Grant Arthur Gochin
Grant Arthur Gochin is an American philanthropist, journalist, politician, and activist of Jewish South African descent.
Early life[edit]
Gochin was born in Port Elizabeth, South Africa to a Lithuanian-Jewish (Litvak) family. Gochin's family left Lithuania throughout the 1920's and 1930's. After multiple arrests for his anti-Apartheid activities in South Africa, Gochin emigrated to America in 1986.
Career[edit]
Gochin currently works as a Wealth Advisor and certified financial planner at a firm in Woodland Hills, California. He is the current CEO of his wealth management firm[1].
Diplomatic career[edit]
In 2009 to recognize his political and philanthropic work, Gochin was appointed as the Honorary Consul for the Republic of Togo[2] to the State of California. To become an Honorary Consul, Gochin was recommended by several other foreign diplomats before being reviewed and eventually approved by the US Department of State. As part of his consular work, he serves on the Executive Committee of the Los Angeles Consular Corps, where he has served in multiple capacities, up to and including the Dean of the Los Angeles Consular Corps.
As Honorary Consul, Gochin represents Togo and works to educate the American public about the country, as well as working for positive trade, tourism, and diplomatic relations and assisting any Togolese expatriates with citizen services[3].
Due to his philanthropic work, Gochin was named the Chief of the Village of Babade, Togo[4].
In March 2018, he was appointed as the Special Envoy for Diaspora Affairs for the African Union.
Jewish Activism and Journalism[edit]
Gochin works to counter Holocaust Revisionism and antisemitism in Lithuania. His interest in the subject was sparked upon the Fall of the Soviet Union and Lithuania regaining sovereignty. At that time Gochin applied for Lithuanian citizenship and had to pursue multiple lawsuits to effectively prove he was in fact eligible for Lithuanian citizenship despite his Jewish ancestry[5].
Most recently, Gochin has investigated and worked to prosecute Lithuanian leaders who may have participated in or been complicit in Lithuanian Holocaust activities and the persecution of Lithuanian Jews. He has sought to strip leaders such as Jonas Noreika (honored as a resistance fighter[6]) of state honors[7]. Along with Noreika's granddaughter Silvia Foti, Gochin is involved in an ongoing lawsuit[8] with multiple government agencies in Lithuania, including the Genocide and Resistance Research Centre[9] of Lithuania regarding their historical opinion and honoring of resistance fighters[10]. In response, the Genocide Centre has released multiple statements supporting the innocence of Noreika, many of which have been critiqued as inaccurate and masking the true history of Noreika's actions[11].
Gochin is the author of Malice, Murder and Manipulation, published in 2013, which documents his family and the history of social oppression in Lithuania[12].
Gochin regularly submits articles to his blog[13]at the Times of Israel, where he discusses updates in his work in Lithuanian treatment of Holocaust perpetrators and victims.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Grant Gochin - Grant Arthur & Associates Wealth Services, LLC - Woodland Hills, CA". www.raymondjames.com. Retrieved 2019-07-25.
- ↑ County of Los Angeles, Office of Protocol (July 5, 2019). "Los Angeles Consular Corps" (PDF). Retrieved July 22, 2019.
- ↑ Stuart, Gwynedd (2018-02-14). "The Diplomats Next Door: Meet L.A.'s Honorary Consuls Los Angeles Magazine". Los Angeles Magazine. Retrieved 2019-07-23.
- ↑ "About". Grant Gochin. Retrieved 2019-07-23.
- ↑ "Grant Arthur Gochin". Grant Arthur Gochin. Retrieved 2019-08-14.
- ↑ Higgins, Andrew (2018-09-10). "Nazi Collaborator or National Hero? A Test for Lithuania". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
- ↑ "i24NEWS". www.i24news.tv. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
- ↑ Grossman, Ron. "She thought her grandfather was a Lithuanian hero. Research leads her to ask, was he a patriot or a Nazi?". chicagotribune.com. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
- ↑ Liphshiz, Cnaan. "Lithuanian court rejects lawsuit against state honors for Nazi collaborator". www.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
- ↑ Deutsch, Jillian (2019-08-12). "Plaque by plaque, Lithuania confronts its wartime past". POLITICO. Retrieved 2019-08-14.
- ↑ http://www.washingtontimes.com, The Washington Times. "Surmounting Lithuania's Holocaust past". The Washington Times. Retrieved 2019-09-02.
- ↑ "Media". Grant Gochin. Retrieved 2019-08-14.
- ↑ https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/author/grant-arthur-gochin/
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