List of North European Jews

Jews by country

Africa

* Algeria
* Angola
* Benin
* Botswana
* Burkina Faso
* Burundi
* Cameroon
* Cape Verde
* Central African Republic
* Chad
* Comoros
* Democratic Republic of the Congo
* Republic of the Congo
* Djibouti
* Egypt
* Equatorial Guinea
* Eritrea
* Eswatini
* Ethiopia
* Gabon
* Gambia
* Ghana
* Guinea
* Guinea-Bissau
* Ivory Coast
* Kenya
* Lesotho
* Liberia
* Libya
* Madagascar
* Malawi
* Mali
* Mauritania
* Mauritius
* Morocco
* Mozambique
* Namibia
* Niger
* Nigeria
* Rwanda
* São Tomé and Príncipe
* Senegal
* Seychelles
* Sierra Leone
* Somalia
* South Africa
* South Sudan
* Sudan
* Tanzania
* Togo
* Tunisia
* Uganda
* Zambia
* Zimbabwe

Asia

* Afghanistan
* Armenia
* Azerbaijan
* Bahrain
* Bangladesh
* Bhutan
* Brunei
* Cambodia
* China
* Cyprus
* East Timor
* Georgia
* Hong Kong
* India
* Indonesia
* Iran
* Iraq
* Israel
* Japan
* Jordan
* Kazakhstan
* Korea
* North Korea
* South Korea
* Kyrgyzstan
* Kuwait
* Lebanon
* Macau
* Malaysia
* Maldives
* Mongolia
* Myanmar
* Nepal
* Oman
* Pakistan
* Palestine
* Philippines
* Qatar
* Saudi Arabia
* Singapore
* Sri Lanka
* Syria
* Taiwan
* Tajikistan
* Thailand
* Turkey
* Turkmenistan
* United Arab Emirates
* Uzbekistan
* Vietnam
* Yemen

Europe

* Albania
* Andorra
* Austria
* Belarus
* Belgium
* Bosnia and Herzegovina
* Bulgaria
* Croatia
* Czechia
* Denmark
* Estonia
* Finland
* France
* Germany
* Greece
* Hungary
* Iceland
* Ireland
* Italy
* Kosovo
* Latvia
* Liechtenstein
* Lithuania
* Luxembourg
* Malta
* Moldova
* Monaco
* Montenegro
* Netherlands
* North Macedonia
* Norway
* Poland
* Portugal
* Romania
* Russia
* San Marino
* Serbia
* Slovakia
* Slovenia
* Spain
* Sweden
* Switzerland
* Ukraine
* United Kingdom
* England
* Northern Ireland
* Scotland
* Wales

North America

* Antigua and Barbuda
* Bahamas
* Barbados
* Belize
* Canada
* Costa Rica
* Cuba
* Dominica
* Dominican Republic
* El Salvador
* Grenada
* Guatemala
* Haiti
* Honduras
* Jamaica
* Mexico
* Nicaragua
* Panama
* Saint Kitts and Nevis
* Saint Lucia
* Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
* Trinidad and Tobago
* United States

Oceania

* Australia
* Fiji
* Kiribati
* Marshall Islands
* Micronesia
* Nauru
* New Zealand
* Palau
* Papua New Guinea
* Samoa
* Solomon Islands
* Tonga
* Tuvalu
* Vanuatu

South America

* Argentina
* Bolivia
* Brazil
* Chile
* Colombia
* Ecuador
* Guyana
* Paraguay
* Peru
* Suriname
* Uruguay
* Venezuela

Judaism portal

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Before the Holocaust, Jews were a significant part of the population in Lithuania where they numbered around 240,000, including approximately 100,000 in Vilnius, or about 45% of that city's pre-World War II population (Vilnius was also once known as the "Jerusalem of Lithuania"). A large Jewish community also existed in Latvia. In comparison, Estonia and the Nordic countries have had much smaller communities, concentrated mostly in Denmark and Sweden. The following is a list of prominent North European Jews, arranged by country of origin:

## Denmark

[edit]

See also: Category:Danish people of Jewish descent

* Mogens Ballin, painter
* Victor Bendix, composer, conductor and pianist
* Susanne Bier, film director
* Kim Bodnia, actor
* Harald Bohr, mathematician and footballer (Jewish mother)
* Niels Bohr, physicist, Nobel Prize (1922) (Jewish mother)
* Victor Borge, entertainer
* Edvard Brandes, politician, critic and author, minister of finance from 1909 to 1910
* Ernst Brandes, economist and editor
* Georg Brandes, author and critic, father of Danish naturalism
* Marcus Choleva, chief executive officer of KFI
* Dagmar Cohn, illustrator
* Esther Gehlin, painter
* Meïr Aron Goldschmidt, author and editor
* Heinrich Hirschsprung, industrialist, art patron (Den Hirschsprungske Samling)
* Arne Jacobsen, architect and designer (Jewish mother)
* Abraham Kurland, Olympic wrestling medalist[1]
* Arne Melchior, politician and former Transport Minister and Minister for Communication and Tourism
* Marcus Melchior, chief rabbi of Denmark, father of Arne Melchior
* Michael Melchior, rabbi and Israeli politician
* Ivan Osiier, seven-time Olympic fencer
* Lee Oskar, harmonica player, member of War
* Herbert Pundik, journalist
* Raquel Rastenni, jazz and popular singer
* Edgar Rubin, Gestalt psychologist
* Dan Zahavi, philosopher
* Nikolaj Znaider, violinist, conductor

## Estonia

[edit]

See also: Category:Estonian people of Jewish descent

* Jüri Alperten (1957–2020), conductor, pianist and music teacher
* Eino Baskin (1929–2015), actor and theatre director
* Avi Benjamin (born 1959), composer
* Ben Berlin (1896–1944), jazz musician
* Maria Dangell (born 1974), singer and pianist
* Aaron Feinstein, chess player
* Moses Wolf Goldberg (1905–1964), chemist
* Heinrich Gutkin (1879–1941), businessman and politician
* Idel Jakobson (1904–1997), NKVD investigator
* Louis Kahn (1901–1974), architect
* Anna Klas (1912–1999), pianist
* Eri Klas (1939–2016), conductor
* Mihhail Lotman (born 1952), philologist and politician
* Juri Lotman (1922–1993), semiotician
* Zara Mints (1927–1990), literary scientist
* Vladimir Padwa (1900–1981), pianist and composer
* Ita Saks (1921–2003), translator and publicist
* Hagi Šein (born 1945), journalist, film director, screenwriter and professor
* Benno Schotz (1891–1984), sculptor
* Samuel H. Shapiro (1907–1987), politician
* Emmanuel Steinschneider (1886–1970), physician
* Leonid Stolovich (1929–2013), philosopher
* David Vseviov (born 1949), historian

## Finland

[edit]

See also: Category:Finnish people of Jewish descent

* Mathilda Berwald, singer
* Max Dimont, historian and author
* Ida Ekman, soprano singer
* Abba Gindin, Finnish-born Israeli football player
* Rosalia Gurovich, barber
* Kim Hirschovits, ice hockey player
* Ruben Jaari, businessman
* Max Jakobson, diplomat
* Wolf Karni, football referee
* Daniel Katz, writer
* Elias Katz, athlete, Olympic medalist[1]
* Salomon Klass (1907–1985), Finnish Army captain
* Roni Porokara, football player
* Boris Rotenberg, football player
* Marion Rung, pop singer
* Elis Sella, actor
* Seela Sella, actress
* Mauritz Stiller, director
* Uniikki, rapper
* Sam Vanni, painter
* Poju Zabludowicz, business magnate
* Ben Zyskowicz, conservative leader

## Iceland

[edit]

See also: Category:Icelandic people of Jewish descent

* Vladimir Ashkenazy, pianist
* Bobby Fischer, chess player (Jewish mother, but did not self-identify as a Jew; American expatriate, Icelandic)
* Dorrit Moussaieff, First Lady of Iceland
* Sruli Recht, award-winning designer

## Latvia

[edit]

See also: Category:Latvian people of Jewish descent

* Elya Baskin, actor
* Isaiah Berlin, historian of ideas
* Lipman Bers, mathematician and activist[2]
* David Bezmozgis, author
* Boris Brutskus
* Sergei Eisenstein, film director
* Movsas Feigins, chess player
* Morris Halle, linguist
* Philippe Halsman, photographer
* Joseph Hirshhorn, financier and philanthropist
* Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish musicologist
* Hermann Jadlowker, musician (born at Riga)
* Mariss Jansons, conductor (Jewish mother)
* Gil Kane, comic book illustrator
* Alexander Koblencs, chess player
* Abraham Isaac Kook, rabbi
* Gidon Kremer, violinist; father was a Jewish Holocaust survivor[3]
* Nechama Leibowitz
* Yeshayahu Leibowitz
* Hermanis Matisons, chess player
* Mischa Maisky, cellist
* Solomon Mikhoels, actor
* Aron Nimzowitsch, chess player
* Arkady Raikin, performing artist
* Yosef Rosen, der Rogatchover Gaon
* Mark Rothko, painter
* Judith Shklar, political philosopher
* Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, rabbi
* Mikhail Tal, world chess champion
* Max Weinreich, linguist

## Lithuania

[edit]

See also: Category:Lithuanian people of Jewish descent

* Semyon Alapin (1856–1923), chess player
* Mark Antokolsky (1840–1902), sculptor to Tzar Alexander II of Russia
* Moshe Arens (1925–2019), former Minister of Defence and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel
* Aaron Barak (born 1936), President of the Supreme Court of Israel
* Zerach Barnett (1843–1935), one of founders of Mea Shearim (Jerusalem), Petach Tikva and Neve Shalom, Israel
* Saul Bellow (1915–2005), writer and laureate of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1976)
* Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858–1922), reviver of Hebrew
* Bernard Berenson (1865–1959), art critic
* Izis Bidermanas (1911–1980), photographer
* Reuben Asher Braudes (1851–1902), Hebrew-language novelist and journalist
* Victor David Brenner (1871–1924), designer of the US penny
* Eli Broad (1933–2021), American philanthropist and investor; founder of KB Home
* Sir Montague Burton, British retailer[4]
* Abraham Cahan (1860–1951), writer and activist
* Leonard Cohen (1934–2016), musician, poet
* David Cronenberg (born 1943), film director
* Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (1892–1953), rabbi, Talmudic scholar
* Simeon Dimanstein (1886–1938), Soviet Commissar of Nationalities
* Bob Dylan (born 1941), singer-songwriter, artist, writer
* Ilya Ehrenburg (1891–1967), one of the most prolific and well-known writers during the Soviet Union
* Nosson Tzvi Finkel, Orthodox Judaism leader
* Vyacheslav Ganelin (born 1944), jazz musician
* Sara Ginaite (1924–2018), former resistance fighter, now Canadian academic
* Romain Gary, novelist, the Prix Goncourt (twice)
* Morris Ginsberg, sociologist[5]
* Louis Ginzberg, scholar of the Talmud
* Philip Glass, music composer
* Leah Goldberg, poet
* Emma Goldman, political activist
* Nahum Goldmann, world Jewish leader
* Chaim Grade, writer
* Iosif Grigulevich, secret agent, historian
* Zvi Griliches, economist
* Shira Gorshman, Zionist pioneer, writer
* Aryeh Leib ben Asher Gunzberg, rabbi
* Bernard Lown, scientist, Nobel prize winner
* Aron Gurwitsch, philosopher
* Laurence Harvey, actor
* Jascha Heifetz (1901–1987), widely regarded as the greatest violinist of the 20th century[6]
* Sidney Hillman, political activist
* Shemp Howard (1895–1955), comedian and actor
* Moe Howard (1897–1975), comedian and actor
* Curly Howard (1903–1952), comedian and actor
* Jay M. Ipson, founder of the Virginia Holocaust Museum
* Leo Jogiches, revolutionary
* Al Jolson, singer, comedian, and actor
* Berek Joselewicz, colonel of the Polish Army
* Joseph Kagan, Baron Kagan, clothes manufacturer[7]
* Yisrael Meir Kagan, rabbi
* Daniel Kahneman, psychologist, Nobel Prize (2002) (Lithuanian parents)
* Mordechai Kaplan, founder of Reconstructionist Judaism
* Shlomo Kleit, political activist
* Aaron Klug, chemist, Nobel Prize (1982)
* Gurwin Kopel (1923–1990), artist
* Lazare Kopelmanas, international law scholar
* Abba Kovner, poet, writer
* Abraham Dob Bär Lebensohn, writer
* Micah Joseph Lebensohn, writer
* Phoebus Levene, biochemist
* Emmanuel Levinas, philosopher
* Isaac Levitan, artist
* Bernard Lewis, historian
* Morris Lichtenstein, rabbi, founder of the Jewish Science
* Jacques Lipchitz, cubist sculptor
* Jay Lovestone, politician
* Alexander Ziskind Maimon, author and scholar of the Talmud
* Osip Mandelstam, poet librettist
* Abraham Mapu, novelist
* Isser Zalman Meltzer, rabbi
* Harvey Milk, gay politician in the U.S.
* Hermann Minkowski, mathematician
* Oskar Minkowski, physiologist
* Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel
* Mitchell Parish (1900–1993), Lithuanian-born American lyricist[8]
* Abram Rabinovich, chess player
* Bar Refaeli, Israeli supermodel, television host, actress, and businesswoman
* Willy Ronis, artist
* Eduardas Rozentalis, chess player
* Yisroel Salanter, rabbi, famed Talmudist
* Meyer Schapiro, art historian
* Alexander Schneider, violinist and conductor
* Lasar Segall, painter, engraver and sculptor
* Benjamin Schlesinger, American labor leader, former President of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union
* Ben Shahn, artist
* Esther Shalev-Gerz, artist
* Karl Shapiro, poet (Lithuanian parents)
* Sam, Lee and Jacob Shubert, theatre managers, producers (cf. Shubert Brothers)
* Joe Slovo, ANC activist
* Elijah ben Solomon, rabbi, The Gaon of Vilna
* Maximilian Steinberg, composer
* David Suchet, English actor
* Helen Suzman, anti-apartheid MP (Lithuanian parents)
* Isakas Vistaneckis, chess player
* Louis Washkansky, recipient of the world's first human heart transplant
* Uriel Weinreich, linguist
* David Wolfsohn, second President of World Zionist Organization
* Bluma Zeigarnik, psychologist and psychiatrist
* Emanuelis Zingeris, politician
* William Zorach, painter, sculptor and writer
* Louis Zukofsky, poet (Lithuanian parents)
* Benjamin Zuskin, actor

## Norway

[edit]

See also: Category:Norwegian people of Jewish descent

* Bjørn Benkow, journalist, known for faking interviews
* Jo Benkow, President of the Parliament of Norway
* Carl Paul Caspari, professor in theology (Lutheranism)
* Leo Eitinger (born in Slovakia), professor of psychiatry at University of Oslo and Holocaust survivor, known mainly for his work on late-onset psychological trauma amongst Holocaust survivors
* Victor Goldschmidt, professor in mineralogy
* Salo Grenning, pen name Pedro, editorial cartoonists in Verdens Gang
* Berthold Grünfeld, specialist in psychiatry, and professor in social medicine until 1993
* Imre Hercz, physician and public debater
* Bente Kahan, Yiddish singer and actress
* Hermann Kahan, Holocaust survivor, activist
* Morten Levin, professor of organization and work science
* Robert Levin, pianist
* Oskar Mendelsohn, historian, known for his two-volume history of Norwegian Jews
* Charles Philipson, Supreme Court Justice Judge, Chairman of the Petroleum Law Committee, deputy chairman of the Petroleum Council and chairman of the Riksel Committee
* Moritz Rabinowitz, merchant, active in public debate against antisemitism and Nazism before World War II
* Øystein Wingaard Wolf, poet and author

## Sweden

[edit]

See also: Category:Swedish people of Jewish descent

*   * Olof Aschberg, businessman and banker
* Robert Aschberg, journalist, media executive, TV personality
* Amalia Assur, first female dentist in Sweden
* Lovisa Augusti, opera singer
* Jean-Pierre Barda, musician
* Mathilda Berwald, née Cohn, musician
* Sharon Bezaly, flute soloist
* Jonathan Conricus (born 1979), Swedish-Israeli IDF Lieutenant-Colonel (ret), IDF International Spokesperson
* Jerzy Einhorn, pathologist and politician
* Herbert Felix, entrepreneur
* Aron Flam (born 1978), comedian, podcaster, and writer, and actor
* Josef Frank, architect and designer
* Isaac Grünewald, artist
* Lars Gustafsson, writer and scholar
* Johan Harmenberg, épée fencer, Olympic fencing medalist[1]
* Eli Heckscher, economist
* Aaron Isaac, businessman from Swedish Pomerania, pioneer in the history of Sweden's Jewish population
* Erland Josephson, actor and writer
* Ernst Josephson, painter
* Ragnar Josephson, writer and art historian
* Anne Kalmering, singer
* Mirjam Katzin, academic
* Joel Kinnaman, actor
* George Klein, pathologist and writer
* Oskar Klein, physicist
* Oscar Levertin, poet and literary historian
* Jacob Marcus, businessman, pioneer in the history of Sweden's Jewish population
* Rudolf Meidner, economist
* Hanna Pauli, painter
* Dominika Peczynski, musician
* Alexandra Rapaport, actress
* Marcel Riesz, mathematician[9]
* Göran Rosenberg, journalist
* Bo Rothstein, political scientist
* Nelly Sachs, poet, Nobel Prize (1966)[10]
* Jerzy Sarnecki, criminologist
* Harry Schein, writer and culture personality
* Leif Silbersky, lawyer and author
* Sara Sommerfeld, actress
* Ute Steyer, Sweden's first female rabbi
* Mauritz Stiller, director[11]
* Marcus Storch, industrialist[12]
* Anna Warburg (1881–1967), educator
* Peter Weiss, dramatist and writer

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c "Jews in Sports: Jewish Olympic Medalists (1896 - Present)". Jewish Virtual Library.
2. ^ "Bers biography". Archived from the original on 2007-07-13. Retrieved 2007-05-07.
3. ^ "Arts: Violinist Gidon Kremer talks to Charlotte Higgins". TheGuardian.com. 22 November 2000.
4. ^ Concise Dictionary of National Biography: "born in Lithuania of Jewish parentage"
5. ^ Jewish Year Book 1975, p.213
6. ^ Heifetz \- [1] "Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Mischa Elman... were all Jews, too"
7. ^ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "His parents were Orthodox Jews"
8. ^ Bloom, Nate (2006-12-19). "The Jews Who Wrote Christmas Songs". InterfaithFamily. Retrieved 2006-12-19.
9. ^ "Jewish Mathematicians". www.jinfo.org.
10. ^ "Sachs, Nelly". Nationalencyklopedin Multimedia 2000. Höganäs: Bokförlaget Bra Böcker AB. 2000. ISBN 91-7133-747-4.
11. ^ "Stiller, Mauritz". Nationalencyklopedin Multimedia 2000. Höganäs: Bokförlaget Bra Böcker AB. 2000. ISBN 91-7133-747-4.
12. ^ Jewish Chronicle, February 4, 2000, p.6: "Jewish business leader Marcus Storch"

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