Pāvilosta, a town (since 1991) in the Liepāja District of the Republic of Latvia.
Founded in 1879, it was part of Hasenpoth County in the Courland Governorate at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century. From 1918 to 1940, it belonged to the independent Republic of Latvia; from 1940 to 1991, it was within the Latvian SSR.
In 1930, 73 Jews lived in Pāvilosta; by 1935, the number had declined to 61 (about 8% of the town’s population).
The Jewish community in Pāvilosta emerged in the late 19th century. A synagogue was built in 1890, and it was renovated in 1929 with funds donated by Avrom Bar.
From 1906 to 1912, the town’s rabbi was Leizer-Itzkhok Shitz (b. 1880, date of death unknown); from 1931, the position was held by Avrom Shitz (b. 1910 in Libava [Liepāja], date of death unknown).
After the German Wehrmacht occupied Pāvilosta in the summer of 1941, all the Jews in the town were murdered.