Jokūbas Šernas (14 June 1888 – 31 July 1926) was a

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

n attorney, journalist, teacher and banker, one of the twenty signatories to the

Act of Independence of Lithuania The Act of Independence of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Nepriklausomybės Aktas) or the Act of February 16, also the Lithuanian Resolution on Independence ( lt, Lietuvos Nepriklausomybės Nutarimas), The signed document is actually titled simply '' ...

. Born in

Biržai Biržai (, known also by several #Names, alternative names) is a town in northern Lithuania. Biržai is famous for its reconstructed Biržai Castle Manor house, manor, and the whole region is renowned for its many traditional-recipe beer brewerie ...

, he studied law at the University of

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

, graduating in 1914. After he returned to Lithuania, he worked in

Vilnius Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...

for various political causes centering on independence and taught at the Vilnius Gymnasium, as well as editing ''Lietuvos žinios'' (Lithuanian News). He helped organize the

Vilnius Conference The Vilnius Conference or Vilnius National Conference ( lt, Vilniaus konferencija) met between September 18, 1917 and September 22, 1917, and began the process of establishing a Lithuanian state based on ethnic identity and language that would ...

and was elected to the

Council of Lithuania The Council of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Taryba, german: Litauischer Staatsrat, pl, Rada Litewska), after July 11, 1918 the State Council of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Valstybės Taryba) was convened at the Vilnius Conference that took place betwe ...

, signing the Act in 1918. After independence Šernas served in the organizations working to establish democratic institutions in the new state, including the Ministry of the Interior. He founded and edited the journal ''Savivaldybės'' (Self Government) and was appointed director of the Commerce and Industry Bank. He was the father of the actor

Jacques Sernas Jokūbas Bernardas Šernas (30 July 1925 – 3 July 2015), commonly known as Jacques Sernas and sometimes credited as Jack Sernas, was a Lithuanian-born French actor with an international film career. Biography He was born in Kaunas, Lithuania, ...

but died in

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

in 1926, only a year after his son was born in 1925. He is buried in the cemetery of

Nemunėlio Radviliškis Nemunėlio Radviliškis ( pl, Radziwiliszki) is a town in Biržai district municipality, in Panevėžys County, northern Lithuania. According to the 2011 census, the town has a population of 566 people. History On 8 August 1941 the Jews of the ...

References

*" Šernas, Jokūbas". Encyclopedia Lituanica V: 123. (1970-1978). Ed. Simas Sužiedėlis. Boston, Massachusetts: Juozas Kapočius. LCC 74-114275. 1888 births 1926 deaths Lithuanian jurists Lithuanian bankers Lithuanian journalists Ministers of Internal Affairs of Lithuania Members of the Council of Lithuania Saint Petersburg State University alumni Lithuanian independence activists 20th-century journalists {{Lithuania-politician-stub