Metadata: Riga City Education Board
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:
- 3258
- Title:
- Riga City Education Board
- Title (official language):
- Rīgas pilsētas Izglītības pārvalde
- Creator/accumulator:
- Riga City Education Board
- Date(s):
- 1918/1944
- Language:
- Latvian
- Russian
- German
- Extent:
- 13,640 files
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Scope and content:
-
The collection contains documents of the Riga City Education Board. In general, the collection of the fonds is divided into several parts: personal files of teachers (names in alphabetical order); documents concerning the activities of the school administration, the youth and culture department and, separately, the culture department; departments of schools and education; administrative and economic departments, accounting, and Riga city inspectors of the 1st and 2nd sections. The collection includes orders and instructions of the Ministry of Education concerning educational and economic issues; minutes of school board meetings; lists of teachers with records of their work, and their addresses; lists of teachers with military training; information about the educational qualification of teachers; salary lists; reviews of the composition and activities of schools; student progress journals; documents on the work experience of teachers; feedback on the pedagogical activity of teachers; school reviews and reports; correspondence with schools and parents about transferring students to other schools; documents on the activities of libraries, archives, museums and theatres in Riga, information about the employees of these institutions; correspondence on the repair of school buildings, the allocation of teaching aids, firewood; documents on the verification of employees of educational institutions for knowledge of the Latvian language; correspondence with elementary schools about the transfer of students to specialised schools; correspondence with schools about the distribution of benefits and free hot breakfasts for schoolchildren from poor families, etc.
A significant number of cases concern the activities of Jewish educational institutions and the work of Jewish teachers. The inventories list the names of schools, and the surnames and first names of teachers. These are files with lists of students in Jewish schools for different years and reviews of changes in the composition of students; lists of children in kindergartens; minutes of pedagogical conferences and meetings of teachers with the participation of representatives of Jewish schools; correspondence with Jewish elementary, secondary and evening schools about changes in the composition of teachers, the distribution of lessons, the number of students in classes, budget, organisational issues; correspondence with Jewish kindergartens on registration, charter, organisational issues; school leaders' feedback on the work of teachers in Jewish schools; correspondence with the city government and Jewish elementary schools about renting premises and rent; Jewish library cases, etc. Cases about the work of Jewish educational institutions and Jewish teachers can be found in various inventories of the fonds (there are 17 inventories in total), and in the combined inventory No. 14-15 there are 272 cases concerning Riga Jewish primary, secondary, evening, additional, auxiliary schools, school for children with special needs and kindergartens.
Of particular interest is the collection of personal files of Jewish teachers (about 545 files). For example, the personal file of Asna Yofe contains information that she was appointed as a freelance teacher of natural history, geography and chemistry at the 1st Сity Jewish Secondary School. She was listed there from 23 September 1940 to 31 July 1941. From the questionnaire of Asna Yofe, daughter of Zalman, it is evident that she was born in Riga on 8 February 1914, graduated from the Riga City Jewish Gymnasium in 1932, the Latvian University in 1940 and in the summer of 1940 she graduated from the teacher's courses. She knew Latvian and Russian well, as well as German at a sufficient level. Her maiden name was Slovina and she had been married to Joshua Yofe since 1935. Her father Zalman Slovin died in 1940, and her mother Riva Slovin did not work. Asna and her husband did not own real estate or businesses; her husband worked as a draftsman of templates for a company that was previously called "R. Feldhun and Co". She lived in Riga at Brivibas Street 60/62. An extract from Asna Jofe's passport is attached.
- 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:
- In Latvia in 1919-1940 basic 6-year education was considered compulsory and free. Further education could be continued in secondary school or gymnasium (4 or 5 years). According to the Jewish historian Boris Volkovich, in the academic year 1930-1931, there were 120 Jewish schools in Latvia (including 19 secondary schools) with 12,920 students (including 1,643 in secondary schools). In the 1933-1934 academic year, there were 119 Jewish schools (including 14 gymnasiums) with 14,115 students. After the authoritarian coup of Karlis Ulmanis in 1934, the number of Jewish schools decreased to 74 in the 1939-1940 academic year. Svetlana Kovalchuk's article "The Rise of Jewish Education in Latvia (1919-1934)" provides data for June 1930 on 22 Jewish schools operating in Riga.
- Access points: locations:
- Riga
- Yerusha Network member:
- Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People
- Author of the description:
- Jana Makarova