A grateful letter on behalf of the Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was presented to Rabbi Menachem Barkakhan, head of the Jewish religious community of Latvia "Shamir" and the Riga Ghetto Museum, for his active participation in preserving the memory of the Soviet wars that fell during the Great Patriotic War on the territory of the republic.
On the eve of the Victory Day this year, the International European Tolerance Center and the Shamir community published a map of the Soviet Army's military cemeteries of the Second World War in Latvia, as well as a detailed guidebook in Russian, Latvian, German and English.
The publication publishes information on 338 military cemeteries - on the number of buried and identified, as well as inscriptions on monuments.
This project, curated by Barkakhan, did not go unnoticed in Russia.
"On behalf of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, I express my gratitude to you and all members of the Shamir Association for their active participation in preserving the memory of the Soviet wars that perished in the years of the Great Patriotic War in the territory of Latvia. The heaviest trials fell on the share of the peoples of the Soviet Union.
Today it is important to talk about the military exploits of our ancestors, to defend the historical truth about the price at which victory was won in that terrible war. Your work to counteract attempts to falsify the heroic past, to educate the young people respectful attitude to the glorious traditions of the older generations deserves sincere respect, "says the thank you letter sent by the Russian ambassador to Latvia Yevgeny Lukyanov to the rabbi.
The ceremony took place at the Riga Ghetto Museum, which was opened in 2010 at the initiative of Barkakhan and became a place of commemoration of Holocaust victims in Latvia.
The rabbi for his part expressed gratitude for the honor given to him.
"We read annually about the exodus of Jews from Egypt and it says: every Jew in every generation should feel as if he himself was at the end of Egypt. To paraphrase this, I want to say that every person in the world, in every generation, should feel himself as if he himself participated in these tragic events of the Second World War. We must do everything so that this never again happens. To do this, you need to constantly remember this, "he said.
According to him, the Jewish religious community of Latvia also makes efforts to take care of military graves in the country and plans to organize prayers of representatives of different faiths near the graves, where people of different faiths lie.
"We will pray for them, and they will pray for us so that we remain human. This is our task, "he stressed.