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.
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 |