Helsinki, Finland

Hi. Let me tell you a bit about Helsinki, the capital of Finland. Helsinki is a port city on the Gulf of Finland (part of the Baltic Sea).

There aren’t a lot of Jews in Finland. Until recently there were hardly any. It wasn’t until 1917, when Finland became an independent country, that Jews were first allowed to be citizens. Today about 1,300 Jews live here, most of us are in Helsinki. And would you believe it, we even have Tzivos Hashem!

If I’m telling you about Finland, I have to mention The Northern Lights.We see them during the winter and early spring, when the nights are cold and clear. They are like beautiful shifting curtains of light in the sky, red and green and blue. They are really amazing. They say it’s because of energy from the sun colliding with the earth’s magnetic fields. It’s really awesome.

Now let me tell you about Tzivos Hashem. We are all very excited here to be part of such a large world-wide organization. And we enjoy doing all the same things you do. Like making shofars before Rosh Hashana, and dressing up in costumes for Purim, and baking Matzah before Pesach.

Winter sports are very popular here, especially skiing and ice skating. So of course, on Chanukah we also did something special. We made a giant Menorah out of ice. It was like our own version of
the Northern Lights (for Chanukah).

Everyone could see from our Menorah how every good deed is like a candle of light.We hope that we can do a lot of good deeds, and make lots of light, till the whole world will be full of the light of Hashem, just like we see it here so beautifully, in the northern skies of Finland.

Have a happy Purim and a happy Passover. Bye for now, from Tzivos Hashem of Helsinki, Finland.