Many of Riga’s streets, historic buildings and memorial sites tell the story of the city’s Jewish community, from its arrival and growth to its flourishing during Latvia’s interwar independence, the devastation of the Holocaust and its revival in modern times. This brief overview of more than five centuries of Jewish history in Riga offers visitors a deeper understanding of Jewish life in the city and its surrounding areas, as well as the community’s lasting cultural and historical legacy.
The History of the Jewish Community in Riga
1. Early Jewish Settlement in Riga (15th–18th Centuries)
The history of Riga’s Jewish community dates back more than five centuries. The earliest written records of Jewish merchants in the city date from the late 15th and early 16th centuries. However, for hundreds of years, Riga remained largely closed to Jewish newcomers. It was not until 1638, during Swedish rule, that a designated lodging house was established where Jews were permitted to stay and trade, although only for very limited periods. In 1725, land was allocated for a Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of the city, even though Jews had yet to be granted permanent residency rights.
2. The Growth of Riga’s Jewish Community in the 19th Century
A turning point came under the Russian Empire. In 1764, Jews with a special protected status were granted permission to settle permanently in Riga, and the community gradually began to grow, particularly after Jews from nearby Sloka were allowed to move to the city. However, official permission to establish an organised Jewish community was not granted until late 1841, while political and property ownership rights followed much later, towards the end of the 19th century.
3. Jewish Education, Culture and Zionism in Riga
The diversity of Riga’s Jewish community played a defining role in shaping its identity. Initially, most Jews in Riga came from Courland (Kurzeme) and were strongly influenced by German culture, with more than half considering German their native language. Another equally significant group consisted of immigrants from the territories of present-day Lithuania, Poland and Belarus. They tended to follow more Orthodox religious traditions and spoke Yiddish in everyday life. Over time, Russian and Latvian also became increasingly common alongside German and Yiddish within Riga’s Jewish community.
By the second half of the 19th century and the early 20th century, Riga had developed into an important centre of Jewish education, largely thanks to the influence of Enlightenment ideas from Courland and Germany. Alongside traditional cheders, where children studied the fundamentals of Judaism, the city also had reformed cheders and secular schools for boys and girls. Around the turn of the century, Riga experienced rapid growth in Jewish educational institutions, crafts, cultural activities and community organisations. Socialist and Zionist ideas gained popularity, and a local branch of the Bund, the Jewish socialist movement, was established. Although most Jews continued to work in trade and crafts, the number of professionals, particularly doctors, lawyers and artists, increased significantly.
The First World War and the revolutions that followed brought this flourishing period to an abrupt end. Some residents of the city, located near the front line, were deported, while many others were forced to flee as refugees. Jewish life in Riga was severely disrupted.
4. Jewish Life in Independent Latvia (1918–1940)
Latvia declared independence in 1918, marking a new chapter in the history of Riga’s Jewish community. In 1920, the city was home to 24,725 Jews, and the newly established Republic of Latvia guaranteed ethnic and cultural self-determination rights to national minorities, including Jews. During the 1920s and 1930s, Riga had twelve Jewish schools offering education in Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian and German, as well as several secondary schools, a Jewish People's University and a Jewish conservatory. The community also maintained theatres, libraries, newspapers, sports clubs, charitable organisations, five synagogues and more than twenty prayer houses.
Riga also became one of Eastern Europe’s most influential centres of Zionism. In 1923, the first branch of Beitar, an international Zionist Jewish youth movement, was established in the city, followed later by the Beitar Naval School.
5. The Holocaust and the Riga Ghetto
The Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 brought much of this vibrant community life to a halt. Almost all Jewish cultural and social organisations were dissolved, along with schools teaching in Hebrew, while numerous community and religious leaders faced political repression. Of the approximately 15,000 Latvian residents deported to Siberia on 14 June 1941, nearly 2,000 were Jews.
An even more tragic chapter began with the occupation of Riga by Nazi Germany on 1 July 1941. Only a few thousand Jews managed to evacuate or join the Red Army, while approximately 35,000 remained in the city. The Riga Ghetto, established on 23 August 1941, became a place of immense suffering and mass murder. Most of its original inhabitants were killed, including approximately 25,000 Jews who were shot in the Rumbula Forest during two mass executions on 30 November and 8 December 1941.
Before the Second World War, Riga had a Jewish population of approximately 45,000. By October 1944, when Nazi occupation ended and Soviet forces entered the city, only 164 Jewish Holocaust survivors remained in Riga.
6. Jewish Life in Riga During the Soviet Period
After the war, deportees, refugees, soldiers and former concentration camp prisoners returned to the city. Jews from other parts of the Soviet Union also settled in Riga, gradually rebuilding the community. From the 1960s onwards, Riga once again became one of the most important centres of Jewish national identity and Zionist activity in the Soviet Union. Much of this activity took place underground, and several activists were arrested. In 1970, approximately 30,500 Jews were officially registered in Riga, around one-third of whom later emigrated to Israel.
As public life became more liberal in the late Soviet period, the Latvian Jewish Cultural Society was founded in 1988. It later evolved into the Riga Jewish Community. During this period, the first Jewish school in the Soviet Union was also opened.
7. The Jewish Community in Riga Today
Today, Riga’s Jewish community, numbering more than 8,000 people, is the largest in the Baltic States. Jewish cultural, religious and social life in Riga centres around the synagogue, two general education schools, kindergartens, a social and community centre, a museum and various religious and community organisations.
The history of Jews in Riga is an essential part of the city’s cultural heritage, reflecting centuries of resilience, diversity, tragedy and renewal. From early Jewish merchants and the development of a thriving cultural community to the devastating events of the Holocaust and the revival of Jewish life, this heritage remains an important part of Riga’s identity today.
Source: Ilja Lenskis, Aleksandra Lurje, Vera Moševiča, Gita Umanovska, Jews in Riga.
