Riebini – the administrative centre of Riebini District (from 01.07.2009), a settlement in Preiļi District. Founded at the end of the 18th century. In the 19th – early 20th centuries it was the small town of Rybinishki in Polotsk District of Vitebsk Province, and the volost centre of Silajāņi volost in Rēzekne District. In 1918–40 it was part of the Republic of Latvia; in 1940–91 part of the Latvian SSR; from 1991 part of the Republic of Latvia. Jews lived in Riebini from the beginning of the 19th century and were engaged in agriculture. In 1847, 97 Jews lived there; in 1897 – 533 (91.2%); in 1920 – 386 (87%); in 1925 – 360; in 1930 – 348 (85%); in 1935 – 317 Jews (68%). This was the highest proportion of Jews in any settlement in Latvia. In the 1830s a Jewish cemetery was established. In the mid-19th century a synagogue was active. From 1843 the rabbi of Riebini was Zeev-Wolf Tsiyuni; at the end of the 19th century – Avraham Girshovich (1861–?); from 1903 – Yakov Shapiro (1873–?); in 1922–25 – Avrom-Benyamin Taits; in 1925–35 – Laizer-Itshok Shits (1880–?); from 1936 – Ber Shits (1915, Hasenpot–?). The ritual slaughterer was Vaytsman. Religious buildings: old prayer house, Viļānu Street – a wooden building with 34 community members; new prayer house, Viļānu Street – a wooden building with 69 community members. The cemetery was established between 1830 and 1840.\
Buried there are Yakov and Rafael Shapiro and the families Shklyar and Antokol. The last burials were made in 1939–1940. At present the cemetery is in a very neglected state.\
In 1916 a heder was operating in Riebini. In the early 1920s, with the help of the Joint, the community bathhouse was repaired and a mutual aid fund was established. In the 1920s there were 2 synagogues in Riebini. In 1921 a school with instruction in Yiddish opened. In the 1929/30 school year the director of the Jewish school was Fridman, later Levin. In the 1920s–30s branches of various Jewish parties and organisations were active in Riebini. In 1922 Jewish donations to the Jewish National Fund amounted to 553 rubles.\
In 1913 Jews owned the only pharmacy and 8 shops (including all the grocery and both drapery stores). In the 1930s 16 out of 17 shops in Riebini belonged to Jews.\
In 1935 the settlement had 88 residential houses occupied by 101 families. All houses were lit by kerosene lamps. Jews owned 70 houses; of the seven non-residential buildings (post office, religious buildings, mill, school), three were owned by the Jewish community: two prayer houses and the Jewish primary school. Of 17 shops only one did not belong to Jews. The pharmacy was owned by Daniel Mikhelson. Jews were not only traders but also tailors, shoemakers, glaziers, cattle dealers, and smallholders. Jewish families were large. Among them were the Antokol, Bazner, Beser, Blat, Vayner, Zlatokrilov, Zangvil, Moin, Rubin, and Shklyar families. Before the war some of the young people moved to Riga in search of work. When the war began in June 1941, several dozen residents of the town managed to flee deep into Russia. No fewer than 20 of them served in the ranks of the Red Army. However, the overwhelming majority of Jews made no attempt to flee. The first victims as early as 1941 were left-leaning Jews. The main group of Jews – 271 people – from Riebini and the surrounding settlements were shot on 23 August 1941. (According to other sources, there were 381.) They were gathered in one of the prayer houses, where they were held from three in the afternoon until seven in the evening, then taken by lorry to Aizupishi Forest, crossing the river Feymanka twice on the road to Viļāni (5–6 km), and were shot to the left of the road at approximately 100 m. To carry out the entire operation (escorting, undressing, guarding, shooting), in addition to the execution squad from Riga and local forces, a “death battalion” from Malta was brought in to “guard the area.”\
In 1955 a monument was erected in Aizupishi Forest by local authorities and relatives of the victims, bearing the inscription: “Eternal memory to the Jews of the small town of Riebini, tragically killed at the hands of the German fascist occupiers on 23 August 1941. Relatives.” After the war no Jews lived in Riebini.
The local history museum compiled (from the memory of surviving Jews) a list of 271 killed from 69 families, including: Antokol – 24 persons, Zlatokrilov – 24 persons, Zangvil – 40, Rubin – 19, Shklyar – 20 persons, and others.
Author I. Rochko
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Sources: Meler M. Places of Our Memory. Jewish Communities of Latvia Destroyed in the Holocaust. Riga, 2010, pp. 362–364. Meler M. Jewish Cemeteries in Latvia. Riga, “Shamir”, 2006, p. 83. Latvia. Synagogues and Rabbis. Riga, “Shamir”, 2004, p. 150. Rochko I. Jews in Latgale. Historical Essays. Daugavpils, 2010, pp. 225–228.