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PlacesPeople & PlacesLiving · since 1800

LATVIA · 57.0°N 24.1°E · CITY

Riga

A 19th-century Haskalah center (historian Simon Dubnow's city) destroyed in the ghetto and at Rumbula (Nov-Dec 1941, ~25,000 killed in two days); today a small community with major memorial museums.

Modern locality anchor

Riga

Latvia · City · 57.0°N 24.1°E

This anchor orients the sourced locality record. It is not a reconstructed historical position or border; the single map below provides geographic context.

View location

Where is Riga?

Land geometry: Natural Earth 1:50m via world-atlas. Pins mark modern localities or representative regional anchors stored on Atlas place records, not historical borders and not reconstructed positions. · Sources & methods

THE COMMUNITY TIMELINE · EVERY NODE DATED

What happened to the Jewish community of Riga?

1800–1939

Haskalah and modern community

This section addresses destruction and loss. It is one chapter, not the whole story — continue to what survives and what was created after
1941–1944

Ghetto and Rumbula massacre (30 Nov-8 Dec 1941, ~25,000 killed); ~70,000 Latvian Jews murdered (~90% of the community)

1945–1991

Soviet-era refusenik activism

1991–present

Contemporary small community

Today

Today

Small community; memorial museums.

LANGUAGES & COMMUNITY

What did Riga sound like?

Yiddish (ייִדיש)Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)

Yiddish (ייִדיש) is a language with its own grammar, literature, and history — not “broken” anything, and not a dialect of Hebrew.

AFTER · IN FULL COLOR

What survives today?

In Riga

Small community; memorial museums.

  • Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum

    museum · museum

  • Peitav Synagogue

    synagogue · public landmark

    Built 1905; sole surviving synagogue.

  • Rumbula memorial

    memorial · public landmark

  • Zanis Lipke memorial

    memorial museum · museum

    Honors the rescuer Zanis Lipke.

SOURCES & REVIEW

  • Communities Database

    JewishGen · open source

  • Holocaust Encyclopedia

    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum · open source

  • Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed. (place entry)

    Macmillan Reference USA · 2007

  • Vital Statistics: Jewish Population of the World (2024 country figures)

    Jewish Virtual Library · 2024 · open source

Reviewed 2026-07-30

Reading about Yiddish (ייִדיש) and Hebrew (עברית, Ivrit)? Baba can help you understand the languages in context →