The Jews will not be represented in the new Estonian Parliament since Acting President Konstantin Paets is not appointing any Jewish members and the Jews have declined to participate with the Germans in an electoral committee to nominate one representative of the national minorities.
According to the electoral law, the committee is supposed to consist of three Germans and two Jews, thus giving the Germans an absolute majority, since the Russians, constituting the largest minority, hitherto have not made use of their cultural minority rights.
In the last Parliament Heinrich Gutkin, vice-president of the Jewish cultural autonomous organization, was among the ten members of the Second Chamber nominated by the President of the State.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
