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.
Scientists
Zhores Alferov , physicist, Nobel Prize (2000), born in Viciebsk (Jewish mother)
Yakov Zel'dovich , physicist
Lev Vygotsky , psychologist
Seymour Lubetzky , cataloging theorist
Semyon Kosberg , Soviet aircraft and rocket engineer, born in Słucak
Lera Boroditsky , Cognitive psychologist
Noam Chomsky , linguist
Paul Krugman , economist
Paul B. Sigler , biochemist, parents from Miensk
Mathematicians
Politicians
United States
Canada
International
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)
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)
Samuel Ornitz , American novelist and screenwriter
Journalists
Historians
Composers and musicians
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
Chaïm Soutine , painter
Mark Rothko , painter
El Lissitzky , painter ('greater' Belarus)
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
Gary Vaynerchuk
Sheryl Sandberg , technology executive, her maternal ancestors came from Vidzy [ 1]
Jared Kushner , real estate developer, his paternal grandparents came from Navahrudak [ 2] [ 3]
Michael Bloomberg (founder of Bloomberg L.P. ), whose maternal grandfather was an immigrant from what is present-day Belarus.
Jacob Rutstein , businessman
Religious leaders
Rabbis
Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin , yeshiva dean of Volozhin Yeshiva
Eliezer Yehuda Finkel , yeshiva dean of Mir Yeshiva (Belarus)
Shlomo Harkavy , spiritual dean of Grodno Yeshiva
Yosef Yozel Horowitz , founder and dean of Novardok Yeshiva
Yisrael Meir Kagan , author, yeshiva dean, and spiritual leader of world-Jewry
Boruch Ber Leibowitz , yeshiva dean of Kaminetz Yeshiva
Isser Zalman Meltzer , rabbi and yeshiva in Slutsk and Jerusalem
Yisroel Yaakov Lubchansky , spiritual dean of Baranovich Yeshiva
Aaron of Pinsk , rabbi in Pinsk
Pesach Pruskin , rabbi and yeshiva dean in Kobrin
David Rappoport , yeshiva dean of Baranovich Yeshiva
Shimon Shkop , yeshiva dean of the Grodno Yeshiva
Chaim Soloveitchik , rabbi in Brest
Joseph Soloveitchik , rabbi and yeshiva dean in Boston and New York
Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik , rabbi in Brest
Yosef Dov Soloveitchik (Beis Halevi) , rabbi in Slutsk and Brest
Chaim Leib Tiktinsky , yeshiva dean of Mir Yeshiva
Naftoli Trop , yeshiva dean of Radin Yeshiva
Chaim Volozhin , yeshiva dean of Volozhin Yeshiva
Yitzchak Volozhin , yeshiva dean of Volozhin Yeshiva
Elchonon Wasserman , yeshiva dean of Baranovich Yeshiva
Shabsi Yogel , yeshiva dean in Slonim and Jerusalem
Hasidic rebbes
Sportspeople
Yuri Foreman
Military people
Other
Kirk Douglas , of Belarusian Jewish parents
Jackie Mason , whose parents were Jewish emigrants from Smalyavichy in the Minsk Region
Lisa Kudrow , her ancestors emigrated from Belarus
Scarlett Johansson , actress and singer, maternal Jewish grandparents came from Minsk.
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda , Israeli linguist, father of modern Hebrew language, born in Luzhki near Viciebsk
Frank Gehry , an architect, his paternal grandmother came from Pinsk [ 4]
Harrison Ford , whose maternal grandfathers were Jewish emigrants from Minsk.
Robert B.G. Horowitz , attorney, whose paternal grandparent were Jewish emigrants from Minsk.
Sacha Baron Cohen , of Belarusian Jewish grandparents
See also
References
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