VARAKĻĀNI, a town (since 1928) in the Madona District (Republic of Latvia). Part of the Russian Empire from 1772. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, it was the shtetl of Varklyany in the Rezhitsa County of the Vitebsk Governorate. Between 1920 and 1940, it belonged to the Republic of Latvia; from 1940 to 1991 — the Latvian SSR.

In 1847, Varakļāni had 250 Jewish residents; by 1897 — 1,365 (75.4% of the population); in 1920 — 1,402 (74%); in 1925 — 1,356 (68%); in 1930 — 995 (61%); and in 1935 — 952 Jews (57%).

Jews had lived in Varakļāni since the late 18th century. Most worked as tailors, shoemakers, or in agricultural trade. From 1873, for nearly 50 years, the town's rabbi was Avrom-Doyv-Ber Gabay (1840–?). There were four synagogues in the town. In 1905, in anticipation of pogroms, a self-defence group was organised. A cheder (Jewish religious school) operated in 1916.

In 1921, with support from the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), a mutual aid fund was established. One of the town’s two doctors in the 1920s was Jewish, as was the head of the fire brigade. A school with instruction in Yiddish was functioning, along with branches of various Jewish parties and organisations. In 1940, following Latvia’s occupation by the USSR, the town council was headed by Leizer Zelikovich.

After the German occupation of Varakļāni on 1 July 1941, local Latvian collaborators from the “self-defence” force executed several Jews in the town square. A ghetto was established in July 1941. On 4 August 1941, 540 Jews were executed at the Jewish cemetery, along with local Roma. A memorial has been erected on the site of the massacre, with inscriptions in Hebrew and Russian.

In the 1960s, around 20 Jewish families still lived in Varakļāni.