Jekabpils file / תיק קהילה

The source collection presents Historical and documentary review of the Jewish community in the city Jacobpils (Jakubstadt) in Latvia throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The documents include Statistical data, lists of business owners and educational certificates indicating Cultural and economic life and the activities of Zionist movements and religious institutions. Alongside these, the sources document Political struggles against the authorities, such as deportation attempts at the end of the 19th century and personal correspondence of the Galanter family. A significant portion of the material is devoted to During the Holocaust, and describes the German invasion, the murder of the city's Jews in firing pits, and the establishment of Memorials After the war. Overall, the collection recreates the The fate of the community From its prosperity to its almost complete ruin.

Based on the archival sources in the file, the following is a comprehensive historical overview of the community Yakubpils (Jekabpils; in Yiddish: Jacobstadt) and the neighboring communities Visit andtrembled In the rope Courland, Latvia.

History of the communities in the Courland region

Background and development of the Jacobspils (Jakobstadt) community The town was founded in the 17th century by the Duke Jacob for exiles from Russia, and received city status in 1670 (C56-1f, C56-24f). The Jewish community began to be formally organized in the early 19th century, when most of the Jews came from Lithuania and nearby villages (C56-4f, C56-25). Community records were kept from 1810 (C56-4f). According to theRevision In the eighth census of 1835, 2,569 Jews lived in the city (C56-11f). In 1840, 60 Jews emigrated to agricultural settlements in southern Russia (C56-11f). In the second half of the 19th century, the community became a center for the trade in timber, grain, and flax, and two match factories were owned by Jews (C56-1f, C56-22f, C56-24f).

Viesīte and Nereta communities In these sources, the communities Visit andtrembled Appear as Jewish communities neighboring Likavpils (C56-1f). Information about them appears mainly in relation to social relations in the area and their common fate in the Holocaust:

• Social connections: In a personal handwritten letter dated April 15, 1939, sent from Mikavpils, there is an explicit greeting to "friends in the city" (Friends of Visit), which indicates close community ties between the settlements (C56-13f).
• Religious and community life: The printed sources indicate that these communities were part of the Jewish fabric of the region. Courland (C56-1f).
• Destruction of communities: After the German occupation in June 1941, Jews were rounded up trembled andVisit Together with the Jews of Jyvaskyla in the synagogues of the central city (C56-1f, C56-22f, C56-43). In September 1941, the Jews of the three communities were taken together to the site Kokas, where they were murdered (C56-22f, C56-43).

Leadership and key figures

• Rabbi Yehuda Leib Shaul Ginsburg: He served as the community's rabbi from 1908 until his assassination in 1941 (C56-6f, C56-53). He is described in a printed work as a genius and an immensely knowledgeable person, who lived with great modesty, opposed the Zionist movement, and maintained contact with the great men of the generation (C56-6f, C56-54).
• Dr. Yehezkel Gurevicz: One of the community leaders, he was elected in 1912 as the region's representative tolike The fourth in Russia (C56-1f, C56-29).
• The Galanter family: The archive preserves personal documents of family members, such as a school certificate Helena Galanter From high school (Secondary school) and a certificate of specialization in agriculture of Henny Galanter onRiga-Baltasmuiza (C56-14f, C56-16f).

World War I and the Holocaust In 1915, the Jews of the region were deported by the Russian authorities to the Russian interior, but three leaders of the Bikavpils community signed as guarantors of their loyalty to prevent the deportation (C56-4f, C56-28). During the Holocaust, the main murder site was coke (about 12 km from the city), where about 1,250 Jews were shot to death (C56-1f, C56-22f, C56-43). One source indicates that those who had difficulty walking to the site were shot on the way (C56-51).

Post-war commemoration In the 1950s, the bodies of the murdered were transferred fromtrembled And fromVisit For burial in a mass grave in the Jewish cemetery in Bikavpils (C56-3f, C56-44f). On the memorial stone erected at the site, it is inscribed in Yiddish: "Eternal memory to the Jewish communities of Yakubpilt, Wiesite, and Narete who perished for the sanctification of God…", and in Russian the names appeared VISIT and-NERETA (C56-20f, C56-24, C56-26). In 1970, only about 30 Jews remained in the city (C56-1f, C56-51).

Terms from the sources and explanations

• Kurland: A region in western Latvia (C56-1f).
• Revision: Population census in Imperial Russia (C56-11f).
• Duma: Russian Parliament (C56-1f).
• Kokas: A forest near Jakubpils that served as the site of a murder during the Holocaust (C56-43).
• Secondary school: Government high school in Latvia (C56-14f).
• Jēkabpilt: The Yiddish spelling of the city's name that appears on the tombstone (C56-20f).
• Waysite / Narete: The names of the communities of Visit and Neretva are written in Yiddish on the tombstone (C56-20f).

List of sources