Metadata: Jewish National-Democratic party (Riga)
Collection
- Country:
- Latvia
- Holding institution:
- Latvian State Historical Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Latvijas Valsts vēstures arhīvs
- Postal address:
- Slokas iela 16, Rīga, LV-1048
- Phone number:
- +371 20 017 505
- Reference number:
- 2200
- Title:
- Jewish National-Democratic party (Riga)
- Title (official language):
- Ebreju nacionāli demokrātiskā partija (Rīga)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish National-Democratic party
- Date(s):
- 1921/1934
- Language:
- Latvian
- Russian
- German
- Yiddish
- Extent:
- 9 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The Jewish National Democratic Party was founded in 1920 in Riga. The leaders of the party were Leibe Fischman (a member of the Constituent Assembly), Jacob Landau (head of the Jewish Department in the Ministry of Education) and Prof. Paul Mintz (the only Jewish member of the Latvian government, serving as state controller).
The collection contains the papers of the centrist Jewish National-Democratic Party. The collection includes the party's charter and program, minutes of the first congress of the party, minutes of the council board, the central and executive committees, minutes of the party general assembly, minutes of press commissions, lists of personnel of the central committee and statements of the Riga district court on the dissolution of the party in 1933-34. Among the main issues discussed at the party meetings were elections to the Riga city Duma, participation of party representatives in the life of the Riga Jewish community, the issue of the party's publications and the establishment of party’s women's committee in 1922 (inventory 1, file 3). The materials in the collection make it possible to study the ideology of the party, identify the organisational problems that confronted it, as well as to clarify with which political and public forces the National-Democrats cooperated in everyday work. For example, the party closely cooperated with the Zionist fundraising organisation “Keren Hayesod”. At one of the meetings of the party's board in 1921, it was decided to delegate party representatives to the executive committee of “Keren Hayesod” (inventory 1, file 3).
- Archival history:
- The former reference number of the Jewish National-Democratic party’s collection in the Central State Archive of the Latvian SSR was f. 331.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The The Jewish National Democratic Party was a centrist-liberal non-Zionist force in the Jewish community and represented the interests of middle-class Jews and of business circles. In the first Latvian Saeima (1922-1925) the party had one representative within the framework of the Jewish National Bloc (a political alliance which consisted of Zionist Organisation, the Jewish National Democratic Party and Mizrachi). But, by the mid-1920s, the party had lost its influence and popularity. In 1933-34 the party was disbanded.
- Finding aids:
- A list of the collection materials is available at the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People in Jerusalem.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Ilya Vovshin, Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, 2018