Metadata: Jewish Youth Protection Society (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:
- 7074
- Title:
- Jewish Youth Protection Society (Riga)
- Title (official language):
- Ebreju jaunatnes aizsardzības biedrība
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Youth Protection Society
- Date(s):
- 1928/1940
- Language:
- Latvian
- Hebrew
- French
- Yiddish
- Russian
- Extent:
- 33 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains documents of the Jewish Youth Protection Society in Riga including minutes of board meetings, salary slips of employees, lists of participants in children's summer holiday camps, employment records, reports on children's summer camps, an overview of children's summer camp activities in Shkede, correspondence with the Press and Society Department, Welfare Department, Ministry of Welfare, Riga City Council about placing children in summer camps. The purpose of this society was to care for the upbringing and development of low-income Jewish youth, their physical and spiritual well-being, and their religious, moral and intellectual development. The society held concerts of Jewish liturgical music in Hebrew, and organised summer holidays for children from poor Jewish families. Financial support for the society was provided by the Riga City Council, Jewish organisations and private individuals. The society actively collected donations, using every opportunity to provide the children with what was necessary. For example, in 1937 the society wrote a letter to rubber manufacturers asking them to donate 10 large and 10 small rubber balls for a children's holiday camp.
The concerts of spiritual Jewish music, conducted by the society in 1936-1940, were attended by the main cantors of Riga, Liepaja and Jelgava and famous Jewish performers. In the summer of 1938, 180 children between the ages of 6 and 11 and 8 teachers were hosted in a resort in Shkede, in the Kuldiga district. In the summer of 1938, a camp for 121 boys and 7 teachers was organised in Burtnieki in the Tukums district. In 1938, 150 children and 3 teachers were hosted in a resort in the Asari district for six weeks.
- Archival history:
- No information
- Administrative/biographical history:
- In 1939, the society consisted of 59 members. Many members of the society had been members of the “Tseirey Agudas Yisroel” party, which was closed in 1935 by a decision of the Minister of the Interior. According to the political department of the Ministry of the Interior, the society then distanced itself from politics. Active members of the society were Rabbi Morduh Khodakov, the chairman of the society, the former deputy of the Saeima Simon Itzik Witenberg, the bank director Girsh Lev Samunov, the staff of Jewish schools and others. The society was closed by the Minister of Public Affairs on 20 November 1940.
- Access points: locations:
- Riga
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Jana Makarova