“Jewish Survivors of Latvia.” The organization was founded in 1984 (possibly 1989). It unites about 500 people originating from Latvia living in 30 U.S. states, as well as members residing in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Israel, France, Sweden, and Switzerland. In addition to Holocaust survivors and members of their families, the society also includes immigrants from Latvia who settled in the United States during the past 20–30 years. The society was founded on the initiative of M. Kaufman, a survivor of the Riga Ghetto, and initially aimed to raise funds to assist fellow immigrants living in poverty. After the death of M. Kaufman, the presidency was assumed by another former prisoner of the Riga Ghetto, S. Springfield, who continues to lead the organization with the support of 9–10 members of the board.

After the fall of the Iron Curtain, the society’s main mission became providing assistance to surviving former ghetto and concentration camp prisoners and World War II veterans still living in Latvia. The society’s budget consists of membership dues and donations. The funds raised have made it possible, for many years since the 1990s, to annually distribute checks in U.S. dollars to every Holocaust survivor in Latvia, as well as to organize regular hot meals and food packages for the needy at the Jewish Community Center in Riga.

The society has also participated in the implementation of several major projects, including the erection of a memorial at the site of the burned synagogue on Gogol Street (Gogol-Shul); a three-week concert tour in the United States by the Riga Jewish youth ensemble “Kinnor”; the restoration of the oldest Jewish hospital “Bikur Cholim”; the establishment of a Jewish school in Riga; and financial assistance to Jewish organizations in other cities—Liepāja, Daugavpils, Jūrmala—and other initiatives.

Each year, the society organizes memorial Yizkor gatherings for its members at the Park East Synagogue, one of the largest synagogues in Manhattan, as well as picnics on the ocean shore. The memorial gatherings are always held in November–December in memory of the mass shootings carried out in November–December 1941. Over the years, honored guests and speakers at these events have included such prominent figures as Benjamin Meed, President of the World Federation of Holocaust Survivors; Elie Wiesel, Nobel Prize–winning writer; James Holmes, U.S. Ambassador to Latvia; and others.

Every three to four years, beginning in 1993, the society—together with sister organizations in Latvia and Israel—also organizes World Gatherings of Jews from Latvia. Four such gatherings were held in Riga, and one took place in Israel in 2007.

The society publishes a quarterly newsletter for its members titled “The Latvian Jewish Courier.” It has also published two memoir collections by former Holocaust prisoners: “Muted Voices” and “The Unfinished Road.” The society’s President Steven Springfield and Vice-President Professor J. Schwab are members of the Commission of Historians under the President of Latvia and work to ensure the accurate representation of historical events in the lives of Latvian Jews—above all, the Holocaust—in history textbooks and other publications.