Viški is pronounced Vishki, though it is often written as Viski. The Latvian alphabet has 33 letters. It includes two versions of what we’d call an “s”: one written as s, and the other as š, which is pronounced “sh.” That second letter is the “s” in Viški.
In the Russian Empire before the Bolshevik Revolution, the empire was divided into districts known as Gubernias, each named for the largest city in the district. Our Gubernia was Vitebsk.
Our family’s home was a small place called Viski (pronounced “Vishky”) in Latvia. My grandfather told me that I could remember the name because it rhymes with “whisky,” which it really only does when you are inebriated enough to say it like “Whishkey.” :-) After becoming involved with researching our family history, I grew extremely curious about what life in Viski would have been like for my grandfather, who left in 1912 when he was 10 years old.
The Old Synagogue of Viški on Riga Street was built in 1880 and rebuilt in 1936. All that
exists today is the foundation. Viški was a small shtetl about 15 miles northeast of Dvinsk
(today Daugavpils) in the Gubernia of Vitebsk when it belonged to the Russian Empire.
Today Višķi is in the southeast of Latvia, in an area known as Latgale. Daugavpils, by the way, has had an interesting history of name changes: Dinaburg (1275–1656), Borisoglebsk (1656–1667), Dinaburg (1667–1893), Dvinsk (1893–1920), and Daugavpils (1920–today).
The historical origin of the name Vishki is explained with the help of the Sanskrit language.
[Translator’s note: It is commonly believed that ancient predecessors of today’s Latvian and Lithuanian languages were the closest to Sanskrit among all European languages.]
Sanskrit was an ancient scientific and religious language in India. The word “vish” means “going inside” or “entering,” and the word “kr” means “to act,” “to trade,” or “to get.” Combining these words forms the expression “place or square which is entered to trade, act, or obtain.” In more concise form, this is a “market square.” It is believed that the first such “market square” in our region was formed in the place that came to be called Vishki.
* From Eleonora Petrovna’s book “No Višķu pagasta vēsture”, translated by Vadim Dumesh.
Marta Skavronskaya (1684–1727) was born in the village of Vishki. She became the wife of Peter I
and was known as Ekaterina I, Empress of All Russia (1725–1727).
Jews began to settle in the area at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century. From the end of the 19th century until the Holocaust, the Jewish community comprised the majority of the inhabitants. Community institutions included a hevra kadisha, a public bath house, and a bikkur cholim (sick-visiting society). From the second half of the 19th century and for a period of about 90 years, the officiating rabbis were from the Platsinsky family.
During World War I, many members of the community fled to the interior of Russia. On their return after the war, many Jews found their homes damaged or destroyed. They were repaired with the assistance of the community council, which was elected in 1920, as well as with help from the “Joint” (a relief agency of American Jewry). In 1921, a Jewish elementary school with four classes was opened. Yiddish was the teaching language.
During the years 1920–1940, Vishki was part of independent Latvia.
The majority of the Jews eked out a living as peddlers or in various trades. After World War I, despite welfare grants from the Joint, many young Jews left because of the lack of economic opportunity. In 1935, of the 58 businesses in Viski, 50 were Jewish-owned. A mutual credit fund operated in the town between the two world wars.
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| Vishki, about 1940. Upper row, from the left: Liba Dumesh, Tsipa-Lea Dumesh. Lower row, on the right, Doba Dumesh. All the others are unknown. |
In 1935, there were 423 Jewish residents out of a total population of 750.
Following the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, signed by Germany and the USSR in August 1939, the Red Army entered Latvia. In the summer of 1940, a Soviet government was installed. The new regime nationalized businesses and shops, and Jewish public life was liquidated.
On the outbreak of war between Germany and the USSR (June 22, 1941), a number of young Jews escaped to the east. A few days later German forces captured the town. On June 28 the Jews of the town and nearby towns were sent to the Daugavpils ghetto. After several days they were taken to the Pogulianka forest and murdered in the “provincial action” (an operation to liquidate the Jews of country towns).
In July 1944, the Red Army liberated the town.
* This history courtesy of the Association of Latvian and Estonian Jews in Israel.
| Year | Total Population | Number of Jews | Percent of Jewish Population |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1847 | ? | 194 | ? |
| 1897 | 959 | 668 | 70 |
| 1914 | 1200 | 850 (est.) | 70 (est.) |
| 1920 | 832 | 567 | 68 |
| 1925 | 757 | 510 | 67 |
| 1930 | 770 | 530 | 68 |
| 1935 | 750 | 423 | 56 |
For a period of around 90 years, the Platsinsky (also spelled Pluchinsky/Ploschinsky) family served as rabbis of Višķi. The first was Rabbi Moshe (Mishel) Platsinsky, who served as rabbi for more than 40 years. In his youth he was known as the “genius of Suwalki.”
SUWALKI, a town of Russian Poland, capital of the government of the same name, situated at the source of the Hancza, a tributary of the Niemen, 65 miles by rail northwest of Grodno. Population 27,165.
www.1911encyclopedia.org
Rabbi Judah Leib Solomon Platsinsky (1876–ca. 1930)
After Moshe’s death in 1907, he was succeeded by his son, Rabbi Judah Leib Solomon Platsinsky, born January 29, 1876, in Višķi.
Rabbi Yankel Meyer Platsinsky (1902–1941)
His son, Yankel Meyer Platsinsky, born on June 6, 1902, in Višķi, studied in Palestine and at the Kovno Yeshiva (Kaunas, Lithuania), where he was ordained. He served as rabbi in Višķi from 1931 and perished there in 1941.
The pictures of the rabbis and synagogue of Višķi are from the wonderful book
Latvia Synagogues and Rabbis 1918–1940. Visit
http://www.shamir.lv/ for more information.