This article, printed in the Chicago Sentinel on March 18, 1971, tells the story of Feige Simakova who was jailed after being repeatedly denied a visa for over a decade. Most of her family members had moved to Israel, and she wanted to join them. The article does not explain why Simakova was jailed, but it was probably due to the official objection of the communist regime to emigration from the USSR.
After World War II, Latvia became a part of the Soviet Union. During the communist rule of the Soviet Union, it was very difficult for Jews to obtain visas to leave the country, and only a small quota of Jews was allowed to leave each year. The Jews who were refused an exit permit were unofficially named “refuseniks” and were considered either traitors or a security liability. Jews who applied for an exit visa were subjected to KGB (secret police) surveillance, were often denied employment, and, as a result, would either face imprisonment or find a menial job. Famous refuseniks included Natan Sharansky, Ida Nudel, Yosef Mendelevitch, Israel and Sylva Zalmensov, and Yuli Edelstein, who later became the Speaker of the Knesset (Israeli parliament). In the 1970s the plight of the Soviet refuseniks became known, and Jews from around the world placed international pressure on the USSR to allow Jews to leave the country. In 1991, with political changes in the USSR, Latvia achieved independence and Jews were allowed to leave freely.
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Jewish Community in Latvia - Jews came to Latvia at the end of the sixteenth century. Only some of the Eastern part of Latvia was part of the Pale of Settlement, the area in which Jews were allowed to live. Despite this, there were Jewish communities also in Courland and other areas outside of the Pale, with the majority residing in Riga. Because of its location between Germany and Lithuania, Latvian Jews were a unique hybrid of Eastern and Western European Jewry. They were subject to many harsh anti-Semitic restrictions, yet at the same time the communities grew and educational and communal institutions were founded. The area was home to a large number of religious and secular organisations such as Lubavitch Hassidim, Agudas Yisroel, Mizrahi, and the Bund. Zionist movements became popular in the early twentieth century, and Vladimir Ze’ev Jabotinsky founded the Betar Movement in Riga in 1923. When the Nazis invaded Latvia in July 1941, many locals began slaughtering Jews all over the country. Of the 90,000 Jews in Latvia before the Nazi invasion 71,500 were murdered.
The Jewish community in Latvia today consists of approximately 9000–10,000 people. There are a number of community organisations in Latvia including two Jewish schools in Riga.
