VALGA, a town (founded 1584) and a district centre (Republic of Estonia). Known since 1286. Part of the Russian Empire from 1721. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was the county town of Walk in the Governorate of Livonia. Between 1920 and 1940, part of the town of Valka belonged to the Republic of Estonia; from 1940 to 1991 it was part of the Estonian SSR.

In 1859, there were 3 Jews living in Valga; in 1864 — 20; in 1869 — 21; in 1897 — 380 (3.5% of the population); by 1910 — about 400 (2%). In 1920, there were 105 Jewish families; in 1922 — 395 Jews (3.4%); in 1926 — about 100 Jewish families; in 1934 — 262 Jews (2.4%); in 1935 — 259; and by 1939 — around 50 Jewish families.

The first Jews to settle in Valga were three retired soldiers from the reign of Nicholas I. By the late 1860s, a prayer house had been established in the town. A melamed (religious teacher), Moishe Yomitov, was invited from Courland and also served as the town’s first shochet (ritual slaughterer). At that time, a Jewish cemetery was founded, which after the division of the town in 1920, came under the jurisdiction of the Latvian town of Valka. A chevra kadisha (burial society) began operating in 1869. The first rabbi in Valga was Moishe Lishtein (from the late 1860s). In 1871, permission was granted to build a synagogue. From the early 1900s, many Jewish children began attending general schools.

Following the February Revolution of 1917, the headquarters of the 12th Russian Army was stationed in Valga. A council of Jewish soldiers (about 500 men) serving in this army published its own periodical in Russian. Five issues were published in October–November 1917, and one in Yiddish (Der frayer soldat) in December. At the initiative of these soldiers, branches of Poale Zion, Zionist organisations, and the Bund were established in Valga. A Bund member was elected as the Jewish representative to the town council. Samuel Polyanovsky and Kalmanson founded the town’s Zionist committee.

Among the Jewish population were 13 business owners, 38 merchants, 12 labourers, 7 professionals, 21 teachers and civil servants, and 12 craftsmen. In 1920, a local branch of Maccabi was established, followed by a branch of He-Halutz and a Yiddish-language club in 1924. The youth organisation Brit HaNoar HaYehudi was also active. In 1926, a pro-Communist group called Licht was formed. That same year, the town’s local cultural directorate began operating as a branch of the Kultur-Rat, the highest cultural authority of the Jewish autonomy in Estonia. In 1932, a Hashomer Hatzair cell was active in the town. From 1926 to 1940, Valga had a Jewish school — the only one in any provincial Estonian town — and a Tarbut network Jewish kindergarten.

In June 1941, some Jews from Valga managed to flee to the interior regions of the USSR. Those who remained were murdered during the summer and autumn of 1941.