Jakub Wygodzki

Jakub Wygodzki
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	(1857-06-03)June 3, 1857[1] Babruysk, Russian Empire
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.