Aizpute – Town in Liepāja District (Latvia)
Aizpute has been known since 1248. From 1378, it was the administrative centre of the Peltene region in the Duchy of Courland. In 1795, it became part of the Russian Empire as the district town of Hasenpoth in the Courland Governorate. Between 1918 and 1940, it was part of the Republic of Latvia, and from 1940 to 1991, it was within the Latvian SSR.
Jewish Community in Aizpute
In 1797, the town had 209 Jewish residents; by 1800, this number had grown to 678 (46% of the population). By 1863, there were 1,622 Jews (52%), in 1897 – 1,170 (35%), in 1920 – 586 (22%), and in 1935 – 534 Jews (16.5%).
Jews first settled in Aizpute in the 16th century, and a synagogue had been established by 1708. In the early 18th century, local Jews were subject to special municipal taxes. In 1750, they were officially granted the right to reside in the town, and in 1751, the Sejm of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth permitted the construction of a new synagogue.
By the mid-18th century, Aizpute had established the first Jewish community in Courland, which included its own rabbinical court and other institutions. A community council was elected annually, and from 1763, community records were kept in German using Hebrew script. The relatively strong economic position of the Jewish community and its exposure to German culture attracted intellectuals from various European cities.
Notable Jewish residents of Aizpute included:
Daniel Kleif, an Amsterdam-born religious scholar;
Yitzhak-Aharon Eichel, who translated the prayer book into German;
Dr. David Abramson, a medical scholar from Danzig;
Dr. Avraham Brandt, who later became a state councillor.
Economic and Social Life
In 1783, all Jewish merchants in Aizpute were registered in trade guilds. By 1796, there were 33 Jewish merchants, including 8 in the first guild. In 1835, 180 Jews were listed as part of the trade guilds. In 1840, 96 Jewish families (618 people) relocated to agricultural colonies in Kherson Governorate.
In 1848, the Jewish population of Aizpute suffered from a cholera epidemic. By 1861, the town had three synagogues, and in 1867, a Chevra Kadisha (burial society) was established.
Religious and Educational Institutions
The following rabbis served in Aizpute:
Aaron Horwitz (1760–1771)
Joseph ben Menachem (from 1711)
Yechiel-Mikhl ben Aryeh (until 1835)
Yehoshua-Zelig Cohen (1839–1850)
Yitzhak-Zeev Aronovich (1852–1876)
Avraham Geller (1876–1881)
Zvi-Hirsh Nurok (1882–1904), father of Mordechai Nurok
Moshe Jakobson (1904–1913)
By the late 19th century, Aizpute had cheder schools, a Talmud Torah (which, under Jakobson’s influence, introduced secular subjects and Hebrew instruction), and two Jewish schools for boys (one state-funded and one private). In 1904, a Jewish charitable society was founded.
Jewish Community in the 20th Century
During the First World War, the Jewish community collected funds for settlement projects in Eretz Israel, and in 1917, the Zionist organisation Kadima was established. After the war, the community set up a mutual aid fund, a hospitality organisation (Ha-Knasat Orchim), a Jewish library (1920), and a cooperative bank (1922, with support from the Joint Distribution Committee).
A Jewish school operated with German-language instruction for 100 students. In 1928, Hebrew was introduced, and in 1939, religious subjects were added. Jews in Aizpute were primarily involved in trade and craftsmanship. In 1935, Jewish businesses included a soft drinks factory and three sawmills. Jews also made up a significant portion of professionals: 4 out of 7 doctors, all 3 dentists, and 1 out of 3 lawyers were Jewish.
In 1926, three Jews were elected to the municipal council. Jewish organisations included Maccabi (from 1924), HaShomer HaTzair (from 1928), Beitar (from 1930), and branches of various Jewish political parties. In 1933, Aizpute hosted the HaPoel HaTzair congress for Courland. In the late 1930s, Agudath Israel became more active, and in 1939, a women’s branch, Batya, was established.
The Holocaust and the End of the Jewish Community
After Latvia was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, all Jewish communal, cultural, and religious organisations were dissolved. In June 1941, before the German invasion, Michael Blum was appointed acting mayor of Aizpute.
By the time German forces occupied the town, only a few Jewish families had managed to evacuate to the eastern regions of the USSR. On 24 July 1941, 29 Jews were executed near the Padure cemetery. The remaining Jewish population was massacred on 27 October 1941 in a forest near Kalvene railway station. A total of 386 Jews were murdered in Aizpute.
In 1973, a memorial was erected at the mass grave site.