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December 11, 1998/ 22 Kislev 5759, Vol. 51, No. 12
Jewish woman set to become Swiss president
DOUGLAS DAVIS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
A Jewish woman is scheduled to record a double first in Switzerland this week. Ruth Dreifuss is expected to become the first Jew - and the first woman - to be named president of Switzerland, where women only earned the right to vote in 1971.
Dreifuss, who formally becomes head of state on Jan. 1, will inherit a country that is attempting to cope with an anti-Semitic backlash after a stream of embarrassing disclosures in recent years about the financial ties that existed between the country's leading banks and Nazi Germany. After months of international pressure, earlier this year two of the banks agreed to pay a $1.25 billion settlement.
The presidency of Switzerland is a largely ceremonial post and is not elected by popular vote. The office rotates among the seven Cabinet ministers of the Swiss federal government.
Dreifuss, 58, was born in an eastern Swiss canton. As the Nazis approached the Swiss border, she moved with her parents to Geneva.
In 1970, she graduated from Geneva University with a degree in mathematics. She is fluent in French, German, English, Spanish and Italian.
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