LIEPAJA JEWISH COMMUNITY

Liepaja (Libau) has a long Jewish history that ended during the Holocaust. In 1943 remaining inmates of the Liepaja Ghetto have been transported to Keiserwald Concentration Camp and later to Auschwitz

The renewing of Jewish life in Liepaja began with the founding of the Liepaja branch of the Latvian Society of Jewish Culture. On January 27, 1989, 50 Liepaja Jews, including Holocaust survivors Henny Zivcon, Fruma Tukmacheva, Simson Miele and others, accepted the invitation of the Chairman of the Latvian Society of Jewish Culture, Esther Rapina, to join the movement promoting the revival of the cultural life of minorities in Latvia.

Since then, great changes have occurred not only in the very structure of the society, but also in its composition. In 1991 it was transformed into the Liepaja Jewish Religious Community. Its first chairman was Vladimir Ban.