In 2017, members of the “Free Riga” Association discovered a treasure trove of artifacts – books, photos, documents, and ritual objects – in the hidden attic crawl space of of the house at Turgeneva str. 17, Riga. Exploring the collection slowly brought to light the story of the objects’ original owners – the Ritovs – a family of Jewish entrepreneurs. Their rich history as revealed by the objects they collected serves as a microcosm of Latvian early XX century history as a whole. Each family member’s unique life links to different aspects of not only Latvian Jewish history, but of society in this era as a whole, . Different fates befell the members of the Ritov family – better and worse, stories of success and tragedies – but today we return these forgotten fates to the mosaic of Latvia’s history.
The Ritov family arrived in Riga in the 1860s, travelling from Zagare in Lithuania. For decades, their main business was selling industrial mechanical equipment and other metalwork objects. Several members of the younger generation studied mechanics and engineering and continued to manage the family enterprise until it was nationalized by the Soviet occupation regime in 1940.
The first objects in the crawlspace are thought to be the religious books and ritual objects of Benzion Ritov, the family patriarch, likely placed there upon his death in August 1937. Later all the kinds of rarely used household objects were added. The latest object dates back to July 1st, 1941, the day Nazis occupied Riga, after which the family likely closed up the crawlspace as they prepared for worse.
After extensive research, the “Free Riga” Association donated the collection to the “Jews in Latvia” Museum. The collection can be viewed as the part of the permanent exhibition of the museum on the first floor of the Jewish Community Center in Riga. The exhibition is an attempt to show the richness and diversity of the objects in the collection while preserving the imagery of the storage space in which they were found.
Founders, explorers and donors from “Free Riga”: Mārcis Rubenis, Krišjānis Zariņš, Ray Juster, Stig Stassig, Alise Ziemule, Ieva Lange, Anastāsija Šneps-Šneppe, Anna Štefane
Design and production of the exhibition: Kārlis Jaunromāns/T13, Māris Holsts, Rūdolfs Janovs
Collection research at the museum “Jews in Latvia”: Laura Melne, Dora Pauzere, Regīna Furmanova
Financial Support:
Valsts kultūrkapitāla fonds
Fonds “Uniting History”