Latvia: New Plaque at Riga's Old Jewish Cemetery

Riga, Latvia. New plaque at Old Jewish Cemetery. Photo courtesy of U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad (2011)

Riga, Latvia. dedication of new plaque at Old Jewish Cemetery. Choir performing in Yiddish before ceremony. Photo courtesy of U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad (2011)

Riga, Latvia. President of the Jewish Communities of Latvia, Arkady Suharenko and Lee Seeman unveiling new plaque at Old Jewish Cemetery. Photo courtesy of U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad (2011)

Riga, Latvia. Old Jewish Cemetery. This how the site looked when I visited with Commission members Lee Seeman and Gary Lavine in 2003. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2003).

Latvia: New Plaque at Riga's Old Jewish Cemetery
by Samuel D. Gruber

(ISJM) On June 30, 201 the Jewish Communities of Latvia organized a series of events commemorating the 450th anniversary of the Jewish community in Latvia and to the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Holocaust. As part of those events, a new explanatory plaque sponsored by the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad was installed at Riga's Old Jewish Cemetery. Commission member Lee Seeman organized the project and raised the funds.

U.AS. Commission Member Lee Seeman and U.S. Ambassador to Latvia, Judith Garber

I am especially pleased to see Lee's continuing commitment to this project and so many others in the region. We visited the site together in 2003 with Meijers Melers, the preeminent expert on Latvian Jewish sites, and saw the relatively new large boulder on site, with a prominent Jewish Star, but there was no text or other information telling what the site was and what had happened to it. Without an informed guide, we would have been entirely in the dark. Lee Seeman persevered and saw to it that future visitors would not be so perplexed.

In all its projects the U.S. Commission has never felt it enough to charge people to "Never Forget." The Commission insists in all its projects that accurate information is provided to the visitor or viewer to better teach them what to remember. Its previous work in Riga, on the Rumbula massacre and mass grave site monument is a good example.

Riga, Latvia. Old Jewish Cemetery. Impressive memorial stone placed on site in 1990s, but with explanatory text. Photo: Samuel D. Gruber (2003).

The plaque is in Latvian and English. I do not yet have photos to post, but here is the English text:

2011
The old Jewish Cemetery
This is Riga's first Jewish cemetery. It was opened in 1725 and burials continued here until the late 1930s. after German forces occupied Riga in 1941, the prayer house and the mortuary were burned down. the cemetery became a mass burial site for over 1000 Jews killed in the streets and houses of the Riga Ghetto. Following World War Two, many of the cemetery's tombstones were removed and used as building material. Others deteriorated. The wall surrounding the cemetery collapsed, and the site left uncared for fell into disrepair. In the 1960s, the site was razed and renamed "The Park of the Communist Brigades." In 1992, the park was renamed "The Old Jewish Cemetery”

Latvia: New Report on Vidzeme Region Burial Grounds

Riga, Latvia. Memorial at Rumbula, the site of the massacre of tens of thousands of Latvian Jews. Photos: Samuel Gruber.

Latvia: New Report on Vidzeme Region Burial Grounds

Lo Tishkach has published its latest report about Jewish cemeteries in Europe. This report presents information about the location and condition of the Jewish cemeteries and Holocaust-era mass graves in the northern Latvian region of Vidzeme, including Latvia's capital Riga. The report outlines the current situation and location of eleven Jewish cemeteries and 28 mass grave sites. Truth by told, because these sites are near Riga, they are among the better documented and protected sites in the country. Still, they also represent some of the most important places, including many sites of mass murder.

Phil Carmel, director of Lo Tishkach writes: "Set up in 2006, the Lo Tishkach Foundation European Jewish Cemeteries and Holocaust Mass Graves Initiative aims to collate all known data on Europe’s Jewish cemeteries and mass graves, and to incorporate this vast source of information in an online database so that it is readily and easily accessible to everyone. This database now stands at close to 11,000 individual records of cemeteries and mass graves and when complete may well contain details on close to 20,000 sites. Much of the core information for this project was gathered from multiple sources but our records cannot be truly accurate and up-to-date without details of the situation on the ground...During the summer months of 2010, thirty-nine burial grounds in Vidzeme were located, visited, surveyed and photographed, creating a unique record of the region’s Jewish heritage. Moreover, the surveys took place within the context of broad educational seminars for local youth and students in Latvia, building skills in leadership and volunteerism and raising awareness of Jewish history, heritage and identity."

The report builds on a decade of earlier documentation work of researcher Meyer Meler which resulted in the publication Jewish Cemeteries in Latvia published in 2006 [ISBN 9984-19-904-5]. That work was sponsored by the Latvian Council of Jewish Communities, the Museum "Jews in Latvia," and the United States Commission for the Preservation of America's Heritage Abroad.

The new report finds four cemeteries need in proper demarcation and maintenance, two other sites to be partially demarcated and protected, with a final fives sites lacking any appropriate form of identification and demarcation. Regarding mass grave sites, only four of them lack identification, and three sites require memorial markers that make mention of the Jewish victims buried there. The remaining 21 sites are appropriately marked.

The report is the second to be published of Latvian regions by Lo Tishkach and follows extensive surveys, local interviews and additional research undertaken by local students over the summer of 2010. A report covering Latvia’s Zemgale region was published last year where eighth cemeteries and three mass grave sites were identified as needing proper demarcation and signage, as well as removal of excess vegetation.

For a full list of surveyed cemeteries and information on contributing to cemetery care and repair see the Foundation's website, which also reports monthly on news affecting Jewish cemeteries.

Riga, Latvia. New Jewish Cemetery. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2004.

Riga, Latvia. New Jewish Cemetery. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2004.

Arkady Suharenko, Chairman of the Latvian Council of Jewish Communities, wrote in the introduction to the report that "The majority of the mass graves remained unmarked for the entire Soviet period, and only in a few places, the local authorities erected memorial signs, although these did not specify that those murdered at these sites were Holocaust victims. Jewish life in Latvia revived from virtual non-existence in the late 1980’s, with the liberalisation of the political system of the USSR.

Among the goals of re-established Jewish communities, one of the main ones was the preservation of Jewish heritage and memory. Over the last twenty years, extensive research has been undertaken and currently, most of the mass graves are surveyed and marked; the cemeteries have been surveyed, and at some sites, restoration work has been conducted.

The participation of the Latvian Jewish community in the Lo Tishkach project was important for us both in evaluating the current state of Jewish burial places and in making an in-depth research of some of these sites, as well as in enabling the young generation of Latvian Jews to be in touch with their roots and the Jewish history of the region. We hope that this project will contribute to the development and advance of the Latvian Jewish community, providing a new dimension of understanding the importance of preserving our cultural and spiritual heritage."

Riga, Latvia. New Jewish Cemetery. Detail of contemporary gravestone. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2004.

Latvia: Riga Synagogue Reopens After 2-Year Restoration

Riga, Latvia. Synagogue before restoration. Photos: Samuel D. Gruber (2003)

Latvia: Riga Synagogue Reopens After 2-Year Restoration

(ISJM) Today was the reopening of the restored Art Nouveau synagogue in Riga, Latvia, first opened in 1905. Much of the credit for this project goes to Gita Umanovska,. Executive Director of the Riga Community. Gita was instrumental in preparing the application the resulted in EU funds for the project as part of a larger tourism/economic development grant to Riga. As in many of the Jewish heritage projects in Latvia undertaken and completed in the past half decade, much of the success is also due to the organizational, inspirational and financial support of Community president Arkady Suharenko.

At the end of this blog entry I attach a passage from my travel notes written in September, 2003, after attending Saturday morning services at the synagogue. I have visited the synagogue several times, but believe the architecture of a synagogue is usually best seen when the building is in use.

This synagogue, needs to be seen close up and in detail, too. It is one of the last - perhaps the very last - major synagogue to widely employ Egyptian decorative motifs. Perhaps this is an influence from Copenhagen, where the Egyptian Revival was very strong, as the synagogue there bears witness.

- SDG

Riga, Latvia. Synagogue before restoration. Photos: Samuel D. Gruber (2003)

Riga’s Only Synagogue Reopens

Wednesday, August 26 2009

RIGA, Latvia – This week in Riga, after two years of restoration work, the doors of the Peitav Shul – the only synagogue in the Latvian capital – will finally open once again.

Reconstruction work on the building began in 2007 at a cost of more than $2.8 million. While most of the funds were contributed by foreign sponsors, financial support was also pledged by the Latvian government and about 100 other donors. The outstanding balance needed to complete the necessary work was raised from amongst members of the local Jewish community. About 1,000 local Jews donated sums ranging from $10 to $100,000. The names of all donors – regardless of the size of their contribution – are forever engraved on a plaque located at the synagogue’s entrance.

When work began on the synagogue it became apparent that the building was in much worse condition than originally thought. As a result, nearly 60 percent of the roof had to be replaced. When the funds dried out once again, two members of the Jewish community’s Board of Trustees – Leonid Esterkin and Arkady Sukharenko – each made a sizeable contribution.

“We are proud that our generation has that honor of restoring the synagogue to its former grandeur and of leaving it to future generations in this condition,” stated Mr. Sukharenko. “We are grateful to everyone who participated in this noble and important endeavor, and have invested their hearts and funds.”

Click here to read full story

Riga, Latvia. Synagogue before restoration. Photos: Samuel D. Gruber (2003)

A Visit to the Riga Synagogue (September 2003)
notes by Samuel D. Gruber

I recount my experience at the synagogue, since it is one the few Jewish experiences in Latvia available to visitors from America or elsewhere. The activity at the synagogue constitutes one relatively small part of the Latvian Jewish life – the religious – but it is the religious community that is fully recognized by the government in issues of property restitution and other areas, so the synagogue and its supporters have special influence in the definition of Jewish life and community, and on financial resources, in Latvia today.

I counted about sixty men in the synagogue during the service. They weren’t all praying, or even pretending to follow along. A large number kept up an incessant chatter throughout the service, and especially throughout the Torah service. About a dozen women looked down from the balcony, where they not only were separated by the height and space, but by a high blue curtain as well. The women would lean on the parapet wall with the curtain pushed behind them. They tended to bunch in pairs, one on each side of a column. There were old women. There really was no danger of sexual distraction form them.

Barkhan led the “warm-up” prayers. He could hardly be heard, but he read at the shtender (reader’s stand) set on the platform before the Ark. Then the cantor, a fairly young man with a wonderful voice took over. He apparently teaches music at the university. Few there can read any Hebrew or know the prayers. is in Hebrew with Russian translation on the facing page. There are transliterations in the back of the siddur. (Kadosh Kadosh Kadosh was the prayer that get the most response, it was prayed as Kadoish, Kadoish, Kadoish). Most of the Torah reading was done by another Lubavicher, but the first section was read by a visitor, a man from Israel. As a visitor, I was offered an aliyah (opportunity to “go up” to the Torah and recite the blessing before and after the Torah reading), which I accepted, and recited the blessing in Hebrew. Most others read Russian transliteration printed on a sheet on the bimah.

After services I attended the kiddush in the social hall in the synagogue basement. This was set up with long tables and all the participants sat down for a traditional Jewish meal. It may be that like in L’viv many attend the service just to receive the free meal. There was herring and bread, chopped beets, and a cholent. I left after this, but more courses were being served. Rabbi Glasman gave the Barucha, and he also had everyone recite, word by word, the Barucha over the bread, though many had already started eating. Then one older man sang with a fine voice a long song in Yiddish about studying Torah (or Toyrah).