The Jewish community of Bauska is considered to be one of the three sacred communities in Latvia, because in the second half of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century, well known rabbis worked here, each of whom had significantly entered the Jewish history. In 1861, Joseph Mordechai Eliasberg became a rabbi in Bauska, he was a staunch supporter of the Jewish Enlightenment (also known as Haskala) movement and one of its spiritual leaders.
He called on Jews throughout the Russian Empire to identify themselves not only as a religious community but also as a secular community or national minority. He called on Jews to start learning and mastering the Russian language so that Jews, as a cultural-ethnic group, could integrate into the multinational society of the Russian Empire, and this became a major turning point in relations between Jews and state institutions.
At the end of the 19th century and at the beggining 20th century Rabbi Abraham Ichak Cook, whose name is probably known to all educated Jews today served in Bauska. He was an outstanding Jewish thinker and philosopher with a vast wealth of knowledge and later gained the authority of all rabbis. In 1904 he moved to what was then known as Palestine, and became the first Chief Rabbi of Palestine. In 1921 he was elected as the Chief Rabbi of European Jewish community (also known as Ashkenazi). In 1924, A.I. Cook established a school, which still operates in Israel.
