Hakarat Hatov: “Recognizing the Good” in Jewish Finland

When she first landed in Helsinki, Finland, in fall 2022, Maya Rosen felt far from home. But over the next ten months, Rosen — a JDC Entwine Global Jewish Service Corps (JSC) Fellow — would build a Jewish home all her own, right in the heart of Scandinavia. In this reflection, Rosen shares what makes the Finnish Jewish community so unique and vibrant, along with how the JSC Fellowship brought her a sense of community in what initially felt like a far-flung place.

I stood outside the Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Helsinki, having only arrived 72 hours before. The call I was trying to place went in and out as I moved further away from the building, my phone disconnecting from the WiFi, until my mom finally answered. The tears I had been holding back spilled out as I explained that I needed to find my way back to my new apartment. I was feeling completely alone and overwhelmed — in a word, lost. 

By the time I made it back, it was basically time to turn around and return to the JCC for the start of Rosh Hashanah. As I ventured back out, feeling slightly more confident this time, I took a moment to reflect on how lucky I was to live in Helsinki, Finland — and how there was no better time than Rosh Hashanah to start my journey. Though it was a challenging start to an amazing year, there was already so much good surrounding me, and an unexpected abundance of blessings that would soon follow.

Today, when I tell people that I worked for the Jewish community of Helsinki, the immediate response I receive is, “There are Jews in Finland?!” That question is exactly why I wanted to be a JDC Entwine Global Jewish Service Corps (JSC) Fellow. During the COVID-19 shutdown, I got involved with JDC by volunteering with Entwine’s virtual service program — paired with an Israeli Arab to help him practice his English and a Jewish teen from the former Soviet Union. My perspective on global Jewish life was changed by these experiences, and they fueled my passion to make a difference for Jewish communities worldwide. 

As a JSC Fellow, I was privileged to do this work even more directly.

But first, a bit of context: Though Jews first arrived in Finland in the 19th century, the Finnish Jewish community was legally recognized in 1918. More than a hundred years later, there are approximately 2,000 Jews living in Finland today. Perhaps because it’s small in number, Jewish Finland is also an incredibly close-knit place. The power of the community lies within its commitment to mutually support and collaborate with one another. During my time in Helsinki, I felt how strongly every member is deeply invested in the community’s welfare, recognizing their personal role in maintaining and further shaping the generations to come.

Jewish Finland is also amazingly diverse — many families have Finnish heritage intertwined with roots from across the world or have no historic ties to the country at all. I was often in spaces where Hebrew, English, Finnish, Swedish, Russian, and Hungarian could be heard. I found the dynamic ecosystem of language to be intriguing and unique, and I was constantly amazed by the kids, teens, and community leaders I closely worked with. It was clear to me that the Finnish Jewish community is committed to embracing its unique history.

In Helsinki, I worked with Finnish youth to incorporate Jewish culture and connection into their daily lives. I taught and spent time with 4th through 6th-graders in an afterschool program, organized BBYO events for 7th to 12th-graders, assisted with the community’s b’nei mitzvah program, and engaged in other events. The breadth of these experiences enabled me to form relationships with community members of all kinds — as much as I worked to make an impact, it was clear they were having a profound effect on me, too.

Countless hours were spent with the kids involved with BBYO Finland. I wanted to guide these teens into creating their own programs, and I was privileged to watch what was once just an idea come to life through their own hard work, as well as assist each one in finding a personal connection to their Judaism. 

The concept of why I would ever move to Finland and work for the Jewish community was one that perplexed the teens. This opened a lot of direct and personal conversations about our individual relationships to Judaism. I felt really fortunate to have these conversations about the impact of kehillah (community), tikkun olam (repairing the world), and what living with Jewish values meant to all of us from our own unique perspectives.

In March 2023, BBYO Finland hosted an invitational where other chapters in Europe came for a weekend Shabbat retreat. This was a very rewarding experience for the teens who had spent so many hours preparing, and it gave them an incredible opportunity to interact with their global Jewish community that they otherwise may not have had. On Friday night I watched one teen I was particularly close to lead a session about connection, despite different beliefs, tradition and cultures, and the importance of finding and emphasizing our similarities and common values. 

As I sat that evening with Helsinki teens hysterically laughing, thousands of miles away from the community I grew up in but creating similar memories to what I had when I was their age, I couldn’t help but feel nostalgic and inspired. Most importantly, I was able to look around the room with true appreciation for where I was and who I was there with.         

In Hebrew, the phrase “Hakarat HaTov” refers to gratitude, but more broadly means “recognizing the good” in our lives. That is core to how I’ve internalized my experience in Finland.

Everyone talks about how hard it is to move across the world by yourself, but nobody mentions how hard it is to say goodbye to the strangers who become family and the place that becomes home. As I gave my last hug, tears poured down my face as I walked out of the gate of the community for the last time as the 2022-2023 JSC Fellow in Helsinki. I had a full-circle moment — I was standing in the same spot where I had felt incredibly lost just 10 months earlier, but this time the tears were for a different reason. I’d never imagined how hard these goodbyes were going to be.

In Hebrew, the phrase “Hakarat Hatov” broadly means “recognizing the good” in our lives. That is core to how I’ve internalized my experience in Finland.

Returning to America, I moved to a new city again. As I start this next chapter of my life, I have a completely new perspective. My weekly Shabbat walk is different now and the people surrounding the table are new, too. I constantly miss my Finnish Jewish community and the routines I created there, but I’ve also been able to seamlessly weave my way into the community where I now live. I have an overflowing gratitude for each person who has made this new place feel like home, too.

Through my JSC Fellowship, JDC helped me discover this sense of Jewish family and home. And I am one of the luckiest people in the world knowing my Jewish community expands around the world, all the way to Finland, where I was given one of the greatest lessons of my life.

Maya Rosen, a recent JDC Entwine Global Jewish Service Corps Fellow, is currently attending Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Science for her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. While a Fellow, Maya worked collaboratively within the Jewish community of Helsinki, with a focus on youth engagement and education.

Prior to making an impact in Finland as a Fellow, Maya served the Michigan State University (MSU) Jewish community as an engagement associate within the Lester and Jewell Morris Hillel. A graduate of MSU, Maya received her Bachelor of Science in Psychology, with a minor in Youth and Society, in 2021.

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