Jakub Wygodzki (18561941; lt, Jokūbas Vygodskis, he, יעקב ויגודסקי) was a Polish–Lithuanian Jewish politician,

Zionist Zionism ( he, צִיּוֹנוּת ''Tsiyyonut'' after ''Zion'') is a nationalist movement that espouses the establishment of, and support for a homeland for the Jewish people centered in the area roughly corresponding to what is known in Je ...

activist and a medical doctor. He was one of the most prominent Jewish activists 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 ...

(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 ) , newspaper = ''Rech'' , ideology = ConstitutionalismConstitutional monarchismLiberal democracyParliamentarism Political pluralismSocial liberalism , position = Centre to centre-left , international = , colours ...

(Kadets) in Vilnius Region. In 1918, he was co-opted 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 ...

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 The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland (Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of t ...

) in

1922 Events January * January 7 – Dáil Éireann (Irish Republic), Dáil Éireann, the parliament of the Irish Republic, ratifies the Anglo-Irish Treaty by 64–57 votes. * January 10 – Arthur Griffith is elected President of Dáil Éirean ...

and

1928 Events January * January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA. * January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, J ...

. He died in the

Lukiškės Prison Lukiškės Prison ( lt, Lukiškių tardymo izoliatorius kalėjimas; pl, Więzienie na Łukiszkach or simply ''Łukiszki''; be, Лукішкі) was a prison in the center of Vilnius, Lithuania, near the Lukiškės Square. Construction Backg ...

during the first months of the

German occupation of Lithuania during World War II The military occupation of Lithuania by Nazi Germany lasted from the German invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941 to the end of the Battle of Memel on January 28, 1945. At first the Germans were widely welcomed as liberators from the re ...

Biography

Wygodzki was born to a family of

Hasidic Jews Hasidism, sometimes spelled Chassidism, and also known as Hasidic Judaism (Ashkenazi Hebrew: חסידות ''Ḥăsīdus'', ; originally, "piety"), is a Jewish religious group that arose as a spiritual revival movement in the territory of contem ...

. His family moved to

(Vilna, Wilno) in 1860 where his father was a merchant, supplying the local garrison of the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...

with clothes. He was the eldest of seven brothers and received traditional Jewish education at a

cheder A ''cheder'' ( he, חדר, lit. "room"; Yiddish pronunciation ''kheyder'') is a traditional primary school teaching the basics of Judaism and the Hebrew language. History ''Cheders'' were widely found in Europe before the end of the 18th ...

. He studied at

Marijampolė Gymnasium Marijampolė Rygiškių Jonas Gymnasium ( lt, Marijampolės Rygiškių Jono gimnazija) is a secondary school in Marijampolė, Lithuania. It is named after Rygiškių Jonas, one of the pen names of linguist Jonas Jablonskis who was one of the gymn ...

and

Imperial Military Medical Academy The S. M. Kirov Military Medical Academy (russian: Военно-медицинская академия имени С. М. Кирова) is a higher education institution of military medicine in Saint Petersburg and the Russian Federation. Senior ...

Saint 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 ...

. He was arrested for anti-Tsarist activities and involvement with a revolutionary group. Later he studied medicine in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

. In 1884, he returned to Vilnius and established his practice as gynecologist and pediatrician. He published medical articles in Russian and German journals. He joined Jewish cultural and political life. He was one of the first

activist in Vilnius and chaired their organization. In 1905, during the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

, he was one of the founding members of the

(Kadets) in Vilnius Region. In 1908, he established and chaired the Union of Jewish Doctors. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, he was a member of a Jewish relief committee and established daily Yiddish newspaper '' Flugblat''. For anti-German protests, he was arrested by the German police in March 1917 and imprisoned in the

Czersk Czersk (; ; formerly german: Czersk, (1942-5): ) is a town in northern Poland in Chojnice County, Pomeranian Voivodeship. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 9,844. Today the center of the city of Czersk in is the Village Square. ...

POW camp until April 1918. He supported Lithuanian independence, and together with Nachmanas Rachmilevičius and

Simon Yakovlevich Rosenbaum Simon Yakovlevich Rosenbaum (1860 in Pinsk, Russian Empire – 1934 in Tel Aviv, Palestine), was a Jewish activist and attorney, member of the First State Duma of the Russian Empire in 1906–1907, Lithuanian Minister for Jewish Affairs from J ...

was co-opted to the

on December 11, 1918. The same day he became the first Lithuanian Minister for Jewish Affairs. He held the post briefly as he did not evacuate from Vilnius with the rest of the government at the start of the

Lithuanian–Soviet War The Lithuanian–Soviet War or Lithuanian–Bolshevik War ( lt, karas su bolševikais) was fought between Act of Independence of Lithuania, newly independent Lithuania and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian Socialist Feder ...

. He was briefly imprisoned by the

Bolsheviks The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...

. In 1919, when Poland captured Vilnius, Wygodzki was chairman of the Jewish community in the city. He opposed the

Żeligowski's Mutiny Żeligowski's Mutiny ( pl, bunt Żeligowskiego, also ''żeligiada'', lt, Želigovskio maištas) was a Polish false flag operation led by General Lucjan Żeligowski in October 1920, which resulted in the creation of the Republic of Central Lithuan ...

and the

Republic of Central Lithuania The Republic of Central Lithuania ( pl, Republika Litwy Środkowej, ), commonly known as the Central Lithuania, and the Middle Lithuania ( pl, Litwa Środkowa, , be, Сярэдняя Літва, translit=Siaredniaja Litva), was an unrecognize ...

and urged people to boycott the elections in 1922. Nevertheless, he accepted the situation and became a member of the

Bloc of National Minorities The Bloc of National Minorities ( pl, Blok Mniejszości Narodowych, (, BMN; be, Блёк нацыянальных меньшасьцяў, ; uk, Блок національних меншин, ; german: Block der Nationalen Minderheiten; yi, ב� ...

and was elected to the Polish parliament (

) in

and

. In the Sejm, Wygodzki worked to improve Jewish education in

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

and

Yiddish language Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

s. He was also a member of the Vilnius Council from 1919 to 1929. Wygodzki contributed to the press, publishing his articles in ''Tsayt'', ''Vilner Tog'', ''

Haynt ''Haynt'' (הײַנט - "Today"; Yidishes tageblat 1906-08) was a Yiddish daily newspaper, published in Warsaw from 1906 until 1939. Newspaper ''Yidishes tageblat'' (יידישעס טאגעבלאט) was founded in 1906 by Zionist Samuel Jackan ...

'', '' Nasz Przegląd'', and others. He published three books of his memoirs: ''In shturm'' (In the Storm; 1921) on the German occupation during World War I; ''In gehenom'' (In Hell; 1927) on his imprisonment by the Germans; and ''In Sambatyon'' (1931) on his activities in the Sejm. After the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

in September 1940, Wygodzki organized relief for the Jewish refugees. In June 1941,

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

invaded the Soviet Union and occupied the city. Wygodzki joined the pre-ghetto

Judenrat A ''Judenrat'' (, "Jewish council") was a World War II administrative agency imposed by Nazi Germany on Jewish communities across occupied Europe, principally within the Nazi ghettos. The Germans required Jews to form a ''Judenrat'' in every com ...

on July 24. He was arrested at the end of August and died in the

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wygodzki, Jakub 1856 births 1941 deaths People from Babruysk Politicians from Vilnius Minister for Jewish Affairs of Lithuania Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1922–1927) Members of the Sejm of the Second Polish Republic (1928–1930) S.M. Kirov Military Medical Academy alumni Jewish Lithuanian politicians Jewish Polish politicians Jewish physicians Polish Zionists Politicians who died in the Holocaust Lithuanian Jews who died in the Holocaust Polish Jews who died in the Holocaust