Riga Holocaust museum to stay open after city government waives rent

JTA — The city government of Latvia’s capital Riga has waived its demand for rent from a Holocaust museum whose director said it couldn’t afford to pay.

The Riga City Council withdrew its intention to collect $12,000 in rent per month from the Riga Ghetto Museum, one of the city’s three Holocaust museums, Rabbi Menachem Barkahan, who heads the Shamir Association that runs the museum, tells the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

The city also revised its plan to rezone most of the area it had leased to the museum for 10 years, agreeing to take away only half of its allocated 6,500 square feet. “This will allow the museum to keep its main exhibition, Ghetto Street, as is,” Shamir Association says in a statement.

The museum’s previous 10-year lease, which expired this year, did not charge any rent.

Shamir “welcomed the decision, and thanked the council for choosing to maintain the agreement,” the statement says.

The Nazis and their collaborators murdered about 70,000 Jews in Latvia during the Holocaust. The Riga Ghetto refers to areas of the city where Jews were forced to live during the Holocaust.

— JTA