The Synagogue in Turku, Finland, was vandalised yesterday, 27 January, Holocaust Remembrance Day. Its façade was splattered with red paint. Also on Sunday, local media report that activists from the ‘Towards Freedom’ movement – a rebranded version of the banned Nordic Resistance Movement – burned an Israeli flag and read out a Holocaust denial statement outside Tampere railway station. “Catholics in our country are deeply concerned about the rise in hateful acts against the Jewish community in Finland and other religious communities”, Marco Pasinato, chancellor at the Diocese of Helsinki, wrote in a statement released today. “These acts cause anxiety and a sense of insecurity among all those who wish to live in peace for one’s own good and the good of the Finnish society”. While calling for a “clear and unequivocal” condemnation and a “responsible investigation” into the causes and consequences of such acts, Pasinato asked that “everything be done to prevent” these acts from happening again. Pasinato also called on “all people of good will, who in our experience are the vast majority of the Finns”, to work “together with greater determination to build a society where people are respected and have equal rights, regardless of their religion or creed”.

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