The history of the Jews in Latvia dates back to the first Jewish colony established in Piltene in 1571. Jews contributed to Latvia's development until the Northern War (1700–1721), which decimated Latvia's population.R. O. G. Urch. Latvia: Country and People. London, Allen & Unwin. 1938. The Jewish community reestablished itself in the 18th century, mainly through an influx from Prussia, and came to play a principal role in the economic life of Latvia.
Under an independent Latvia, Jews formed political parties and participated as members of parliament. The Jewish community flourished. Jewish parents had the right to send their children to schools using Hebrew as the language of instruction, as part of a significant network of minority schools.
World War II ended the prominence of the Jewish community. Under Joseph Stalin, Jews, who formed only 5% of the population, constituted 12% of the deportees.Swain, G. Between Stalin and Hitler. Routledge, New York. 2004. 80% of Latvia's Jewish population was murdered in the Holocaust.
Today's Jewish community traces its roots to survivors of the Holocaust, Jews who fled to the USSR's interior to escape the German invasion and later returned, and mostly to Jews newly immigrated to Latvia from the Soviet Union. The Latvian Jewish community today is small but active.
General history
The ancient Latvian tribes had no connections with the Jews and their entrance was banned into Livonia.The Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Siegfried von Feuchtwangen, banned Jews from entering Livonia in 1306 (or 1309), which implied that the Jews created competition for German merchants. In the next few centuries, Jews possibly came to Livonia as authorized merchants from other countries and cities, but did not settle in Livonia for a long life. Nevertheless, occasional records attest to the presence of individual Jews: a 14th-century tombstone near Jelgava and a 1536 reference to a Jewish merchant named Jacob in Riga suggest limited activity, often by Jews with special privileges or ties to rulers of German lands, as Livonia was part of the Holy Roman Empire.
Only after the Livonian War in the second half of the 16th century, when the lands of Latvia became the subject to Denmark, Poland and Lithuania, Jews began to arrive in the territory of Latvia. First was the Duchy of Courland, where there formed a Jewish community near modern day Piltene and Aizpute after 1570. In the 17th century large numbers of Jews arrived in the Duchy of Courland that was a vassal of the King of Poland. The Jews were entrusted with the offices of tax-collectors, money-changers and merchants. They facilitated Duke Jacob Ketler's (1610–1681) economic reforms. Attempts of the conservative landowners to banish the Jews failed. In 18th century, Duke Ernst Johann von Biron and his father Peter von Biron had a benevolent attitude toward the Jews. A great role in the modernization of Courland was achieved by finance assistant court Jew Aaron Levi Lipman (served until 1741), upon whose request many craftsmen, doctors and teachers of Jewish extraction came to Courland. They brought the idea of emancipation of the Jews - Haskalah, with them. Jews also took part in the building of the Duke's palaces in Rundāle and Jelgava. In 1793, the Jews in Jelgava expressed their gratitude to Duke Peter von Biron for the protection of Jews and religious tolerance.
In the Eastern part of Latvia, Latgale, Jews came from Ukraine, Belarus and Poland in the 17th and 18th centuries, of whom most belonged to the Polish culture of Yiddish. A large part of their community life was managed by the kahal (self-government). In the 17th and 18th centuries, Jews were not permitted to stay in Riga or Vidzeme. During the reign of Catherine II from 1766 onwards, Jewish merchants were allowed to stay in Riga for six months, provided they lived in a particular block of the city. In 1785, the Jews of Sloka were allowed a temporary stay in Riga for a longer period of time.
Jewish population in the Latvian Republic
During the World War I in 1914, there were about 190,000 Jews in the territories of Latvia (7.4% of the total population). In 1920 the Jews of Latvia numbered 79,644 (5% of the population). After the signing of the peace treaty between the Latvian Republic and the Soviet Union on August 11, 1920, repatriates began to return from Russia; these included a considerable number of Jewish refugees. In this time, there were 40,000 Jews in Riga alone.
Economic life
Jews already played an important role in industry, commerce, and banking before World War I. After the establishment of the republic, a severe crisis overtook the young state. The government had not yet consolidated itself and the country had become impoverished as a result of World War I and the struggle for independence which Latvia had conducted for several years (1918–20) against both Germany and the Soviet Union. With the cessation of hostilities, Latvia found itself insufficient in both the administrative and economic spheres. Among other difficulties, there was running inflation. Jews made a large contribution to the rebuilding of the state from the ruins of the war and its consequences. Having much experience in the export of the raw materials of timber and linen before World War I, upon their return from Russia they resumed export of these goods on their own initiative. They also developed a variegated industry, and a considerable part of the import trade, such as that of petrol, coal, and textiles, was concentrated in their hands. However, once the Jews had made their contribution, the authorities began to force them out of their economic positions and to deprive them of their sources of livelihood.
Although, in theory, there were no discriminatory laws against the Jews in democratic Latvia and they enjoyed equality of rights, in practice the economic policy of the government was intended to restrict their activities. This was also reflected in the area of credit. The Jews of Latvia developed a ramified network of loan banks for the granting of credit with the support of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Colonization Association (JCA).
Public and political life
+ Seats won by Jewish political parties in elections during the first Republic of LatviaPartyConstituentAssembly(1920)FirstSaeima1922SecondSaeima1925ThirdSaeima1928FourthSaeima1931Agudas Israel–2212Bundists–111–Jewish Democratic Bloc–––0–Jewish Economic Bloc–––0–Jewish National BlocHistadruth-Hacionith520––Jewish National Democratic Party0––Mizrachi121Jewish People's Party–0–––Jewish Progressive Association––––0Jews of Ludza0––––Ceire Cion1111–United List of Zemgale Jews––––0
+ Jewish parliamentary representatives, first Republic of Latvia Saeima Representatives Fraction (frakcija) 2nd Mordehajs (Morduhs) Dubins, Maksis Lazersons, Mordehajs Markuss Nuroks, Ruvins Vitenbergs Jewish Noijs Maizels Jewish social-democratic "Bund"
Culture and education
On December 8, 1919, the general bill on schools was passed by the People's Council of Latvia; this coincided with the bill on the cultural autonomy of the minorities. In the Ministry of Education, there were special departments for the minorities. The engineer Jacob Landau (Jakobs Landau) headed the Jewish department.
After the Ulmanis coup d’état of May 15, 1934, restrictions were placed on the autonomy of minorities' "cultures and minorities" education as well as education in native language. This was part of a wider move to standardize Latvian usage in schooling and professional and governmental sectors. As a result, Jewish schools continue to operate while secular Yiddish schools were closed. This resulted in the works of eminent Jewish authors such as the poet Hayim Nahman Bialik () and historian Simon Dubnow () being removed from the Jewish curriculum.
All political parties and organizations were also abolished. Of Jewish groups, only Agudat Israel continued to operate. Jewish social life did, however, retain its vitality. Owing in part to the restrictions imposed on minorities including Jews, the influence of religion and Zionism increased, motivating some to immigrate to Palestine. This also increased the influence of the banned Social Democrats, while the Jewish intelligentsia gravitated toward Zionism.
World War II
Soviet occupation, 1940–1941 After first extracting Latvian agreement under duress—Stalin personally threatened the Latvian foreign minister, in Moscow, during negotiations—to the stationing of Soviet troops on Latvian soil, the Soviet Union invaded Latvia on June 16, 1940. Jewish civic and political leaders began to be arrested in August 1940.Leo Dribins, Armands Gūtmanis, Marģers Vestermanis. "The Jewish Community of Latvia: History, Tragedy, Rebirth" at the Latvian Ministry of Foreign Affairs , retrieved December 22, 2010. The first to be arrested were the Zionist leaders Favid Varhaftig and Mahanud Alperin. The leadership of Betar were deported. In 1941, the Soviets arrested Nuroks, Dubins and other Jewish civic leaders, Zionists, conservatives, and right wing socialists. Their arrest orders were approved by S. Shustin. When the Soviets executed the first round of mass Baltic deportations, on the night of June 13–14, 1941, thousands of Latvian Jews were deported along with Latvians. Of all the ethnic groups so deported, Jews suffered proportionately more than any other, and were deported to especially harsh conditions.Swain, Geoff, Between Stalin and Hitler: class war and race war on the Dvina. RoutledgeCurzon, 2004. Records have been preserved of the deportations of 1,212 Jewish Latvian citizens (12.5% of those deported to the far reaches of the USSR) but the actual number of Jews deported was certainly larger, on the order of 5,000 to 6,000 during the first Soviet occupation.jewishgen.org and These Names Accuse (Latvian National Foundation, Stockholm) both estimate that 5,000 Jews were deported in the first Soviet mass deportation of June 13–14, 1941.Dov Levin, quoted in Gordon, F. Latvians and Jews Between Germany and Russia
The deportations of Jewish civic leaders and rabbis, members of parliament, and the professional and merchant class only a week before Nazi Germany invaded the Baltics left the Jewish community ill-prepared to organize in the face of the invasion and immediately ensuing Holocaust. Those deported included Constitutional Convention members and , 1st and 3rd Saeima deputy and head of the Bund Noijs Maizels, as well as other Jewish members of parliament. Men were separated from their families and sent to labor camps at Solikamsk (in Perm), Vyatka, and Vorkuta,Gordon, F. Latvians and Jews Between Germany and Russia while their wives and children were sent to Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, and elsewhere. Approximately half died as the consequence of their deportation, some deported more than once—Mordehai Dubin died after being deported a second time in 1956.
It is estimated that of the 2,100,000 Jews who came under Soviet control as a result of Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact dividing Eastern Europe, about 1,900,000 were deported to Siberia and central Asia.Unger, L. and Jelen, C. U Express, Paris, 1985
German occupation of Latvia, 1941–1944