Metadata: Jewish Funeral Society "Hevra Kadisha" (Riga)
Collection
- Country:
- Latvia
- Holding institution:
- Latvian State Historical Archives
- Holding institution (official language):
- Latvijas Valsts vēstures arhīvs
- Postal address:
- 16 Slokas Street, Rīga, 1048
- Phone number:
- +371 20 017 505
- Reference number:
- 3188
- Title:
- Jewish Funeral Society "Hevra Kadisha" (Riga)
- Title (official language):
- Ebreju apbedīšanas biedrība "Hevra Kadiša" (Rīga)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Jewish Funeral Society "Hevra Kadisha" (Riga)
- Date(s):
- 1878/1940
- Language:
- Latvian
- Russian
- German
- Hebrew
- Extent:
- 52 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
- The collection comprises documents of the “Hevra Kadisha” Jewish Funeral Society in Riga. It contains charters, minutes of general meetings and boards, composition of the board, lists of members of the society, pay sheets, job applications, decisions of the board of the society on funerals, annual reports on the work of the society; correspondence with the Riga City Council and Property Management about the expansion of the Jewish cemetery, the acquisition of burial places; calculation of construction work, correspondence about construction work; correspondence with the Riga Prefecture on holding meetings, correspondence with the Riga City Government on the installation of a water supply system in the cemetery; correspondence with the Latvian War Disabled Union about collecting donations to erect a memorial plaque; correspondence with societies on granting benefits, on burials; accounting books, books of incoming and outgoing documents; collection registration book, cash books; registration books of the dead and graves, etc.
- Archival history:
- After World War II materials from the interwar period, along with earlier materials, were part of the Central State Archive of the Latvian SSR. In 1962 it was decided to reorganise the archive and it was renamed the Central State Historical Archives of the Latvian SSR. The materials predating the period of Soviet rule were deposited in this archive, predecessor of the current State Historical Archive.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The “Hevra Kadisha” Jewish Funeral Society in Riga continued the activities of the "Hevra Kadisha" that had existed in the Livonian Province of the Russian Empire since 1749. They oversaw the worthy burial of all Jews who died in Riga according to Jewish rituals and customs. Until 1940, the Hevra Kadisha Society was listed as the landowner of the Old Jewish Cemetery. The society was responsible for maintaining the cemetery. In 1883-1884, a gate was installed at the entrance to the cemetery and a high brick wall was erected around it. In 1903, a special brick building for holding eulogies and memorial ceremonies was built on the cemetery’s grounds by the architect Paul Mandelstam (1872-1941). Near the cemetery on the side of Tea Street (now Tejas Street), there were several wooden buildings for the cemetery guards and attendants. In the 20th century, the cemetery occupied a pentagonal piece of land with an area of 2.7 hectares. During the First World War, when the front line was on the outskirts of Riga, fallen Jewish soldiers from different army units were buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery. The Society of Latvian Liberators of Jewish Nationality together with the Latvian War Disabled Union raised money and initiated the erection of a monument to Jewish fallen soldiers in the Old Jewish Cemetery. The monument was unveiled on 8 September 1935. No more burials were conducted in the old cemetery from 1930 because the cemetery was full. In 1928 the “Shmerli” New Jewish cemetery was opened, taking over the functions of the Old Jewish Cemetery.
Following the Nazi Occupation on 4 July 1941, all buildings in the Old Jewish Cemetery were burned down. Later, when a ghetto was established in the Moscow suburb (Maskavas Forštate) district of Riga, the cemetery was included in its territory. During the Soviet era, gravestones and monuments in the cemetery were knocked down and removed, and the graves were levelled to the ground. On 7-8 July 1941, the Nazis burned down the funeral hall along with the people who were in it. After World War II, Holocaust survivors and Jews who returned to Riga rebuilt the cemetery. In 1964, the Soviet authorities decided to open the cemetery for the free burial of Riga residents, regardless of their nationality. Today the cemetery again functions as a Jewish cemetery.
- Access points: locations:
- Riga
- Subject terms:
- Burial
- Cemeteries
- Hevrah kadisha
- Monuments and memorials
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Jana Makarova
