Boundaries of Jewish Identities in Contemporary Finland

Project Researchers: MA Mercédesz Czimbalmos, Docent Simo Muir, Dr Dóra Pataricza, Dr Riikka Tuori

This research project examines everyday Jewish life in Finland, in order to establish a new analytic model for researching vernacular religion in various cultural and religious contexts, focusing on the ordinary yet crucial negotiations of everyday life through which religion is “done”. The project is structured around four case studies designed to capture general trends in vernacular religion: foodways, family life, customs, and relations to secular society. The data consists of archival material from official and family archives and in-depth interviews.

The findings will be compared with parallel data on Nordic Jews and Muslims, currently collected by three partner projects. The project will improve the conditions for public debate by offering solid information resources for countering prejudices and hate speech. It will result in scientific open access publications, a conference, open events for the general public, blogs and strengthened international collaborative networks.