The Jewish Museum of Riga



The Jewish Museum of Riga is located at 6 Skolas Street Riga LV-1322 Latvia. The Director is Mr Marger Vestermanis. The museum has recently been renovated and has many moving exhibits and photos. Visitors are welcome and a short video is shown depicting the tragedy of the Holocaust in Latvia. The Jewish Community Centre is on the ground floor in the same Building as the museum. A number of dedicated women distribute food parcels to the needy once a month, organise meals on wheels, and arrange holidays in Jurmala for the poor of the Community. These are a few of the many projects they undertake and for which they  receive funding from WIZO.

Extracts and summaries from text in pamphlet advertising the Jewish Museum.
Permission given by Mr Vestermanis.

What should a Jewish Museum be like in a region where everything that was Jewish perished in the Holocaust and where only miraculously preserved tombstones remind us of the past of Jewish people? Should the Jewish museum in this historical reality be only a collector and curator of things saved from destruction-relics? Or should it be a memorial of the world that perished forever in torments and sufferings?

We choose the last.


A museum cannot replace a library, because it is impossible to tell everything by means of exhibits. The power of the museum lies in the stark authenticity of historic originals reflecting a given epoch without tendentiousness and embroidery. Exactly in this way we want to show our history to anyone wishing to know the truth about ourselves, our past and our tragedy. Then the wish with which Jews from time immemorial see off their deceased-"Let his soul be tied in the bundle of the living"-will really come true.
 
 

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Compiled on behalf of the Museum by Arlene Beare
As I Arlene Beare have nothing to do with the Jewish Museum other than compiling this page on their behalf please send any queries to:
 

Mr Marger Vestermanis Director Jewish Museum
6 Skolas Street
Riga LV-1322
Latvia.


Copyright©1998-2003 Arlene Beare
Last updated: 04 August January 2003