Tomás Hirsch
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Tomás René Hirsch Goldschmidt (born July 19, 1956) is a leftist Chilean politician and businessman. He was the Together We Can Do More pact candidate for the 2005 Chilean presidential election, winning 5.4% of the vote.
Hirsch was born in Santiago, Chile to Jewish-German parents. His mother, Lysa Goldschmidt, arrived in Chile before World War II, while his father, Jorge Hirsch, arrived in the country escaping from Nazi concentration camps.
During his youth, Hirsch became interested in Silo, an Argentinian writer and leader of a movement that inspired the founders of the Humanist Party.
In 1974 he began studying Industrial Civil Engineering at the University of Chile, but dropped out in 1978. Later he began working on his brother's photo company.
In 1983 Hirsch helped found the Humanist Party, the first political party legalized (1987) under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, and was president of the party from 1994 until 1999. He was also one of the founders of the Coalition of Parties for Democracy (CPD) and served as Chile's ambassador to New Zealand between 1990-92, under the democratic government of Patricio Aylwin. In January of 1993, the Humanist Party withdrew from the CPD.
Hirsch unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the lower house of Congress in 1997 and for President in 1999, representing the Humanists.
Hirsch is married to Juanita Vergara and has two children.
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