The Jewish Museum of Riga is located at 6 Skolas Street Riga LV-1322 Latvia. The Director is Mr Marger Vestermanis. The museum has recently been renovated and has many moving exhibits and photos. Visitors are welcome and a short video is shown depicting the tragedy of the Holocaust in Latvia. The Jewish Community Centre is on the ground floor in the same Building as the museum. A number of dedicated women distribute food parcels to the needy once a month, organise meals on wheels, and arrange holidays in Jurmala for the poor of the Community. These are a few of the many projects they undertake and for which they  receive funding from WIZO.

Extracts and summaries from text in pamphlet advertising the Jewish Museum.
Permission given by Mr Vestermanis.

What should a Jewish Museum be like in a region where everything that was Jewish perished in the Holocaust and where only miraculously preserved tombstones remind us of the past of Jewish people? Should the Jewish museum in this historical reality be only a collector and curator of things saved from destruction-relics? Or should it be a memorial of the world that perished forever in torments and sufferings?

We choose the last.

• We are able to preserve the the genuine picture of Jewish life in historic documents and images.
• We have the opportunity to give a true notion of Jewish life on weekdays and holidays, of their expectations and accomplishments, which need not be revised or glorified.
• The 400 years' hard history of Jews in Latvia.
• The military conflict of rivals, lasting for centuries and the frequent change of alien rulers.
• The time of the first Latvian Republic (1918-1940)
• Two great cultures blended here-German and Russian -determining to a great extent the way of life.
• Avoidance of assimilation and preservation of the native language- Yiddish.
• Prewar decade and Ivrit as language of Jewish revival.
• Religious communities from Lithuania and Germany-"Mitnagids"
• Hasidism.
• Political movements such as the "Bund"
• Zionism. Left-wing, religious and right-wing( revisionist) factions. Political militant organisation "Brit Trumpeldor"arose in Riga.
• 2 distinguished Jewish philosophers of the 20th century Yeshayahu Leibovitch and Isaiah Berlin came from Latvia. Museum photos
• The renowned religious thinker Abraham Kook later became the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine.
• A galaxy of prominent Jewish creative personalities. Yiddish language-father and son Weinreich, World renowned sculptor Nahum Aronson, Baritone Joseph Schwarz and many others left their trace on world culture.

A museum cannot replace a library, because it is impossible to tell everything by means of exhibits. The power of the museum lies in the stark authenticity of historic originals reflecting a given epoch without tendentiousness and embroidery. Exactly in this way we want to show our history to anyone wishing to know the truth about ourselves, our past and our tragedy. Then the wish with which Jews from time immemorial see off their deceased-"Let his soul be tied in the bundle of the living"-will really come true.
 
 

Where it says suggestions or comments could you put
As I Arlene Beare have nothing to do with the Jewish Museum other than
compiling this page on their behalf please send any queries to -- Mr Marger Vestermanis Director Jewish Museum 6 Skolas Street Riga LV-1322 Latvia.