My Seder style dinner

This past week has been important for both Jews and Christians. Passover and Easter coincide this year (again) and Israel has probably been buzzing with tourists, Jerusalem in particular with Christians.

My boyfriend and I were also supposed to go celebrate Passover in Israel this year. But alas, an exam week ruined the plans, so we settled for spending Easter in Helsinki... The grey views, dirty snow, everything closed, much fun.

But then I got this idea, just for the sake of my boyfriend, that since he wasn't able to do the Seder dinner with his family, maybe I could give it a go here in Helsinki.

This all actually started in New York City last June when I bought the below books while visiting the Jewish museum. I don't know why I did it, probably because of pain of a solely Hebrew Haggadah-book was fresh in mind from that year. To take corrective measures, I decided to buy the Hebrew & English version for next time and the museum gift shop keeper was such a good salesman that he sold me the Passover cookbook while at it. He warned me, though, that the recipes are only kosher style. So I guess the whole Seder now in 2013 was doomed to be a bit of kosher style; passover style; Jewish style. Not quite the real thing but something mimicking it, anyway.

Once my boyfriend finally (took a while!) booked his flights here, the real planning started. What do you need to arrange a tiny Passover dinner for two? I started making a to-do list in my mind and some I could cross out immediately...

• Great, the Haggadah I have from New York.
• There's got to be a Seder plate. Without it, it just won't work. Where to get one of those?
• Did the matza have a special plate, too?
• Does Prophet Elijah need a special cup or would a normal one do?
• How in the world do I make my home "kosher for passover"?
• And of course, where to buy the food? 

I decided that Prophet Elijah needs to settle for one of my Iittala Essence wine glasses. I wouldn't be able to arrange the Seder on the right night anyway, and he is probably busy visiting real Jewish homes. So that's going to have to do. What about removing all the leavened food from my home? Please forgive me, but I saw no point of selling all my pots and pans to a goy (ehm, I'm a goy myself). The kitchen I cleaned, I'll give you that, but I won't go on all my fours with a magnifying glass to look for a bread crumb that might or might not be there. I don't keep bread at home anyway.

(Mind you, upon arriving in Helsinki my boyfriend announced he took a loaf of bread from home and brought it here as it would have expired otherwise. So much for the great efforts of getting rid of all the chametz...)

So, let's move on to the plates. A brief thought of stocking up on tiny Iittala Teema plates crossed my mind, but then I thought that would look too hastily put together. I wanted the real thing. There aren't any Judaica stores or museums in Finland, so my best bet was to surf then net. I remembered seeing lots of online store selling anything Jewish, anything from a small star to a massive Menorah. No problem!

But no, wait. All these stores are American web shops. Any purchase above 25€ and I would have to pay customs and VAT and while at it, an arm and a leg. Same goes for all the Israel web shops as it is outside EU purchases.

Plan B then. Google for Jewish online stores in Europe. Thanks to that blessed European Union, I wouldn't have to worry about any customs formalities and paperwork. I found a nice British online store offering all items Jewish, including beautiful Seder plates of glass. A bit pricey, but hey, at least they deliver to EU countries. Just when I was about to place my order, I noticed a warning text in red: glass items won't be shipped outside the UK. And all the Seder plates in their selection were of glass...

Plan C then. Activating the 4th best language I can speak and write, I googled auf Deutsch for jüdisches online Laden. And there was a hit, and boy was it a good one! Judaica4all offered a great selection of products, including Seder plates and this time there were no red warning texts. I found a tray for the matza and some other small items, too, so problem solved. A week later when the items I had purchased arrived in Finland, I had two days of terror with the local post office, as they had handed my parcel to someone totally else! Eize mazal, this person was honest and returned it (unopened) back to the post office, so I could go retrieve it.

So what was left on my list now? Of course, the holy of the holiest in any Jewish holiday... the food. This is touchy, this is the zone and area where shiksas will be beaten to pulp by all the bubbes and Jewish mamas out there. Nothing tastes as good as your mama's cooking - especially if your mama is Jewish! Flashing images of ruining this Jewish holiday for my boyfriend passed before my eyes: mushy matza ball stew instead of a soup and what not...

But there was no other choice but to work with what I've got. A visit to the only Kosher store in Finland, Zaafranco, provided me with a 1kg box of Aviv Matzot, an Osem Matza Ball mix and Israeli honey for the charoset. Bothering relatives, friends of my friends', and lots of googling for easy Passover recipes, I settled for the following dinner menu:

Seder Plate

**

Matza ball soup

**

Oven-baked chicken breast with crunchy Matza meal and almond coating
Oven-baked garlic and onion potatoes

**

Matza brittle
Almond biscuits

Topping this up with five bottles of wine (all of them Kosher for Passover), everything was set for my boyfriend on Friday night. The charoset, Matza brittle, almond biscuits and soup stock I prepared the day before, maror and all the rest on the same day.

And you know what? It all turned out great! I was able to participate by reading some Hebrew parts of the Haggadah. The charoset and maror were tasty, my boyfriend wanted a second round of both the soup and the chicken. The only part we didn't do so well with was the wine - just finished one bottle...

All in all, we had a nice, secluded dinner in great company, blending Jewish tradition in a little bit off-environment. I'm proud of myself that the food turned out to be a success. However, we both agreed that leshana haba'a be Israel because with more people and his mother's unbelievable food (I especially miss the liver), Passover tastes even better! :-)

PS. The next morning, my boyfriend indulged me with Matza brei, an omelet that will keep you feeling full until the evening!

Matza brei, topped with charoset and maror. Great combo, believe it or not!

I can't believe it's Kosher!

Distributing and selling wines and liquor in Finland is state controlled and the only chain of stores allowed to sell these products is called Alko. Naturally, you can buy booze in a restaurant and beers & ciders at a supermarket but if you want anything a bit stronger than that - Alko is the only address in this country.

I'm not a big consumer of alcohol but for some reason I ended up at Alko's website. I could not believe my eyes that they had a special link on the product page for kosher products! Has it always been there, or is there just now because of Passover? Jews of Finland - Alko loves you, but their selection could be a bit bigger.... ;-)

One red, one white. It isn't many but it's something!

Goldie Locks' secret

Well, not such a secret any longer. The famous Moroccanoil products have finally taken off in Finland as well, and you can spot them being sold at many hairdressers' and beauty salons. I was introduced to Moroccanoil some time ago when the long, cruel winter had made my locks look dull, dead and dry. To defy these three D's, my hairdresser introduced my hair to Moroccanoil - and it came back alive!

This winter has been extraordinarily long and cruel. It's mid-March, and we still got freezing temperatures and new snow coming in. I decided to opt for Moroccanoil to battle the syndrome of dry hair, and naturally am happy to support these miracle Israeli products meanwhile. The shampoo and conditioner were expensive, but hey, but you get what you pay for. The flagship product, the treatment oil itself, is something even Madonna would take with her to a deserted island!

Find your favorite product at the official website. For where to buy Moroccanoil in Finland, check this page.

Greetings from Israel! We are here to save you from dull & dead hair!

Tuning in for the season

After +10 years of a break, I watched the animated movie The Prince of Egypt again. I remember clearly when and where I saw it the first time; my cousins received the VHS (or was it DVD?) as a Christmas present and we watched it two or three times during the holidays. I was already borderline "too old" to like cartoons anymore because it wouldn't be considered "cool" for someone in my age back then, but secretly I really liked it. Now, I could watch it in the original language and on top of that, could understand some of the Hebrew spoken in the movie - and love it openly regardless of age. :-)

The story of the Exodus is especially important now as Passover is nearing. The holiday commemorates the events around the freedom of the ancient Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Moses as the leader, lead the people to the promised land that would flow with milk and honey. If you're not familiar with the events that lead to the celebration of Passover, watch the movie. While some artistic liberties have been taken to make the story work on the silver screen, the 600 religions experts used during the movie make sure that the underlying facts are respected.

I have been involved in Passover celebrations in 2011 and 2012. The first time, I barely had a clue what was going on. Second time around, the experiences from the first time were immensely valuable for me to make a good impression. Stay tuned to see what happens in 2013...

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Northern Star #2

Remember my earlier post about the Star of David featured in Helsinki architecture?

Today, I came across with another example on Pursimiehenkatu street! I wonder what is the history behind this building? It has worked for over 130 years as emergency housing for those in need, but I can't find any facts on the architecture or why these stars are decorating the facade of the building...

Jewish symbolism in Helsinki architecture. I wonder how many I can find...?

Nomen est omen

The Latin proverb that got the honor of serving as this post's header is something I sometimes believe in. The name is an omen. The RMS Titanic sank – after all it was named after the gods that were overthrown by a better race in Greek mythology. Titanic nor the Titans lasted to see the future. Or what about the Finnish football team called Atlantis? Needless to say, they declared bankruptcy and nowadays have disappeared and are never to be found, much like their more famous namesake island.

Jewish names, both first names and family names are a very interesting topic for anyone interested in etymology and history. This is where the nerdy part of this post begins, so stop reading unless you really are interested :). There is the most obvious source for first names: Biblical writings. Abraham, Jacob, Adam, Noah, Ruth, Sarah, Deborah... All familiar names even to the Christians. On a more general note, nearly all names that have an ending -el can be traced back to the Hebrew language: Daniel, Gabriel, Michael, Raphael... Other common first names used by the Israelis or Jews have a more simple explanation in the Hebrew language.

There is a superstition in Judaism (especially among the Ashkenazim) that you must not name a child after a living relative. The Angel of Death might confuse these two persons carrying the same name – and accidentally grab the new-born from here to eternity. And by the way, how is a Jewish naming ceremony of a baby since there is no baptism or Christening? For boys it is at the brit milah ceremony (circumcision, at the age of 8 days) and for girls at a ceremony in a synagogue.

There is a trend among the Jews returning to Israel that they change their change or translate their last name of more foreign origin into Hebrew. Sometimes the Hebraization of the name is very literal: Abrahamovich (the -ovich/-owicz/-owitz ending meaning “son of” in Slavic regions) becomes Ben Avraham. The famous Israel Prime Minister David Ben Gurion chose a more of a free styling change for his name: Gryn became Ben Gurion. Some chose a more thorough road and abandoned their old name altogether, and started using e.g. Ben-Artzi, meaning “son of my land”.

(Mind you, a similar trend aspired in Finland during the 1800s when independence was still a dream – but a desire for a Finnish nation lived among the people. Many people with a Swedish last name changed or translated their last name according to whatever circumstances the family had. Even I would be called Eriksson nowadays if there hadn't been a switch by my great-great-grandfather.)

Many of the Ashkenazi Jews have a very German-sounding last name. Only three family names are of pure Jewish origin to begin with (Cohen, Levi and Israel). But as most did not have a family name but were merely called the son or daughter of someone, the German and Austro-Hungarian empire that in the 1700s imposed the Jews living in the region to adapt a last name... There are beautiful examples of e.g. Edelstein (“precious stone”), Rosenthal (“rose valley”) to more humble names such as Klein (fine, it means “small” but is associated a big fashion house nowadays) or Fisch (needs no translation). You can't judge a person by their last name though: not all German names mean that the person is Jewish. The Sepharic Jews had, by the way, adopted the use of family names much earlier.

Those going through conversion to Judaism usually adapt a Hebrew name for themselves. Traditionally, males pick Abraham and females Sarah. These names are favored because Abraham is quoted in the holy book to be “the father of a multitute of nations” (= hence, he can be the father of a convert having a totally non-Jewish background) and Sarah was his wife. Not everyone goes with the flow, of course. Madonna is known as Esther, and Marilyn Monroe never revealed which Hebrew name the Rabbi gave her from the Bible. My first name would not need much Hebraization: change one letter and there you have it...

This post is merely a scratch on the surface of the interesting world of names. If you're interested to learn more, dig in at behindthename.com, for example.

A museum visit in Sweden

As discussed before, one of the first things I do when visiting another city is to check if there's a Jewish museum in town. This time, I get to add Stockholm - the capital of Sweden - to my list of Jewish musems visited. Heja Sverige!

Located in the beautiful area of Vasastaden, the museum isn't something you would come accidentally across with. Compared to the fellow museums in Paris or New York, where there's a whole building dedicated to the cause, the museum in Stockholm is in more humble settings - downstairs a typical apartment building. You need to ring a bell to get in, and be aware of the opening ours (12:00-16:00 daily, except for Saturdays of course).

But don't worry, once you're round the corner, the signs will lead you there.

The museum has a permanent exhibition that is the size of a large livingroom. It presents the basics of the Jewish faith as well as some Swedish aspect to Judaism. You get your classic introduction to Torah and the Jewish holidays, but also family trees of Swedish-Jews and a small shrine to Raoul Wallenberg. There are also authentic memorabilia from the Holocaust, provided by the survivors. The Red Cross of Sweden arranged the so-called "White Buses" (army buses painted white) after the WWII ended and transported 30.000 survivors of the concentration camps to Sweden. Around 10 000 of them were Jews.

A long time since I saw a mezuza somewhere else than at my home. And first time I could actually read something in Hebrew when visiting a Jewish museum!

Barbie converts to Judaism? Not quite, but there were miniature doll settings of Jewish holidays (a wedding chuppah and sukkot), as well as artifacts used in Passover and Hanukkah.

A smaller room is dedicated to exhibitions with changing themes, and when I visited the theme was Jesus Christ Super-Star. Well, not quite, but Jesus the Jew anyway. It was a kind attempt to bridge the gap between Judaism and Christianity with the one thing that both connects but separates the two religions. There were artifacts from exclavations from Jesus' times, and points how Jesus was a Jew. Even his "golden rule" in the New Testament is actually just a borrowed mindset from the Old Testament.

A false prophet or the son of G-d, the man that creates controversy even after 2000 years...

Today, the Jewish population in Sweden is estimated to be around 20.000, half of them living in Stockholm or the nearby region. In Stockholm, there are three synagogues with conservative and orthodox services. And of course, let's not forget the small gift shop of the museum, where I bought the below article. It replaced my old Sex and the City movie "Love" key chain replica. The message stays the same, though!

Ahava.

A nice museum visit all in all! Convenient and compact, but I must say that my command of Swedish language came handy - not all the information was available in English too. And a small tidbit that also the Finns will recognize: the gherkins & pickles, ketchup etc. branded Felix that you find in every supermarket here --- well, a company founded by a Jewish immigrant in Sweden!

Not Schindler's list

I was so saddened to see that in my country, some people are seriously still up to some bulls*** like this. Reported by JTA and Finnish newspapers.

Recently, there was an attempted stabbing incident in Central Finland. Far-right extremists attacked a book-reading event at a local library. Now it has turned out that the person conducting the attack was collecting information on Jews living in Finland, and other minorities that conflict with the far-right ideology. A representative from the Helsinki Jewish Community has confirmed that some members have been contacted by the police to inform about this list.

I don't think I need to comment more on this, and everyone can conclude for what kind of reason this kind of lists are kept by some crazy people. Right is against Jews, left is against Jews because of what Israel does. Are the only true friends of Jews & Israel in Finland the Christians of deep faith, who worship Israel as the Holy Land and hence respect its inhabitants dating back to Biblical times?

 Original article in Finnish can be found here.

This blogger's mind-boggler

I can't remember where I picked up this little book of whys, but it is a pretty efficient, straight-to-the-point declaration on matter relating to the Jewish faith.

The first "why" question, in the first chapter, explains the fact that why the religion of the mother is the primary factor in determining if a child is Jewish or not. I'm pretty sure I've discussed this topic before in my blog; how Judaism only considers those born from a Jewish mother as Jews. You are considered non-Jewish, if your mother is non-Jewish. Doesn't matter if your dad is a rabbi, you're still not among the chosen ones.

This rule was established because of a pretty simple reason (here comes the why). One can be sure who gave birth to a child - but of the father you can never be sure. Or to say the least, in some circumstances it can be questioned. Fine, nowadays we have those mail order DNA tests and all that to help you if you're in doubt, but back then for the Jews, perhaps just a teeny tiny bit suspicious by their nature, the mother was the 100% source of Judaism and this remains until today.

So, us shiksas out there, out here. Anything that would crawl out of our foreign loins would never be considered Jewish. But here comes the catch: if I did have kids with a Jew, the kids would be entitled to receive Israeli citizenship. And even my children's children would still have this birth right.

This is where the confusion begins. Israel, the state established for Jews, historically based on Zionism, is willing to grant its citizenship just-like-that to someone that officially, according to the real, religious rules isn't even Jewish. My little book of whys does not answer my question why is this and how this contradiction persists.

One could argue back that not all Israelis are Jews. And this is true. While Jews are the majority in the country, there are minorities of Arabs/Muslims, Druze and Christians. Therefore, you might catch an Arab with an Israeli passport at the airport. But no "outsider" Christian or Arab would be granted the citizenship without ifs or buts and allowed to do aliyah, unless their would prove one of their grandparents being Jewish (the Orthodox Jews would probably add here, that it would have to be the maternal grandmother - if any). And we come back to the matter of one having a Jewish bloodline.

And yes, shiksas can convert. Someone might point out here that even the first Jews ever were converts. But Judaism is not something you can just go and be 100% , is it? Same thing if I convert, I'd always be Christian by background. If I lived in Switzerland for 20 years and got citizenship, I'd still be Finnish under the surface. Nationality and religion are something more profound, something you're born into. Political ideologies e.g. communism doesn't know this kind of so-called restrictions. One can be a 100% communist regardless of where they come from. But can a convert-Jew ever be considered 100% Jewish? This is probably a matter of opinion...

When it comes down to it, Judaism and Israel are more than just a plain religion or a plain sovereign country. They are like Siamese twins, so grown together that you can't separate the one from the other. There are two heads thinking independently: the Jewish one thinking in religious terms and the Israeli one tuned into a more secular mindset. Somehow, though, they need to co-exist, because both without one another, would be way worse off.