Connecting Israeli Travelers with Finland’s Tourism Ecosystem

Andre Zweig is an Israeli guide living in Helsinki, and he runs what is still a rare thing in Finland: a city tour given in Hebrew. It is a normal Helsinki sightseeing tour — Senate Square, the city centre, the Sibelius monument, the Olympic Stadium — with a second layer running through it, the story of the small Jewish community that has been in Finland since the 1800s and of what happened to it during the Second World War, when Finland’s Jews served in the army of a country fighting alongside Germany and came through the war almost intact. There is a four-hour version, and a six-hour version that adds Porvoo. Transport is arranged: a car or minivan for a family, a coach for a group.

The two tours

• Four hours — Helsinki. The city tour: Senate Square and the cathedral, the city centre, the Sibelius monument, the Olympic Stadium, and the Rock Church. The Jewish thread runs through it, with the synagogue and the Jewish Centre added if they can be opened for you.
• Six hours — Helsinki and Porvoo. Everything above, then out to Porvoo: the second-oldest town in Finland, wooden houses along the river, and the kind of place that photographs better than it sounds on paper. Half an hour each way, and worth the two extra hours.
• Transport is included. A car or minivan for a family or a couple, a coach if you arrive as a group. You are not walking between the sites, which matters in February.

The part you will not get on a standard tour

Finland’s Jewish community is small — a few hundred families — and its history is genuinely unusual. Jews first settled here as discharged soldiers of the Russian army in the nineteenth century; the Helsinki Synagogue opened in 1906. In the Second World War Finland fought the Soviet Union alongside Germany, and Finnish Jews served in the Finnish army — there was a field synagogue on the front line, within sight of German units. Finland refused to hand over its Jewish citizens. That story, and where in the city it happened, is the reason to take this tour rather than a general one.

Worth knowing before you write

• Hebrew is the point. There are plenty of English-language guides in Helsinki. A guide who will do the whole day in Hebrew, for grandparents or for children, is the thing that is hard to find — say when you write whether you want Hebrew or English.
• The synagogue is not a museum. Visits to the synagogue and the Jewish Centre have to be arranged ahead, and there is security. Ask for it when you book, not on the morning of the tour.
• Shabbat. The tour is a weekday activity if you keep Shabbat. Our article on kosher, Shabbat and Jewish life in Finland covers what is available in Helsinki and what is not.
• Food is not included. There is a kosher deli attached to the community in Helsinki, but plan meals separately and tell Andre if you want the route built around one.
• Good for a stopover. Most Israelis reach Lapland through Helsinki. Four hours fits neatly into a long connection or a single night in the city at either end of the trip — see getting to Finland from Tel Aviv.
• Price is quoted, not listed. It depends on group size, tour length and the vehicle. Ask for a written quote with what is included.

Operated by Andre Zweig, Helsinki. Photographs from the operator’s own website. Details taken from jewishhelsinki.com in August 2026 — confirm current tour lengths, inclusions and pricing with him directly.