The one remaining synagogue - Peitav-Shul, the memorial of the Great Choral Synagogue, a visit to the remaining Jewish Ghetto, Žanis Lipke Museum and Rumbula Forest
Our second day in Riga was actually the first day of the Jewish festival Shavuot. So we decided to start our day by visiting the one remaining synagogue in Riga called Peitav-Shul. The reason that this synagogue survived WW2 was because the building was located in the Old Town of Riga and a fire could spread to the adjoining houses. Therefore the Nazis used the synagogue building as a warehouse. In 1997, the state transferred the synagogue back to the remaining Jewish community and the synagogue became the heart of Jewish religious life in Latvia. In 2007 and 2008, the synagogue building was fully renovated to it's prewar grandeur.
We entered the huge and gorgeous synagogue and my husband participated in the prayer. Sadly, there was just a handful of Jews in the service.... a sad reminder of a once vibrant community that is no more.... The synagogue was built in the Art Nouveau style, which was very common in Riga at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.
After the service we took the bus to the memorial of the Great Choral Synagogue. The synagogue was burned down after the Nazi German occupation of Riga. There are reports that hundreds of Jews were locked inside.
After the war, the remains of the burnt-out synagogue were demolished and a memorial was erected on the grounds. In 2007 a memorial to Zanis Lipke and others who had saved Jews was unveiled next to the ruins. The memorial commemorates all those, who helped save more than 400 Jews from certain death.
Our next stop was the Zanis Lipke museum. Wow... what a fantastic museum... Basically the museum shows how Lipke and his family managed to save so many Jews during the war. The museum simulates the interior of a barn. There is almost no light except for a couple of weak bulbs and thin streaks of daylight coming in through gaps between the wooden planks.
In the centre one box-like structure emerges, with a faint light coming from the inside. When you approach it you see that you can look down through an illuminated shaft that leads down to the bottom of the cellar level. That's the reconstructed hideout bunker down there, where the Jews were hidden. It is brilliantly done and extremely interesting. We spent about one hour here... For anyone interested in reading about Zanis Lipke see the link below.
https://www.sutori.com/story/janis-lipke-the-story-of-a-rescuer
Our next stop was Riga Ghetto museum, which is actually an open exhibit with lots of plaques relaying written information about pre-war Jewish life in Riga and then what happened to them during the war. I have to say, that I personally found this museum very disappointing.... One fact to note however is that the ghetto was right next to the Old Town so the Riga community saw what was happening to the Jews.
Our final stop required taking a bus to the Rumbula Forest, just on the outskirts of Riga (only a 30 minute bus ride). This forest is gorgeous but unfortunately it was the location of the Rumbula massacre of Jews on November 30 and December 8, 1941 (two days) in which about 25,000 Jews were killed in this forest. Except for the Babi Yar massacre, this was the biggest two-day Holocaust atrocity until the operation of the death camps.
The Rumbula memorial is powerful and a poignant reminder of what happened. It is important however to read background material before visiting this site as there are no plaques to tell visitors what actually happened here.
I can't really say that the day was fun but we usually seek out historical content in our trips, and this piece of history belongs to my people so I feel that it needs to be seen and remembered.
We made our way back to Old Town Riga and spent our evening in a gorgeous restaurant, feeling grateful for what we have and the times we live in.
