Browsing by Author "Larsson, Julia"

Object.There is a small minority of Jews in Finland whose continuity has been threatened most of all by strong assimilation. Finnish Jewish young adults who almost without exception intermarry are bringing up and educating the next Jewish generation. The purpose of this research is to find out how do the Finnish Jewish young adults understand the conception of Jewishness and most of all, what does their Judaism mean to them. Secondly the purpose is to examine their double identity with the help of a model (Dencik 1993). In other words the aim is to find out what does the Jewish identity mean to those who will continue the inheritance of the Finnish Jews and how they tackle the double identity. Lundgren (2002) has made a research of the traditions and attitudes of the Finnish Jews and Dencik (1993, 2002) both in Sweden and in Denmark. With the help of this research it is the intention to participate in the discussion of the identity-negotiation (Kuusisto 2011, Klingenberg 2014, Rissanen 2014). Method. This research was put into practice as a qualitative multiple case study by sending inquiry to all 137 members of the Jewish Community in Helsinki who were born between 1976-1986. The inquiry was answered by 28 young adults. The meaning of Judaism to the Finnish Jewish young adults was studied with qualitative methods and inductive approach, and at the same time theory based approach. The double identity and thus acculturation attitudes were approached with the help of Dencik's (1993) model of a diasporic Jew. I analyzed the answers with the help of material-connected content analysis and theory-based analysis. Conclusions. With the help of material-connected content analysis it turned out that Judaism meant to respondents most of all Judaism as the interpreteter of experiences and belonging to the Jewish people (Dencik 1993). This section of Judaism included conceptions of Judaism as giving and receiving, Judaism as a way of living and as a feeling of togetherness to other fellow Jews. As for double identity, it showed that the Finnish and Jewish sides of identity were in balance, in other words, the respondents experienced their Jewishness as The Jews of Finland, whose homeland is Finland.