Jacques Dicker

Jacques Dicker (31 July 1879 – 17 November 1942) was a Russian-born Swiss socialist politician and lawyer.

Biography

Dicker was born into a wealthy Jewish family in Khotyn, Bessarabia, the son of Moïse Dicker and Eva Gorodisky. His father worked as an intendent to the Obolensky princes. He was jailed and imprisoned several times due to his political activism. Dicker continued his law studies in Geneva, obtaining his degree in 1909, and was admitted to the bar in 1915.

Dicker became a Swiss citizen in 1915. He collaborated with Léon Nicole at the newspaper Le Travail. Dicker was also a member of the Grand Council of Geneva between 1930 and 1941. On 9 November 1932, the far-right National Union convened a meeting in the municipal hall in Plainpalais, a meeting intended to function as a tribunal against Nicole and Dicker. A leftist countermanifestation was organized. Violence broke out between demonstrators and army, killing 13 people and injuring 65.

Dicker defended Nicole in a legal case in May 1933. He died in Geneva on 17 November 1942, aged 63.