The Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum has constructed models of 21 of the more than 200 synagogues that stood in Latvia before World War II.
There were 210 synagogues in Latvia before World War Two, with styles ranging from ornate neo-Renaissance and neo-Romanesque buildings to humble wooden structures.
Today, there are only two synagogues operating, one in the capital Riga and another in the southern city of Daugavpils.
Using archive sources, official records, photographs and detective work, 21 of the synagogues have been reconstructed in paper, wood and plastic, according to the Riga Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust Museum, which spearheaded the project. […]
Among the 1:50 scale models is the Great Choral Synagogue, built in the 1800s and burned to the ground by the Nazis in 1941 with at least 300 Jews forced inside.
Most synagogues in Latvia were destroyed during or after World War II, but, aside from the two still used for worship, several still stand — used for other purposes or abandoned.
These include the so-called wooden “Green Synagogue” in Rezekne and the Great Synagogue in Ludza — both of which have been restored as cultural centers.
Read the full Reuters story, with photo slideshow of models
1 comment on “Exhibit shows models of destroyed Latvian synagogues”
Sad but beautiful –