspended, and it was able to resume openly only decades later.

Development over the decades

The Veterans' Association of Finland's Jewish Soldiers was re-established in 1979, and its activity was lively within the Helsinki brotherhood circle. The oldest of the veterans, Salomon Altschuler, still sang in the Helsinki veterans' choir at the age of 100.

Owing to the veterans' advanced age and their diminishing numbers, the association ceased its activity in 2014. The Heritage Guild of Finland's Jewish War Veterans, founded in 2006, took upon itself the task of cherishing the veterans' memory and traditions. The war veterans still living at that time became honorary members of the Guild. The last of them, Salomon Altschuler, was laid to rest on 7 February 2019.

Expansion of activities

In addition to maintaining the veterans' memory, the Guild has taken on the task of collecting, recording and sharing information about the Jewish war veterans, both for later generations and for researchers. There has been a particular wish to share knowledge of the veterans' and the home front's activities with the pupils of the Jewish School of Helsinki and with other Jewish young people.

The Guild has compiled a register of Finland's Jewish war veterans, which sets out those who took part in the wars, their military ranks, periods of service, places of battle, decorations, any wounding or death in action, as well as the known place of burial. Efforts have been made to include the soldiers' army photographs and relevant wartime imagery. Also included are those Finnish Jews who, in the Machal volunteer forces, took part in Israel's War of Independence in 1948.

In recent years the Guild has expanded its activity by also collecting and recording cultural knowledge more broadly about the traditions and customs observed by Finland's Jews. This is done by interviewing Jews in Finland of various ages and from various backgrounds.

Today — the Guild as an active participant in the community

The Heritage Guild currently has about 80 members. Its active work has attracted participants to attend lectures and film screenings held during club evenings, as well as the traditional Shabbat dinner that is held annually in the spring and hosts a keynote speaker who is usually someone of influence in Finnish society. About 50 people attend the club evenings, and the Shabbat dinner sometimes attracts as many as a hundred attendees.

In cooperation with the community, the Guild represents the Finnish Jewish community at the commemorations on the Remembrance Day of the Fallen and on Finland's Independence Day at the Jewish cemetery in Helsinki. On Independence Day, the Guild lights a lantern on every veteran's grave to illuminate their memory.

Fourteen fallen heroes, the last of whom was buried in 2023, rest in front of the memorial at the cemetery.

This last burial was a national military funeral with full honours. It was held for the Jewish soldier Egon Moses Rosenthal on 30 May 2023, 79 years after he went missing in an enemy artillery barrage on the Karelian Isthmus on 26 June 1944.

The Guild takes part in the annual ceremonies held on 30 November, the day the Winter War began, and on 13 March.

A memory that endures

The war history of Finland's Jews is exceptional in the whole of Jewish Europe. At the same time as Europe was living through the darkest years of the persecution of the Jews, Finland's Jews served as full citizens in their own country's army. The Heritage Guild carries this memory forward — both in honour of those who did not return from the front and of those who returned to build their homeland and the Jewish community of Finland that keeps on living.