Three Generations Return to Riga

A family journey through Latvia’s capital bridged memory and history.

The Mebel-Strauss family of six stepped off a plane in Riga, Latvia, carrying things that no guidebook could provide: living memory. The group spanned three generations: grandparents, Lev and Berta, their daughter, Elaine, and husband (Dr.) Ben, and two grandchildren, Michael, 9, and Zoey, 7. For the grandparents, it was a homecoming decades in the making. For the younger members of the family, it was their first international trip.

“Walking through familiar streets brought many memories and stories that shaped our lives,” said Berta, who was born, raised, and earned her engineering degree in Riga before leaving with Lev (also an engineer) in 1979, when Latvia was still one of the 15 republics of the Soviet Union. After getting rejected to emigrate for the first time, it took another year to get the necessary documents. With a 3-year-old daughter (Inna) in tow, they stayed in Vienna for two weeks, then two more months in Italy awating permission to enter the U.S. The couple has returned to Riga several times, drawn back to the city and to the nearby seaside resort town of Jurmala. However, This family trip was different.

Elaine surfaced the idea in 2025, expressing the desire to bring her own family to her parents’ hometown. “It was very important to show both Ben and the kids where Bubbie and Deda grew up,” Elaine explained. When she mentioned the trip to friends, she got puzzled looks. ‘Where is Riga?” prompting a geography lesson about Latvia’s location on the Baltic Sea.

The 10-day journey had variety. They strolled cobblestone streets in the medieval Old Town, climbed the tower of Saint Peter’s Church for sweeping views across the famous skyline, and saw the Dome Cathedral, an 800-year-old Gothic landmark holding one of Europe’s most celebrated pipe organs, 6,718 pipes. With daily concerts by classically trained musicians, Elaine noted, “It was incredible to be sitting in an 800-year-old building listening to a musician play a 200-year-old organ.”

Riga’s Central Market, housed in a series of vast former German Zeppelin hangars, was another highlight. They sampled local foods with Elaine, liking the cold beet soup (borscht), a traditional Latvian staple. The children and Ben liked pelmeni, hearty Eastern European dumplings. The markets’ stalls sold amber jewelry, hand-woven linens, and woodworking.

The children’s favorite adventure was a 30-minute train ride to Jurmala Beach. They splashed in the cold waters of the Gulf of Riga, collected seashells, and conquered the rope courses at Tarzans Adventure Park.

Ben, visiting Eastern Europe for the first time, was struck by the city’s accessibility. “I was impressed with how easy Riga was to navigate, how well people spoke English, and how impressive the historical architecture was.” Elaine added, “The city’s linguistic landscape has shifted since the Soviet era: while Russian remains widely spoken among older generations, many younger Latvians and teenagers speak little to none. English, alongside Latvian, has become a common tongue.”

Visiting close to early summer, the flowers bloomed across plazas and outdoor cafés; and they experienced Riga’s extraordinary “summer light”, sunrise at 4:30 a.m. and sunset after 10:30 p.m. Walking home from the beach at 8:30 p.m., locals were still out enjoying the golden evening.

Coincidentally, their hotel was just steps from the national headquarters of Latvia’s Pharmacist’s Society. A spontaneous knock at the door led to a meeting (Elaine is a pharmacist) with the organization’s president to discuss pharmacy practice, medication safety, and patient care.

Berta and Lev found meaning they sought in sharing their roots, “Seeing our grandchildren experience the city strengthened our family bond and gave us a deep appreciation for the legacy we pass from one generation to the next.”

Berta and Lev hope that on a future visit, Michael and Zoey will be old enough to ask questions about the lives their grandparents once lived on those very same streets — and that they will be there to answer them.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Riga’s population is around 590,000, with the metro area exceeding 1 million. Latvia is slightly smaller than Maine. A 2025 estimate suggests around 9,500 Jews live in Latvia. Some say that’s an overestimate based on heritage vs. actually practicing. About 80 percent of Latvia’s Jewish population was murdered in the Holocaust.