Connecticut
Culture
The Connecticut Estonian society promotes Estonian social and cultural events across the state. Estonian Land serves as a community gathering place for traditions such as Victory Day (võidupüha) and St Johns Night (jaaniõhtu) bonfires. The community also runs the Connecticut Estonian School, the folk dance group JAANIK, and Estonian Girl Guides (Põhjatütred) and Boy Scouts (Vikerlased) troops. Nearby, the Council of Estonian Scouting USA and the Estonian Scouts and Guides Camp Järvemetsa in Jackson, NJ, extend the regional scouting network that Connecticut Estonians participate in.
Connecticut ranks among the states with a notable higher relative percentage of Latvian residents in the United States. Community life has historically centered on the Latvian Lutheran Church in Willimantic, but has recently moved to Manchester as the area’s active congregation. Organizational records are preserved through University of Connecticut’s library collections. The community stays in touch nationally via the American Latvian Association.
Connecticut is home to 24,000-33,000 residents with Lithuanian descent, one of the highest per capita concentrations in the country due to pre WWI immigration from Kaunas, Suvalkija, and Vilnius. Waterbury remains one of the most notable surviving East Coast Lithuanian districts, anchored by its neighborhood, St. Joseph’s Church, a Lithuanian school, Camp Neringa, cemetery, and Knights of Lithuania council to unite Lithuanians. The community is represented locally by the Honorary Consulate of Lithuania in Hartford and stays connected through the Lithuanians in Connecticut Facebook group.
Uniting all three communities, Elizabeth Park in West Hartford holds a Baltic Freedom Tree monument dedicated to Baltic independence. The Baltic-New England Development Network (BALTNET), a Hartford-based nonprofit, works to promote collaboration between Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and the wider New England region, including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Academia
Yale University has a Baltic Studies program, which sponsors workshops, symposia, and lectures. Additionally, the program regularly hosts fellows from the Baltics (typically two per academic year).
Baltic immigrants began settling in Connecticut before World War I to work in the industrial factory towns of Waterbury, Hartford, and New Britain. The community tends to participate in New York gatherings with the NY and NJ communities, but there are a few events in the state. In 1987, the Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian Alliance of Connecticut was established to give Baltic groups a platform for advocating for political and social movements in solidarity with their home countries. The alliance served as a lobbying organization for Baltic people in Connecticut, growing popular amidst the fall of the Soviet Union and new Baltic independence.