History of the Jews in Latvia International Refugee Organization (IRO), and other relief organizations for Nazi victims, and some of them immigrated to the U.S. and other countries abroad. Nevertheless, there were also Latvians who risked their lives in order to save Jews. One such, Jānis Lipke, helped to save several dozen Jews of the Riga ghetto by providing them with hideouts. The Jewish population of Latvia declined from 28,300 in 1979 to 22,900 in 1989, when 18,800 of its Jews lived in the capital Riga. Part of this was due to a high rate of emigration to Israel; the Soviet Union allowed limited numbers of
The Case for Latvia "The Case for Latvia" is the only book by Jukka Rislakki about Latvia, that has been translated to English. The Latvian language version of The Case for Latvia was reviewed by the Delfi web portal. The review comments on some of the points given in the book: ""The analyses [of the book] also helps to understand, why the small and militarily weak Latvia in different surveys, for so long has been looked upon as Russia's enemy number one"", and:""The Case for Latvia is mainly written for readers in the USA, even though Latvian readers may find new and interesting news"".