Finland’s Jewish communities say they have been preparing for attacks like the one in Copenhagen to happen in the Nordic countries and elsewhere in Europe due to a rise in anti-Semitism, manager Yaron Nadbornik from the Helsinki Jewish Congregation says.
”I’m afraid we have been expecting something like this to happen, though of course we prayed it would not,” he says. “It has been clear for years that there has been a rise in anti-Semitism. Extremist groups working both alone and in groups have been mobilising all over Europe and Northern Europe too, as recent years have shown. In that sense these crimes were not a surprise.”
The second of the two shootings by an as yet unnamed assailant resulted in the death of a young Jewsih man at a Copenhagen synagogue.
In Finland, Jewish congregations have requested and received additional protection from the police, says chief inspector Mikko Paatero, following the shootings. The Helsinki synagogue called to order a special meeting of its crisis management group, in order to provide support and a willing ear to members of the Jewish community.
The Danish attacks also spurred the community to examine its own security systems. The Finnish government has given the Helsinki synagogue 100,000 euros to purchase security equipment.
Chief inspector: Geared for possible copycats
Finnish police are prepared for any potential attacks of a similar nature to those perpetrated in Denmark.
Chief inspector Paatero says that both the Copenhagen killings and the Paris shootings both had elements not found in Finland, but that the country's police should still be worried about the events and their potential repercussions.
”One reason is that the international strikes have elements of copycating to them, so we have to take it into consideration here too,” Paatero says.
He says that some details in the shootings case in Copenhagen might justify raising the threat level in Finland, despite there being no evidence to tie the shooter to Finland.