Jokūbas Šernas

Jokūbas Šernas (; 27 June 1888 – 31 July 1926) was a Lithuanian activist and one of the twenty signatories to the Act of Independence of Lithuania.

He studied law at the University of St. Petersburg, graduating in 1914. After he returned to Lithuania, he edited the daily newspaper Lietuvos žinios. During World War I, he joined the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers and taught history at the Lithuanian Rytas Gymnasium. He helped organize the Vilnius Conference and was elected to the Council of Lithuania, which adopted the Act of Independence of Lithuania on 16 February 1918. Šernas was the secretary of the Council of Lithuania from September 1917 to March 1919 handling its paperwork and day-to-day business. From February 1918 to March 1919, he was one of the four members of the presidium that acted in the council's name while it was not in session.

Šernas was a member of various special government commissions, including those that organized the Second Conference of the State of Lithuania, investigated the deaths of Jurgis Smolskis and and Kaunas garrison mutiny, drafted the . From 12 April to 7 October 1919, Šernas was the minister without portfolio in the Sleževičius Cabinet II. In February–March 1920, Šernas worked to convince four members of the National Council of Lithuania Minor to join the Council of Lithuania. It was accomplished on 20 March 1920 which was celebrated as a symbolic unification of Lithuania Minor with Lithuania.

Šernas was not elected to the Constituent Assembly of Lithuania. He then turned to business ventures becoming a board member of the Trade and Industry Bank. He was also involved with breweries Gubernija and Ragutis, and insurance company . In 1925, he returned to government service to head the Municipalities Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. He died of stomach cancer in July 1926. His son Jacques Sernas became an actor in France and United States.

Biography Early life and education Jokūbas Šernas was born on 1888 in Jasiškiai near the present-day Latvia–Lithuania border. His family were members of the Lithuanian Evangelical Reformed Church. He had ten siblings, but four of them died in childhood. His brother Adomas Šernas became superintendent of the Evangelical Reformed Church in 1942. His family maintained contact with Jurgis Bielinis, a Lithuanian book smuggler who lived in nearby .

Šernas attended primary school in Nemunėlio Radviliškis which was about north from home. It was a Russian school maintained by the Evangelical Reformed Church. In 1903, enrolled at the third grade of the . It was an old Evangelical Reformed school, but Tsarist authorities took control of the school in 1881. Nevertheless, it remained popular among the congregation. In 1906, Šernas was expelled from the school for supporting the Russian Revolution of 1905. Initially, he was prohibited from attending another school. However, he managed to get help from , curator of the , and enroll at the private German Hugo Treffner Gymnasium in Dorpat. He graduated in July 1910.

Šernas then enrolled at the University of Dorpat to study law. Many Evangelical Reformed students, including Šernas's brother Adomas, attended the university. However, after just a year, Šernas transferred to the University of Saint Petersburg. He received a stipend from the Evangelical Reformed Church. He joined a Lithuanian student society and was its chairman for a year. There is some evidence that, together with Martynas Yčas, he planned on publishing Lithuanian newspaper Lietuvių balsas, but it was published only in August 1915. In December 1914, he passed his final exams but did not submit thesis required for a diploma.

Activist in Vilnius

In 1914, Šernas returned to Lithuania and settled in Vilnius. He worked as the editor of the daily Lietuvos žinios from January to July 1914. He joined the Lithuanian Society for the Relief of War Sufferers and was elected to its central committee in December 1914. In January 1915, he became a clerk (secretary) of the Lithuanian Society and earned a salary of 100 Russian rubles.

Unlike many other Lithuanian activists, he did not retreat to Russia when Germans occupied the city in September 1915. Instead, he temporarily became the head of the Infant Jesus Shelter (originally established in 1787)