Emanuelis Zingeris

Emanuelis Zingeris
MP
Member of the Seimas
In office
1990–2000
Assumed office
2004
Vice President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe
Assumed office
2009
Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Seimas
Assumed office
2010
President of the Parliamentary Forum of the Community of Democracies
Assumed office
2010
Chairman of the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania
Assumed office
1998
Personal details
Born 16 July 1957
Political party Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, European People's Party
Spouse(s) Virginija Zingeris
Children Dovydas and Estera Zingeris
Religion Judaism

Emanuelis Zingeris (born 16 July 1957 in Kaunas, Lithuania) is a Lithuanian philologist, museum director, politician, signatory of the 1990 Act of the Re-Establishment of the State of Lithuania, currently serving as a Member of the Seimas (1990–2000 and since 2004), chairman of its foreign affairs committee (since 2010), Vice President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (since 2009) and President of the Parliamentary Forum of the Community of Democracies (since 2010).[1] A Lithuanian Jew, he has been director of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, honorary chairman of Lithuania's Jewish community, and is Chairman of the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania. He is a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism, that proposed the establishment of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism and Nazism.

Career

Zingeris graduated from Vilnius University in 1981 with a degree in philology. Himself being Jewish, he wrote his post-graduate dissertation on the Jewish cultural heritage of Lithuania, a difficult subject at the time.[2] He was a member of the pro-independence Sąjūdis movement and was elected to the Seimas (parliament) in 1990, where he served as chair of both the foreign affairs committee and the human rights committee, and as a member of several interparliamentary relations groups.[1]

Zingeris failed to be reelected in 2000, and served as director of the Vilna Gaon Jewish State Museum, which he helped found, from 2000 to 2004. In 2004, he returned to parliament. Having formerly been a member of the Social Democratic Party, he is now representing the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats and the European People's Party at the European level.

He was honorary chairman of the Lithuanian Jewish Community, but resigned from this position in 1997 after he was elected chairman of the Lithuanian Parliamentary Committee on Human and Civic Rights and National Minorities, stating that he was "thus bound to have concern for all national minorities".[3] In 1998, he was appointed chairman of the International Commission for the Evaluation of the Crimes of the Nazi and Soviet Occupation Regimes in Lithuania by President Valdas Adamkus.

He chaired the Lithuanian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in 2009 and is one of the Vice Presidents of PACE.[4] He has also chaired both the Lithuanian and Israeli inter-parliamentary group, and the Lithuanian and American inter-parliamentary group. In 2010, he was also elected President of the Parliamentary Forum of the Community of Democracies.[5]

He is a founding signatory of the Prague Declaration on European Conscience and Communism.[6]

Recognitions

Family

Zingeris is married and has a son and a daughter. His brother Markas Zingeris is the director of the Jewish Museum in Vilnius and the adviser on genocide to the Prime Minister. Emanuelis Zingeris speaks Lithuanian, Yiddish, Polish, German, English and Russian.

References

  1. 1 2 "Lietuvos Respublikos Aukðèiausiosios Tarybos AKTO Dël Lietuvos nepriklausomos valstybës atstatymo signataras Emanuelis Zingeris" (in Lithuanian). Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  2. ↑ Rosenthal, Jack (1990-09-30). "Editorial Notebook;The Last Jewish Farmer". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-12-13.
  3. ↑ Public declaration of 1997-02-22
  4. ↑ http://assembly.coe.int/ASP/AssemblyList/AL_MemberDetails.asp?MemberID=5487
  5. ↑ http://www.parliamentary-forum.org/news/7-declaration-is-adopted-in-washington-on-the-establishment-of-the-secretariat-of-the-parliamentary-forum-of-the-community-of-democracies-in-vilnius.html
  6. ↑ "Prague Declaration - Declaration Text". 3 June 2008. Retrieved 28 January 2010.
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