The second oldest building in Finland is the newest center of Chabad
The Jewish community of Helsinki gathered in front of Finland’s second oldest building on a clear day at the end of June. Right across the street, the Helsinki Presidential Palace was joined by well-meaning people from all over the world. The path to the building’s elegant entrance was covered with a red carpet, and a simple ribbon was hung behind the podium where the Rebbetzin. Ita Wolff spoke. He smiled. This day had been a long time coming.
The sparkling stone architecture of Mariankatu 3, built on the site of an old Russian fortress, is simple and elegant. A customs house was located on its walls in 1765, but after two centuries of continuous use, the foundation threatened to give way and cracks grew in those walls. Good luck with the old stone walls, Rabbi Benyom’s and Ita Wolff’s Chabad of Finland community had ended for the sixth time and saw an opportunity behind the cracks.
When the Wolffs first arrived in Finland in 2003, they opened their home to host a program for the Jewish community. “Then we moved the desk out of the living room before Shabbat to make room for everyone,” Rabbi Wolff recalls. They opened a preschool, organized a summer camp, and hosted countless holiday events and Shabbat meals.
The Jewish community in Helsinki is well-established and has a long and unique history. Most families trace their ancestry to the Kanists, Jewish soldiers who were forced to serve in the Tsarist army and who settled here after their service. But Chabad brought fresh ideas to the 150-year-old community and built a warm home for Jews of all stripes. President of the Jewish community Yaron Nadbornik says that the Wolffs brought a “growth mindset” to Helsinki. “Chabad has added value to the community,” he said. “They have done a wonderful job of finding the ‘missing Jews’.”
By 2015, after two decades of renting various spaces that were consistently too small, Chabad was aiming for a permanent home. “They say: ‘Build, and they will come,’ but Ganon Chaya preschoolers, Hebrew school students, parents who came to our classes and tourists looking for familiar faces all came, and we still needed a building,” says Ita Wolff. As the maintenance costs of the problematic building at Mariankatu 3 rise to the sky, the city of Helsinki gladly sold it to Chabad. “The building required a lot of work, and we signed up for a big project,” Rabbi Wolff said.
To cover the initial funds needed to finance the arduous and expensive renovation process, Rebbetzin Wolff contacted an old family friend from Bogota, Colombia. Ita grew up in Bogota, where she says she “grew up admiring Charlotte Rohr as a grandmother.”
“When my parents moved there as Chabad ambassadors from America, it was a foreign culture to them,” says Ita. But Señora Charlotte welcomed them into the community, and on the day Ita was born, she delivered the little girl a gift box with a ribbon on it. All these years later, Charlotte and her husband The same were the ones who promised the crucial support that made Chabad of Finland’s new home a reality.
The complete renovation of the new building took half a decade and seven million dollars. But the result is wonderful. The new Chabad center has retained its full 18th century glory. It has a royal dining room, a commercial kitchen and a lounge that feels like home. “People ask me, ‘Do you live here?'” Rabbi Wolff says, “We wanted it to feel very homey and less organized.” There’s also a small synagogue, a planned museum of Finnish Jewish history, office space, and plenty of space for classes and Ganon Chaya’s children.
At the June 23 ribbon-cutting ceremony, Rebbetzin Wolff stood behind the ribbon-cutting ceremony and looked at the group of friendly faces that Chabad had touched over the years and reflected on how far they had come together. Sam and Charlotte’s son Mr. George Rohr Cut the symbolic ribbon and a parade of smiling children holding balloons happily marched out the front door of the new center.
Chabad Finland finally has a permanent home and a bright future.