Girish Mahajan (Editor)

List of Belarusian Jews

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List of Belarusian Jews

Presented below are lists of notable Belarusians of Jewish descent, Jewish people born on the territory of present-day Belarus or of full or partial Belarusian Jewish origin.

Contents

Scientists

  • Zhores Alferov, physicist, Nobel Prize (2000), born in Viciebsk (Jewish mother)
  • Yakov Zel'dovich, physicist
  • Naum Akhiezer, mathematician, born in Cherykaw
  • Issai Schur, German-Israeli mathematician, born in Mahiliou
  • Oscar Zariski, Belarusian mathematician
  • Lev Vygotsky, psychologist
  • Seymour Lubetzky, cataloging theorist
  • Semyon Kosberg, Soviet aircraft and rocket engineer, born in Slutsk

    • United States

  • David Dubinsky, US labor leader, born in Brest

    • Canada

  • David Lewis (Losz), ex-leader of the NDP

    • International

  • Alexander Parvus, international revolutionary, born in Berezyna

    • Israel

  • Shimon Peres, Israeli prime minister, Nobel Prize winner (1994)
  • Chaim Weizmann, first president of Israel, inventor of synthetic acetone, born in Motal
  • Menachem Begin, Israeli prime minister, Nobel Prize winner (1978), born in Brest
  • Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli prime minister (1984-85 1988-90), born in Ruzhany
  • Zerach Warhaftig, born in Vaukavysk
  • Berl Katznelson, One of the intellectual founders of the Labor movement in Israel
  • Kadish Luz, Israeli speaker of the Knesset, born in Bobruysk
  • Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli prime minister, Nobel Prize winner (1994)

    • Russian Empire and the USSR and Russia

  • Gesya Gelfman, Russian revolutionary, member of Narodnaya Volya
  • Valeriya Novodvorskaya, liberal Russian politician, Soviet dissident

    • Belarus

  • Viktor Sheiman, adviser and helper of president Alexander Lukashenka, influential Belarusian politician (of partial Jewish descent)
  • Mikola Abramchyk, president of the Council of the Belarusian Democratic Republic (of partial Jewish descent)

    • Writers

  • Isaac Dov Berkowitz, Israeli writer
  • Źmitrok Biadula, Belarusian poet
  • Morris Raphael Cohen, philosopher
  • Leon Kobrin
  • Lazar Lagin
  • Ayn Rand, father born in Brest-Litovsk
  • David Pinski, American and Israeli writer, born in Mahiliou
  • Ryhor Reles
  • Mendele Mocher Sforim, writer
  • Carlos Sherman, Belarusian-Uruguayan writer and translator (Jewish father)
  • Immanuel Velikovsky, cosmology writer
  • Celia Dropkin, American poet (Yiddish)

    • Journalists

  • Larry King, of Belarusian-Jewish parents
  • Eugene Lyons

    • Historians

  • Simon Dubnow, Jewish historian
  • Lazar Gulkowitsch, Jewish Studies scholar
  • Avraham Harkavi, historian
  • S. Ansky, a scholar who documented Jewish folklore and mystical beliefs, born in Chashniki

    • Composers and musicians

  • Modest Altschuler, cellist, orchestral conductor and composer
  • Irving Berlin, American composer
  • Arkadi Duchin, Israeli singer-songwriter and musical producer
  • Mark Fradkin, Soviet composer
  • Aleksandr "Shura" Uman and Igor "Lyova" Bortnik of the famous Belarusian-Australian Russian rock band Bi-2

    • Artists

  • Léon Bakst, painter and scene- and costume designer
  • Marc Chagall, painter
  • Ossip Zadkine, sculptor (Jewish father)
  • Michel Kikoine, painter
  • Naum Gabo, sculptor
  • Antoine Pevsner, sculptor
  • Pinchus Kremegne, painter
  • Chaim Soutine, painter
  • Mark Rothko, painter
  • El Lissitzky, painter ('greater' Belarus)
  • Horace Ginsbern (previously, Ginzberg), Minsk born, American architect

    • Businesspeople

  • Michael Marks, co-founder of Marks and Spencers
  • Louis B. Mayer, co-founder MGM
  • Ralph Lauren, fashion designer, son of Belarusian-Jewish emigrants
  • Ida Rosenthal, founder of Maidenform Brassieres, born in Minsk
  • David Sarnoff, head of RCA
  • Ruslan Kogan

    • Religious leaders

  • Aaron of Pinsk, rabbi
  • Joseph Soloveitchik, rabbi

    • Sportspeople

  • Elena Altshul, draughts player
  • Boris Gelfand, chess player
  • Yuri Foreman, boxer
  • Victor Mikhalevski, chess player
  • Anna Smashnova, tennis player
  • Alexandra Zaretsky/Roman Zaretsky, Israeli figure skaters

    • Military people

  • Nahum Eitingon, Soviet spy and NKVD officer
  • Tuvia Bielski and Asael Bielski, leaders of a Jewish partisan group (the Bielski partisans) in the World War II

    • Other

  • Kirk Douglas, of Belarusian Jewish parents
  • Lisa Kudrow, her ancestors emigrated from Belarus
  • Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Israeli linguist, father of modern Hebrew language, born in Luzhki near Viciebsk

    • References

    List of Belarusian Jews Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA