Last year, some of us spent a few days in Latvia, the middle child of the Baltics. We had no idea that the country had a Jewish president.

Egils Levits was born to a Jewish father (the "Levi" in the last name should have been a hint) and a goyishe mother. His father, once a Soviet diehard, got disillusioned over the years (who can blame him). In 1972, the family emigrated to Germany. Considering how the Soviets treated dissidents, that clearly was not the worst scenario.

Levits grew up in Germany, and came back to Latvia after the Soviet Union collapsed. He served as an ambassador to multiple countries, entered politics, and eventually went up the ranks to be elected president.

Perhaps we had no idea about Levits' Jewish heritage because he downplays it. But that's his choice, not ours...