Latvia
Latvia, a country in northern Baltics, has experienced numerous rulers, peoples, and political and cultural changes throughout its history. Located along the Baltic Sea, it borders Lithuania to the south, Estonia to the north, Russia to the east, and Belarus to the southeast. The area was inhabited since the second millennium BCE, primarily by local Baltic tribes such as the Curonians, Latgalians, Semigallians, and Selonians. These tribes practiced agriculture, fishing, and trade, maintaining pagan cultures until the start of Christian conquests.
In the 13th century, German knightly orders, led by the Order of the Sword Brothers and later the Livonian Order, invaded. Meanwhile, the city of Riga was founded by Bishop Albert, soon becoming a commercial center and crusader ecclesiastical stronghold. The crusader orders suppressed local cultures and imposed Catholic Christianity. During the Middle Ages, Riga joined the Hanseatic League, enhancing its economic importance.
In the 16th century, after a brief period under the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, northern Latvia fell under Swedish rule and southern Latvia became the Duchy of Courland. In the 18th century, after the Great Northern War, Latvia became part of the Russian Empire. This era saw the development of trade, agriculture, and industry, and Riga grew into one of the largest and most advanced cities in the empire. However, Russian rule also brought cultural oppression and efforts to erode national identity.
In the 19th century, the Latvian national awakening gained momentum. There was a revival of the Latvian language, local literature, and political-cultural consciousness. Latvians began demanding autonomy and civil rights, especially against the dominance of Baltic Germans and Russian governance. Meanwhile, rapid industrialization, railroad construction, and urbanization transformed Riga and other cities.
After World War I and the Russian Empire’s collapse, Latvia declared independence on November 18, 1918. Its wars of independence continued until 1920, ending with a peace treaty with Soviet Russia. Latvia became a democratic republic with parliamentary institutions, a progressive constitution, education systems, and rule of law.
The first decade of independence saw relative prosperity, ethnic diversity, and economic cooperation. But in 1934, Prime Minister Kārlis Ulmanis staged a coup, dissolved parliament, and established authoritarian rule, restricting civil liberties while maintaining economic stability.
In 1940, following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union, Latvia was annexed by the USSR. The Soviet regime carried out nationalizations, mass deportations, and persecution of the bourgeoisie and intelligentsia. A year later, during Operation Barbarossa, Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Latvia, where about 70,000 Latvian Jews and others brought from elsewhere were murdered in the Holocaust.
After the war, Latvia was reoccupied by the Soviet Union and remained part of the USSR until 1991. This period saw intense industrialization but also massive Russian immigration, causing demographic shifts and ethnic tensions. Latvian culture was suppressed, and attempts were made to eradicate national identity.
Only with the USSR’s collapse did Latvia reassert its independence in August 1991. Since then, it has become an active parliamentary democracy, a member of the EU and NATO, facing economic, demographic, and identity challenges but also experiencing cultural renewal, partial economic prosperity, and a stable international standing.
Riga
Riga, Latvia’s capital and largest city, is located at the mouth of the Daugava River on the Baltic Sea. Its history reflects Latvia’s political and cultural upheavals but also unique urban, economic, and cultural developments that made it a regional power center.
Riga was founded in 1201 by the German Bishop Albert as a base for Christian missions in northeastern Europe. The Livonian Order consolidated control, and with the arrival of German merchants, Riga became a key port city and a member of the Hanseatic League, bringing wealth, trade links with Germany, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia, and rapid urban growth.
In the 16th century, Riga passed to Polish, then Swedish, and finally Russian control in 1710. Under Russian rule, it became the fourth largest city in the empire, a hub of industry and transportation with railroads, factories, and impressive public buildings. Riga was cosmopolitan: Latvians, Germans, Russians, Jews, and Poles lived side by side, each with its own institutions.
In the 19th century, Riga saw the rise of the Latvian national awakening as well as socialist and Zionist movements. Many Art Nouveau buildings constructed during this period made Riga one of the world’s richest cities in this architectural style today.
In 1918, Riga became the capital of independent Latvia, serving as the center of government, culture, commerce, and education. National institutions flourished, alongside synagogues, churches, and Russian and German cultural centers.
In the 1930s, many new public buildings were erected, but ethnic tensions increased. In 1940, Soviet forces occupied the city, arresting or deporting many, especially the intelligentsia. In June 1941, Germany invaded, capturing Riga, and a period of terror began with the near-complete annihilation of the Jewish community within months.
After the war, Riga was under Soviet rule again, transformed into a major industrial center, with its population swelling due to a continuous influx of Russian immigrants. Latvian culture was marginalized but survived underground and in intellectual circles.
After Latvia’s renewed independence in 1991, Riga began a process of physical, economic, and cultural restoration. The historic center was reconstructed and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Today, Riga is a modern, multicultural city, a hub of tourism, technology, and education, and a key to understanding Eastern European history.
Jews in Latvia and Riga
The history of Latvia’s and Riga’s Jewish community reflects the complexities of Jewish life in Eastern Europe—a blend of religious, cultural, and social flourishing alongside antisemitism, oppression, and genocide. Jews began settling in Latvia in the 16th century, initially in places like Piltene. After the region’s annexation to the Russian Empire in 1795, significant Jewish migration to Latvia occurred as part of the Pale of Settlement.
In the 19th century, the Jewish population grew and concentrated in cities like Riga, Daugavpils, Liepāja, and Rēzekne. Riga’s Jewish community became one of the most vibrant in the region—by 1897, it had about 21,000 Jews (11% of the city’s population), active in commerce, medicine, education, journalism, industry, and community life. Riga hosted dozens of synagogues, Hebrew and Yiddish schools, cultural societies, newspapers, and theaters.
The community was diverse: alongside Orthodox Judaism thrived a strong Zionist movement with Hebrew gymnasiums, youth movements, and study circles. Bundist, socialist, and liberal currents were also active. One of the first Tarbut Hebrew gymnasiums in Eastern Europe was founded in Riga, maintaining connections with Jewish centers in Vilnius, Warsaw, Berlin, and Paris.
After Latvia gained independence in 1918, Jews were legally recognized as a minority with religious freedom, autonomous education, and parliamentary representation. The community prospered with new schools, independent press in Hebrew and Yiddish, sports associations, Jewish banks, and vibrant public life. Yet institutional and social antisemitism persisted during this period.
In the 1930s, as nationalist and authoritarian trends rose across Europe, Jews in Latvia faced increasing restrictions, reduced representation, and barriers to public employment. Many, especially the youth, emigrated to Palestine, the US, or South America.
In 1940, Latvia’s annexation to the USSR led to closure of Jewish institutions, nationalization of property, bans on Zionist activity, and deportations to Siberia. This severely hurt the community but paled compared to the horrors that followed under Nazi occupation.
When Germany invaded the USSR in June 1941, Riga fell within days. Soon after, the Jewish community was targeted: the Riga Ghetto was established in August 1941, housing about 30,000 Jews, of whom 25,000 were murdered in the Rumbula Forest massacres in November and December. Jews were also brought to the ghetto from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia—most were murdered.
Latvia’s Jewish community, numbering about 93,000 before the war, was almost entirely destroyed. Only around 1,000 survived in Latvia, with more surviving thanks to early flight or deportation to Siberia. After the war, few survivors returned, and under Soviet rule, Jews faced renewed ideological and national oppression—Jewish institutions were banned, Hebrew was outlawed, and antisemitism persisted.
From the 1970s and especially in the 1980s, many Soviet Jews began emigrating; thousands left Latvia for Israel and the US. Only after Latvia’s renewed independence in 1991 did a small but active Jewish community reemerge, with synagogues, schools, a Jewish museum, and cultural centers reopening. Today, about 8,000 Jews live in Latvia, mostly in Riga.
Jewish heritage is preserved through historical sites, cemeteries, memorials, and above all in the memories of those who once lived there and their descendants worldwide. Latvian Jewry’s narrative includes a unique flourishing of multi-stream Jewish culture, its tragic destruction in the Holocaust, and new beginnings in later generations.
Latvia and Riga During World War II
World War II brought extreme upheaval to Latvia and Riga, including two occupations—Soviet and then German—and a human, cultural, and national catastrophe. As early as 1939, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact designated Latvia as a Soviet sphere of influence. In June 1940, Soviet troops occupied Latvia, which was soon formally annexed to the USSR.
Soviet rule brutally suppressed all national, political, and cultural symbols: democratic institutions were dismantled, parties banned, newspapers silenced, and thousands—including officials, intellectuals, officers, and their families—were arrested, deported to Siberia, or executed. Between June 1940 and June 1941, more than 15,000 Latvians were deported. Jewish institutions were nationalized, Zionist activists arrested, and communities shuttered.
In June 1941, Germany launched Operation Barbarossa and invaded the USSR. Riga fell within days, followed shortly by the rest of Latvia. Many Latvians, who viewed the Soviets as brutal occupiers, initially welcomed the Germans—but enthusiasm faded as Nazi extermination policies emerged. The Nazis established a military administration in Latvia, aided by local collaborators.
One of the darkest chapters was the Holocaust in Latvia: about 70,000 local Jews and around 20,000 Jews deported from Germany, Austria, and Czechoslovakia were murdered. The Riga Ghetto was set up for Jews from Riga and surrounding areas; in the Rumbula massacres of December 1941, around 25,000 were shot in nearby forests.
The Nazis also established concentration and labor camps like Kaiserwald, where remaining Jews and thousands of political prisoners were enslaved until murdered or perished from harsh conditions. Many Latvians actively participated in crimes through local auxiliary police and task units.
Latvia also suffered widespread destruction of infrastructure, industry, and civilian life—villages and cities were bombed, and civilians endured severe trauma. As the Red Army advanced in 1944, Germans retreated and an enormous refugee wave ensued, with around 200,000 Latvians fleeing westward.
When Soviet control was reimposed after liberating Latvia from the Nazis, communist repression resumed: ideological persecution, deportations, and silencing of dissent. Between 1945 and 1950, tens of thousands more were deported, including families of alleged collaborators or nationalists. Deliberate Russian resettlement aimed to "Russify" Latvia.
Discussion of wartime events was suppressed for decades. Only after Latvia’s independence in 1991 did serious historical research, commemoration of victims, prosecution of local war criminals, and acknowledgment of some Latvian collaboration begin.
The war profoundly changed Latvia’s demographics, national identity, and social fabric. Its once-vibrant Jewish community was nearly eradicated; political and intellectual elites were eliminated or exiled. Yet Latvians preserved their identity, and by the 1990s began rebuilding a sovereign state and vibrant culture.
Liepāja
Liepāja, Latvia’s third-largest city, lies on the coast of the Baltic Sea and has been an important port since the 13th century. Throughout its history, it changed hands between the Duchy of Courland, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Sweden, and Russia. In the 19th century, it became a major industrial and naval center of the Russian Empire. The Jewish community in the city grew in the 18th century and flourished economically and culturally by the early 20th century. During World War II, after the German invasion in 1941, around 7,000 Jews from Liepāja were murdered on the nearby Šķēde beaches. Today, the city preserves the memory of its historic Jewish community through memorials and Holocaust sites.
Subate
Subate is a small town in southeastern Latvia, near the border with Lithuania, which began developing in the 16th century as a regional trade center. A thriving Jewish community existed there from the 17th century, earning livelihoods through trade and crafts and playing a central role in the town’s economic and cultural life. With the Soviet occupation in 1940, Jews faced nationalization and deportations, and in 1941, following the Nazi invasion, almost the entire Jewish population of Subate was murdered in a nearby forest. Today, the town is small and quiet, with a few memorial sites commemorating its once vibrant Jewish heritage lost in the Holocaust.