“The Customs of Our Ancestors Are in Our Hands”

Abstract

Abstract The Jewish community of Finland represents a continuum of Eastern European Ashkenazic Orthodoxy that survived the Shoah intact. During recent decades there have been significant changes in the demography of the local congregations, and these changes have influenced the religiosity of the members: while secularism and indifference to religion have grown, many members have turned toward stricter observance of Halakhah. This article looks at these changes and how the informants relate themselves to the customs of past generations in their everyday lives by means of an analytic model developed in the study of vernacular religion.