Entrance to Riga
Entrance to Riga
Brief History
Jewish
Population over the years
Languages
Synagogues and Rabbis
University of Latvia Center for
Jewish Studies in Riga
Jewish Museum of Riga
Sir Isaiah Berlin
Hommage à Josef Elgurt (a Jewish painter from Riga)
Riga Picture
Gallery
Ancestors Photos
Jewish_Holdings at Latvian State
Historical Archives
Riga was founded in 1201 by the Teutonic Order. In the 15th and 16th
centuries Jews had economic ties with Riga. They were allowed to come
to Riga to work for limited periods of time but could not live in the
city permanently. In 1638 a hostel was opened for them and in 1725 they
received permission to establish a Jewish cemetery. There were about 70
Jews in Riga at this time and they left in 1743 when the Jews of Russia
were banished. In 1764 some rich Jewish families were classed as
"Protected Jews" and were considered as guardians of the "foreign Jews"
who had come to the hostel .In 1765 a Chevra
Kadisha was officially founded. In 1785 Jews traded in Riga but had to
register
in a small town called Sloka.(Schlock) not far from Riga. In 1813 they
were
granted permission to live in Riga and there were 736 inhabitants
comprising
Protected Jews,Foreign Jews and Schlock citizens. In 1858 they were
allowed
to own real estate.The area around Moscow Road was known as "Moscow
Vorstadt"
and was a main area of Jewish settlement. The Russians evacuated the
population of Kurland in 1915 while retreating from the advancing
Germans. They started with the Jews in March or April of that year.At
the end of the 19thC some
Jews
moved out and lived in the centre of the City In 1941 they were forced
back
into the Moscow area which became the Riga Ghetto.There were Jewish
intellectuals,
professionals, and tradesmen but between the 2 world wars about 10%
of
Latvian Jews were paupers.
In 1940-1941 leading Jews were arrested and perished in Stalin's Gulag. The NKVD deported 14,000 inhabitants of Latvia on June 14th 1941 including about 5000 Jews, half from Riga. After the war some survivors returned and some Jews from the USSR settled in Riga. 23,000 Jews were registered in Riga in 1989.. There are at present about 9000 Jews in Riga.
1918-1934: Establishment of the Latvian Republic. Saima Period
15th May 1934 -1940: Karlis Ulmanis' presidency
1940-1941: Soviet occupation
22nd of June 1941 - 13th October 1944: German occupation
1944-1990: Soviet occupation
1990: Establishment of the Latvian Republic.
Jewish Population over the years
Kurland "mitnaggedim"spoke German and in 1881 half of Riga Jews considered their spoken language to be German. A strong German cultural influence dominated. Little by little others came from Belorussia( White Russia),Lithuania and Poland and spoke Yiddish. At the end of the 19thC Russian was added. During the 1920's and 1930's the youth learned the Latvian language.Hebrew was mastered as Zionism spread. According to the 1925 census,85% of the Jews in Latvia considered Yiddish to be their mother tongue. Yiddish was the language of Primary schools.
"Alt Neue Schul" was opened in1850.
The Great Choral Synagogue "Kar Schul" 25 Gogola Street was consecrated
in 1871. In 1941 300 Lithuanian Jewish refugees sheltering in the
synagogue,entire Jewish families from the neighbourhood and passers-by
in the street were
burnt alive in the synagogue. Ruins and a grey memorial stone carved
with
a Magen David serve as a monument.
In 1873 a Soldiers Synagogue was founded.
By 1915 there were about 40 synagogues.
1873-1893 Rabbi Aharon Pompiansky
Followed by
Rabbi Shlomo Pucher
Rabbi Leib Kantor
References
Extracts from text by Marger Vestermanis Director of Jewish Museum
in
Riga. Fragments of the Jewish History of Riga.
Extracts from text held at Kibbutz Shefayim by Association of Latvian
and Estonian Jews in Israel.
Jewish Holdings at the Latvian State Historical Archives
All Latvia Database
(now called JewishGen Latvia database)
The All Latvia Database has
information from a number of different sources. Data has been drawn
from Family Lists for Riga,Courland and other shtetlach in Latvia,
Recruits Enlistment registers, Duma Voter's lists, Donations to Schools
in Riga, Business and Telephone
Directories, Vedomosti (Russian Empire daily newspapers) and many other
sources.
The latest additions include a database of passport registration names
from
all over the Russian Empire. Visitors to Riga for any length of time
had
to register their passports with the police. It is thus a great source
of
information as relatives visiting Riga can be identified. It is not a
passport
application database. We have also included the first databases from
the
1897 All Russian Census with census names from Rezekne and
Krustpils.
The 1897 database will be added to at intervals.
HaMelitz index
of Lithuanian and Latvian donors to charitable causes
Names of Jewish
Survivors in Riga after the Shoah.
Poor Jews Shelter
(Names of Jews from Riga)
Yizkor Book
Translations
Latvia Files Kibbutz Shefayim
The Poor Jews Temporary Shelter Database (The following will Search entries for Riga, from 29/5/1896 to 10/7/1914)
Please use back on your Browser to return to Riga
| Compiled by Arlene Beare Nov 28,1998 Suggestions or Comments? Contact: Arlene Beare Copyright©1998-2006 Arlene Beare Updated May 24th,2006 |
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