Tag #115393 - Interview #83163 (Anatoli Kraemer )

During the tsarist time Latvia and Estonia were part of Russia, which had a pale of settlement [1]. In Latvia Jews were not permitted to live in Riga and other big cities. There was supposed to be a special permit to live outside the pale of settlement. Within the pale, Jews were entitled to settle wherever they wished and do for a living what they wanted. There were two restrictions for the Jews in Estonia – they had no right to be in the government and be officers in the army. Other than that they were free. There was no anti-Semitism in Estonia, no Jewish pogroms, which were rather frequent in the Russian empire. I think that was the reason for Grandfather’s decision to move to Estonia. My grandparents settled in Tartu. It was the second largest city in Estonia, an old university city. There was a large Jewish community in Tartu. There was a very beautiful choral synagogue [2].