Latvia Jewish Records

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Latvia

Jewish Records

Historical Background

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. 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. The Holocaust killed 90% of Latvia's Jewish population. Under Stalin, Jews, who formed only 5% of the population, constituted 12% of the deportees.

Today's Jewish community traces its roots to survivors of the Holocaust, Jews who fled to the USSR to escape the Nazi invasion and later returned, and Jews newly immigrated to Latvia from the Soviet Union. The Latvian Jewish community today is small but active.

Online Jewish Vital Records

Digital Images

Raduraksti has Jewish records available online for the following locations: Aizputes, Bauskas, Daugavpils, Glazmankas, Grīvas, Grobiņas, Ilūkstes, Jaunjelgavas, Jēkabpils, Jelgavas, Kuldīgas, Liepājas, Ludzas, Maltas, Piltenes, Rēzeknes, Ribinišku, Rīgas, Sabiles, Saldus, Sasmakas, Skaistkalnes, Subates, Tukuma, Varakļānu, Ventspils, Viļakas and Višķu.

For help navigating the Raduraksti website, please see the Raduraksti: Online Records "How to" Guide.

Cemeteries

Click here to access a web site, which includes names of people buried in selected Latvian and Lithuanian Jewish cemeteries. Most of the tombstones do not have surnames, just the given name, patronymic and year of death. Comparable database for Belarussian cemeteries will be available in the future.

Sources in Print

Bogdanova, Rita. and Ruvin Ferber. "A Website List of Latvian Jewry Prior to World War II." In AVOTAYNU Vol. XXIV, no. 3 (Fall 2008); pp. 9-11.

Websites

JewishGen Latvia Database is a multiple database search facility.