Jakub Wygodzki | |
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יעקב ויגודסקי | |
Lithuanian Minister for Jewish Affairs | |
In office December 11, 1918 – January 1919 | |
Prime Minister | Augustinas Voldemaras Mykolas Sleževičius |
Preceded by | none |
Succeeded by | Max Soloveitchik |
Personal details | |
Born | [1] Babruysk, Russian Empire | June 3, 1857
Died | August 1941 (age 84) Vilnius, Reichskommissariat Ostland |
Cause of death | The Holocaust |
Citizenship | Russian Empire Second Polish Republic |
Political party | Constitutional Democratic Party Bloc of National Minorities |
Children | Writer Aleksandra Brushtein (1884–1968)[1] |
Alma mater | Imperial Military Medical Academy |
Occupation | Doctor, political activist |
Jakub Wygodzki (1856–1941; Lithuanian: Jokūbas Vygodskis, Hebrew: יעקב ויגודסקי) was a Polish–Lithuanian Jewish politician, Zionist activist and a medical doctor. He was one of the most prominent Jewish activists in Vilnius (Vilna, Wilno). Educated as a doctor in Russia and Western Europe, he established his gynecology and pediatric practice in 1884. In 1905, he was one of the founding members of the Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets) in Vilnius Region. In 1918, he was co-opted to the Council of Lithuania and briefly served as the first Lithuanian Minister for Jewish Affairs. After Vilnius was captured by Poland, Wygodzki was elected to the Polish parliament (Sejm) in 1922 and 1928. He died in the Lukiškės Prison during the first months of the German occupation of Lithuania during World War II.