Helsingin synagoga (Helsingfors synagoga)

English translation (from the Finnish)

The text above is the record as published by the Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto), in Finnish. The English below is a machine translation made by TreeAlive, not by the Finnish Heritage Agency (Museovirasto); it has not been checked by a person. Where the two differ, the original is the record. Report a translation error: privacy@treealive.com

Description

The Helsinki Synagogue is one of the country's two centres of Jewish religion and culture. The fixed interior of this building, which tells the story of Jewish settlement in Helsinki and is architecturally and townscape-wise significant, has been well preserved.

There are only two synagogue buildings in Finland. The Helsinki building, completed in 1906, is slightly older than the Turku synagogue. Unlike many Jewish sanctuaries in Europe, Finland's synagogues have been spared the destruction of the Second World War, with the exception of the Viipuri synagogue.

Finland's relatively young synagogues form a kind of end point in the tradition of synagogue architecture. The exterior architecture of the building uses a synagogue type that was common in Central Europe and England, which applies revival styles selectively and is characterised, among other things, by a façade articulation in the Romanesque style.

The prominent location of the Helsinki Synagogue on the street reflects the strengthening of the Jewish minority's position in the city. The area had become a Jewish residential district after the so-called narinkka, the used clothes market, had moved from the plot of the Suomen pankki to Kamppi.

The interior of the Helsinki Synagogue hall has been preserved in its original form to an exceptional degree. The hall on the second floor is bordered by galleries on three sides. The fixed interior uses Jugend-style details. On the neck of the dome, which is supported by four cast-iron pillars, menorahs (seven-branched candelabra) have been painted, referring to the golden candelabrum of the Temple of Salomon in Jerusalem. The reading tables, benches, the reading lectern on the fenced bima reading platform and the Torah ark (aron hakodesh) are original, as are the ceiling chandeliers and the lights on the pillars. On the first floor of the synagogue is a small minyan prayer room used on weekdays, and the rooms originally reserved for a school serve as offices.

In the restoration carried out in 2005, restorative measures were taken, including the wire-mesh railings of the galleries, the wall colouring and the decorative friezes.

History

Jews are known to have moved to Finland as early as the late 18th century, but the actual permanent Jewish settlement came into being during the autonomy period, in the mid-19th century, when Jewish soldiers of the Tsar's army serving in Finland were allowed to settle in the country.

The synagogue of the Helsinki Jewish congregation was built on a plot transferred by the City of Helsinki from Malminkatu in 1900. The synagogue building committee made fundraising trips to Pietari, Tukholma, Göteborg, Kööpenhamina, Berliini, Hampuri and Lontoo. The synagogue was designed by Jac. Ahrenberg, who at that time also served as chief architect of the yleisten rakennusten ylihallitus.

The location of the synagogue entrance and the spaces on the first floor were altered when a congregation centre and school building designed by Irma and Matti Aaltonen, completed in 1961, was built on the plot.