List of East European Jews
Until the Holocaust, Jews were a significant part of the population of Eastern Europe. Outside Poland, the largest population was in the European part of the USSR, especially the Ukraine (1.5 million in the 1930s), but major populations also existed in Romania and Czechoslovakia. Here is a list of some prominent East European Jews, arranged by country of origin. (Note: Baltic and Balkan Jews are on different lists.)
Belarus
- Zhores Alferov, physicist, Nobel Prize (2000) (Jewish mother)
- Menachem Begin, Israeli PM, Nobel Prize (1978)
- Marc Chagall, painter
- Morris Raphael Cohen, philosopher
- David Dubinsky, labor leader
- Simon Dubnow, Jewish historian
- Michel Kikoine, painter
- Pinchus Kremegne, painter
- Seymour Lubetzky, cataloging theorist
- Michael Marks, co-founder of Marks and Spencers
- Louis B. Mayer, co-founder MGM
- Shimon Peres, Israeli PM, Nobel Prize (1994)
- Ida Rosenthal, founder of Maidenform Brassieres
- David Sarnoff, head of RCA
- Issai Schur, mathematician
- Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli PM
- Chaim Soutine, painter
- Immanuel Velikovsky, cosmology writer
- Lev Vygotsky, psychologist
- Ossip Zadkine, sculptor
- Oscar Zariski, mathematician
Czech Republic
Political figures
- Madeline Albright, U.S. politician (raised Christian)
- Louis Brandeis, U.S. judge (Czech parents)
- Rudolf Slánský, communist politician
Academic figures
- Gerty Cori, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1947)
- Martin Fleischmann, chemist
- Sigmund Freud, psychoanalyst (Czech-born)
- Ernest Gellner, anthropologist
- Edmund Husserl, philosopher (Czech-born)
- Karl Kautsky, Marxist theorist
- Hans Kelsen, legal philosopher (Czech-born)
- Carl Koller, introduced local anaesthetics
- Ernest Nagel, philosopher
- Olga Taussky-Todd, mathematician
- Max Wertheimer, Gestalt psychologist
Film and stage
- Milos Forman, director (Jewish father)
- Karl Freund, cinematographer
- Arnost Goldflam, playwright, director
- Hugo Haas, director/actor
- Milos Kopecky, actor (Jewish mother)
- Francis Lederer, actor
- Herbert Lom, actor
- Karel Reisz, director
- Jiri Voskovec, playwright & actor
Musicians
- Guido Adler, musicologist (Czech-born)
- Karel Ancerl, conductor
- Rudolf Friml, composer
- Pavel Haas, composer
- Gideon Klein, composer
- Hans Krasa, composer
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold, film composer
- Gustav Mahler, composer (Czech-born)
- Ignaz Moscheles, pianist & composer
- David Popper, cellist
- Rudolf Serkin, pianist
- Walter Susskind, conductor
- Jaromir Weinberger, composer
Writers and poets
- Max Brod, author and friend of Kafka
- Franz Kafka, novelist
- Egon Erwin Kisch, journalist
- Ivan Klima, writer
- Karl Kraus, writer (Czech-born)
- Tom Stoppard, playwright
- Hermann Ungar, author
- Franz Werfel, writer
Miscellaneous
- Salo Flohr, leading chess player
- Judah Loew, rabbi and Golem-creator
- Wilhelm Steinitz, world chess champion
Moldova
- Gary Bertini, conductor
- William F. Friedman, cryptographer
- Samuel Bronfman, founder of Seagram
- A. N. Frumkin, electrochemist
- Nahum Gutman, painter
- Boris Katz, artificial intelligence researcher
- Lewis Milestone, director
- Lev Simonovich Berg, geographer & zoologist
Romania
Political figures
- Martin Abern, U.S. politician
- Silviu Brucan, politician & dissident
- Michael Howard, U.K. politician (Romanian parents)
- Alex Kozinski, U.S. judge
- Ana Pauker, communist leader
- Petre Roman, Prime Minister (Jewish father)
- Elena Wolff, mistress of King Carol II of Romania
Academic figures
- Nicolae Cajal, virologist & Jewish community leader
- Solomon Marcus, mathematician
- David Wechsler, psychologist
Film and stage
- Lauren Bacall, actress (Romanian mother)
- Israil Bercovici, playwright
- I.A.L. Diamond, screenwriter
- Dustin Hoffman, actor (Romanian mother)
- John Houseman, actor (Jewish father)
- Marin Karmitz, director, producer
- Maia Morgenstern, actress
- Edward G. Robinson, actor
Musicians
- Sergiu Comissiona, conductor
- Miriam Fried, violinist
- Alma Gluck, soprano
- Clara Haskil, pianist
- Yoel Levi, conductor
- Radu Lupu, pianist (unconfirmed)
- Silvia Marcovici, violinist
- Joseph Schmidt, cantor, tenor, actor
Writers and poets
- Nina Cassian, poet
- Paul Celan, poet
- Andrei Codrescu, poet
- Eugene Ionesco, playwright (Jewish mother)
- Isidore Isou, poet
- Irving Layton, poet
- Stan Lee, writer, co-creator of Spider-Man (Romanian parents)
- Gherasim Luca, poet
- Norman Manea, novelist
- Delmore Schwartz, poet (Romanian parents)
- Mihail Sebastian, playwright
- Tristan Tzara, dadaist
- Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel Peace Prize (1986)
Artists
- Victor Brauner, painter
- Marcel Iancu, architect & painter
- Daniel Spoerri, dancer (Jewish father)
- Saul Steinberg, cartoonist
Miscellaneous
- Kid Cann, mobster
- Julius Popper, explorer
- Moses Rosen, rabbi
- Meir Shapiro, rabbi
- Richard Wurmbrand, evangelical Christian minister (born Jewish)
Sports
- Leon Rotman, canoeist (2 Olympic golds, 1 bronze)
- Angelica Rozeanu, table tennis world champion
Slovakia
- Joseph Goldberger, discovered cure for pellagra
- John Hertz, founder of Yellow Cab & Hertz (unconfirmed)
- Ján Kadár, film director
- Peter Lorre, actor
- Robert Maxwell, media mogul
- Ivan Reitman, film director
- Arminius Vambery, orientalist
- Gejza Vámoš, writer
Ukraine
Political figures
- Levi Eshkol, Israeli prime minister
- Golda Meir, Israeli prime minister
- Moshe Sharett, Israeli prime minister
- Leon Trotsky, communist revolutionary
Academic figures
- Vladimir Arnold, mathematician (Jewish mother)
- Sergei Bernstein, mathematician
- Herbert C. Brown, chemist, Nobel Prize (1979) (Ukrainian parents)
- Vladimir Drinfeld, mathematician
- Ariel Durant, historian
- Israel M. Gel'fand, mathematician
- Waldemar Haffkine, bacteriologist
- Zellig Harris, linguist
- Leonid Levin, mathematician
- Jacob Rabinow, inventor
- Selman Waksman, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1952)
Film and stage
- Maya Deren, filmmaker
- Mila Kunis, actress
- Anatole Litvak, director
- Yakov Smirnoff, comedian (Jewish mother)
- Lee Strasberg, acting teacher
Musicians
- Simon Barere, pianist
- Shura Cherkassky, pianist
- Mischa Elman, violinist
- Emanuel Feuermann, cellist
- Emil Gilels, pianist
- Jascha Horenstein, conductor
- Vladimir Horowitz, pianist
- Leonid Kogan, violinist
- Nathan Milstein, violinist
- Benno Moiseiwitsch, pianist
- David Oistrakh, violinist
- Igor Oistrakh, violinist (Jewish father)
- Leo Ornstein, composer
- Gregor Piatigorsky, cellist
- Isaac Stern, violinist
- Dimitri Tiomkin, film composer
Writers and poets
- Sholom Aleichem, humorist and author
- Isaac Babel, author
- Hayyim Nahman Bialik, poet
- Ilya Ehrenburg, author
- A.M. Klein, poet
- Lev Kopelev, author and dissident
Miscellaneous
- Nudie Cohen, clothier
- Lew Grade, TV producer
- Morris Lapidus, architect
- Louise Nevelson, sculptor
- Jay Pritzker, founder of Hyatt & philanthropist
Sports
- Oksana Baiul, figure skater (Olympic gold) (Jewish mother)
- David Bronstein, chess player
- Efim Geller, chess player
- Maria Gorokhovskaya, gymnast (2 Olympic golds, 5 silvers)
- Lenny Krayzelburg, swimmer (3 Olympic golds)
- Valentin Mankin, sailor (3 Olympic golds, 1 silver)
- Fania Melnik, discus thrower (Olympic gold)
- Tamara & Irina Press, sister athletes (5 Olympic golds, 1 silver in total)
- Zhanna Pintusevich-Block, sprinter (World Championship gold)
- Leonid Stein, chess player