LUDZA
A town (since 1777), district centre of the Republic of Latvia. Known since 1177.
From 1772 part of the Russian Empire, in the Dvina Province of Pskov Governorate; from 1778 in the Polotsk Viceroyalty; from 1796 in the Belarus Governorate; from 1802 the uyezd town of Lutzin in Vitebsk Governorate. In 1920–40 part of the Republic of Latvia; in 1940–91 the Latvian SSR.
Jewish population
1772 – 66 Jews (29%)
1784 – 80
1815 – 1176 (65.3%)
1847 – 2299
1868 – 1915 (53.2%)
1885 – 2403
1897 – 2803 (54.5%)
1910 – 2987
1920 – 2050 (40.7%)
1925 – 1907 (34%)
1930 – 1634 (30.2%)
1935 – 1518 Jews (27%)
Jews had lived in Ludza since the 16th century.
In 1765 the tailor Moishe ben Dovid, accused of attacking Christianity and refusing to convert, was burnt at the stake.
At the end of the 18th century the first synagogue was built; the second in 1804; a Hasidic one in 1827. A hevra kadisha was established in 1850.
Rabbis of Ludza
Zeev-Wolff Altshuler (d. 1806), rabbi 1786–1806
Dovid Tsioni (1762–1810), rabbi 1806–10
Naftoli Tsioni (d. 1856), son of Dovid, rabbi 1810–56 (great-grandfather of I. Zilber)
Aron-Zelig Tsioni (d. 1876), son of Naftoli, rabbi 1856–76
After his death the rabbi became his son-in-law, Eliezer Don-Ihye (1838–1926).
In the 1910s the state rabbi was Yosif Leizerovich Borovik.
Also living in Ludza was the author of several works – commentaries on the Talmud – the rabbi Yisroel Zeligman (d. 1908), grandson of Naftoli Tsioni.
Education and culture
In the 1840s around sixty Jewish families resettled in agricultural colonies of Kherson Governorate, most in Krasnoselka.
In 1865 a Jewish school of Russian literacy for boys was opened (headmaster B. Magel; in 1887 – 53 pupils), as well as a talmud torah. In 1887 another talmud torah was opened in which mathematics and Russian were taught. Two synagogues were functioning.
In the 1890s another Jewish school began to operate, and in 1910 a school with Hebrew as the language of instruction was opened.
In 1883 Chaim Moer opened a Jewish bookshop, and later a library functioned at the shop. In 1907 he founded the only Jewish printing press in Latgale.
Public and economic life
During the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05) activists of the Bund organised several strikes.
In the 1910s a branch of Poale Zion began operating.
By 1910 Ludza had five synagogues and a Jewish cemetery; in 1912 a Jewish loan-and-savings society was active.
In 1913 Jews owned all four pharmaceutical warehouses, the town’s only bathhouse, both bakeries, three hotels, both barbershops, and more than a hundred shops (including twenty-one grocery shops, all fourteen drapery shops and all three jewellery shops). Among the Jews were three timber industrialists and two tailors.
In 1914 the “Society for Aid to Poor Jews” was founded (organisers: second-guild merchants Shmuila Izrets and Abram Karelits).
Interwar period
During the First World War several hundred Jews left Ludza.
From 1920 refugees began returning. With the support of the Joint Distribution Committee, community life revived. A school with Hebrew instruction was opened.
In the gymnasium established in 1922 with Russian as the language of instruction, 80% of pupils were Jewish.
The community collected 1297 roubles in donations for the Jewish National Fund.
In the 1920s a Jewish children’s home operated for several years.
In 1935, of the town’s 302 shops and workshops, 191 belonged to Jews.
Of the six doctors, three were Jews; there were also three Jewish dentists.
In the 1920s–30s Ludza had seven synagogues.
The rabbi in 1926–41 was Ben-tsion Don-Ihye (1871–1941), son of Eliezer.
Branches of various Jewish parties and organisations were active in the town.
The Holocaust
On 3 July 1941 units of the Wehrmacht occupied Ludza.
On 20 July 1941 a ghetto was established.
Mass executions:
17 August 1941 – c. 800 Jews
27 August 1941 – 120 Jews
27 October 1941 – 120 Jews
The last remaining Jews of Ludza were shot in May 1942.
In total, about 1250 Jews were murdered in Ludza during the Holocaust.
After the war
In the early 1950s about one hundred Jews lived in Ludza; a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery existed. In the 1960s the shochet was N. Shmukler.
In the 1970s the Jews of Ludza emigrated to Israel.
Notable natives
N. A. Iofis
G. V. Frank
I. G. Chashnik
I. Shapiro
Э.Дон-Ихье.
Б.Дон-Ихье.
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