List of Ukrainian Jews

Presented below are lists of famous or notable Ukrainian people of Jewish descent and other Jews born in the territory of present-day Ukraine.

Politicians

• Pinhas Krasny, Ukrainian minister of Jewish Affairs for the Directorate of Ukraine [1]
• Moisei Rafes, deputy secretary of National Affairs (Jewish Affairs) for the General Secretariat
• Abraham Revutsky, Ukrainian minister of Jewish Affairs for the Directorate of Ukraine
• Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine (2019-present)
• Moishe Zilberfarb, deputy secretary of National Affairs (Jewish Affairs) for the General Secretariat
• Alexander Zolotarev, state controller for the General Secretariat
• Yukhym Zvyahilsky, former Prime Minister of Ukraine 1993-1994 and entrepreneur
• Volodymyr Groysman, current Prime Minister of Ukraine 2016-since
• Mykhailo Dobkin, former governor of Kharkiv Oblast 2010-2014
• Vadim Rabinovich, 2014 presidential candidate
• Hennadiy Kernes, Mayor of Kharkiv since 2010.
• Ihor Kolomoyskyi, former Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast 2014-2015

Russian/Soviet politicians

• Karl Radek, Soviet politician[2]
• Grigory Sokolnikov, Bolshevik politician[3]
• Abram Slutsky, headed the Soviet foreign intelligence service (INO), then part of the NKVD
• Leon Trotsky, Soviet politician, the founder of the Red Army,[4][5][6][7] commissar (Soviet minister) of Foreign Affairs
• Moisei Uritsky, Soviet politician,[8][9] chekist
• Grigory Yavlinsky, Russian politician, head of a liberal "Yabloko" party[10] (half Jewish)
• Grigory Zinoviev, Soviet politician[11][5][12]

Israeli politicians

• Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, second President of Israel (1952–63)[13][14][15]
• Shmuel Dayan, Zionist activist, Israeli politician[16]
• Levi Eshkol, Israeli Prime Minister (1963–69)[17][18]
• Ephraim Katzir, fourth President of Israel (1973–78)[19][20]
• Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister (1969–74)[21][22]
• Natan Sharansky, Israeli politician[23]
• Moshe Sharett, Israeli Prime Minister (1954–55)[3][24]

Israeli military persons

• Yaakov Dori, first Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) (1948–1949); President of Technion.[25]
• Tzvi Tzur, sixth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (1961–1964)[26]

Soldiers and Revolutionaries

• Pavel Axelrod, Menshevik, Marxist revolutionary[11][27]
• Yakov Blumkin, Soviet spy [28]
• Naftali Botwin, revolutionary terrorist
• Morris Childs (born Moishe Chilovsky), American communist and spy
• Leo Deutsch, revolutionary[29]
• Raya Dunayevskaya, founder of Marxist humanism in the U.S.[30]
• Israel Fisanovich, World War II submarine commander and Hero of the Soviet Union
• Grigory Goldenberg, revolutionary[31]
• Ze'ev Jabotinsky, founder of British Jewish Legion [32][33]
• Jacob Golos, Soviet spy
• Olga Kameneva, Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician (sister of Leon Trotsky) [34]
• Walter Krivitsky (born Samuel Ginsberg), Soviet spy
• Alexander Parvus, revolutionary,[11][35] major investor and financial supporter of the October Revolution
• Sidney Reilly (born Shlomo Rosenblum), a Ukrainian-born adventurer and Secret Intelligence Service agent [36]
• Pinhas Rutenberg, Zionist, Social revolutionary[37]
• Grigori Shtern (Grigory Stern), Red Army commander (Colonel General)
• Naum Sorkin, Red Army military intelligence chief in the Far East (Major-General)[38]
• V. Volodarsky (born Moisei Goldstein), communist revolutionary[39]
• Mark Zborowski, Soviet spy
• Iona Yakir, Red Army commander and one of the world's major military reformers between World War I and World War II[40]
• Mishka Yaponchik, gangster, leader of the Odessa Jewish Resistance group in 1917-1921

Other Historical figures

• Michael Dorfman, Russian-Israeli essayist and human rights activist
• Yisroel ben Eliezer (The Baal Shem Tov), Rabbi, founder of Hasidic Judaism
• Shlomo Ganzfried, Rabbi
• Fanny Kaplan, would-be assassin of Lenin
• Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Hasidic Judaism
• Isroel Shmulson, architect
• Simon Wiesenthal, a Nazi hunter
• Sasha Zlobina, community builder

Business figures

• Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp
• Leon Bagrit, pioneer of automation[41]
• Zino Davidoff
• Bernard Delfont, impresario[42]
• Lew Grade, founder of ATV[43]
• Ihor Kolomoyskyi, a major Ukrainian business oligarch
• Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal[44]
• Hryhoriy Surkis, head of public organization Football Federation of Ukraine, Ukrainian parliamentary
• Viktor Vekselberg, billionaire, steelmaker[45]
• Gennadiy Korban, Ukrainian businessman, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish community of Dnipro, Patron of the Jewish community of Krivoy Rog[46][47]
• Boris Lohzkin, President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine[48]

Natural scientists

• Aleksander Akhiezer, physicist
• Matvei Petrovich Bronstein
• Mikhail Gurevich
• Waldemar Haffkine, biologist, developed vaccine against cholera and plague[49][50]
• Boris Hessen, physicist[51]
• Abram Ioffe, nuclear scientist[52]
• Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov
• Veniamin Levich, electrochemist[53]
• Boris Podolsky
• Isaak Pomeranchuk
• Jacob Rabinow
• Anatol Rapoport
• Grigory Shajn
• Iosif Shklovsky
• Vladimir Veksler
• Alexander Vilenkin, cosmologist[54]
• Selman Waksman, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1952)[55]

Mathematicians

• Naum Akhiezer, mathematician
• Vladimir Arnold, mathematician [56]
• Chudnovsky brothers
• Vladimir Drinfeld
• Felix Gantmacher
• Israel Gelfand
• Alexander Goncharov
• Marc Kac, mathematician
• Naum Krasner
• Mark Krasnosel'skii
• Mark Krein
• Evgenii Landis
• Boris Levin
• Leonid Levin
• Boris Levitan
• Jacob Levitzki
• David Milman
• Vitali Milman
• Pierre Milman
• Mark Naimark
• Moses Schönfinkel
• Samuil Shatunovsky
• Pavel Urysohn

Social scientists

• Solomon Buber, Hebraist[57]
• Ariel Durant, historian,
• Boris Eichenbaum, historian
• Mikhail Epstein, literary theorist
• Moshe Feldenkrais, inventor of the Feldenkrais method
• Alexander Gerschenkron, economic historian
• Jean Gottmann, geographer[58]
• Zellig Harris
• Jacob Marschak, economist[59]
• Elye Spivak

Musicians

• Simon Barere, pianist
• Felix Blumenfeld, pianist
• Shura Cherkassky, pianist
• Mark Donskoy, Soviet film director
• Isaak Dunayevsky, composer
• Mischa Elman, violinist[60]
• Anthony Fedorov, singer, American Idol finalist[61]
• Samuil Feinberg, composer[62][63]
• Emil Gilels, pianist[64]
• Maria Grinberg, pianist
• Mordechai Hershman, cantor and singer
• Jascha Horenstein, conductor
• Vladimir Horowitz, pianist
• Tina Karol, singer[65] (Ukrainian mother and Jewish father[66])
• Leonid Kogan, violinist
• Mikhail Kopelman, violinist
• Oleg Maisenberg, pianist
• Samuel Maykapar, composer/pianist[67]
• Nathan Milstein, violinist
• Benno Moiseiwitsch, pianist
• David Oistrakh, violinist
• Igor Oistrakh, violinist (Jewish father)
• Leo Ornstein, composer
• Gregor Piatigorsky, cellist
• Pokrass brothers, composers
• Yossele Rosenblatt, cantor and composer
• Heinrich Schenker, music theorist
• Joseph Schillinger, composer, music theorist, and composition teacher
• Leo Sirota, pianist [68][69]
• Isaac Stern, violinist [70]
• Roman Turovsky-Savchuk, lutenist-composer
• Lyubov Uspenskaya, singer
• Yakov Zak, pianist

Fine artists

• Michael Matusevitch (1929–2007), painter
• Nathan Altman, painter and stage designer
• Boris Aronson, painter & designer
• Nudie Cohn, fashion designer
• Sonia Delaunay, painter
• Maya Deren, filmmaker
• Boris Efimov, cartoonist
• Naum Gabo, sculptor
• Boris Iofan, architect
• Ilya Kabakov, conceptualist artist (Jewish father)
• Yevgeny Khaldei, photographer
• Jacob Kramer, painter[71]
• Morris Lapidus, architect
• Louise Nevelson, sculptor
• Solomon Nikritin
• Jules Olitski, painter
• Leonid Pasternak, painter
• Antoine Pevsner, sculptor
• Olga Rapay-Markish (1929–2012), ceramicist
• Mikhail Turovsky, painter
• Roman Turovsky, painter

Performing artists

• Jacob Adler, actor
• Yosl Cutler. puppeteer
• Abraham Goldfaden (1840–1908), playwright and theatre director[72]
• Alexander Granach (1890–1945), actor in theater and film (Berlin & Germany, Poland, USSR, Hollywood and Broadway)
• Aleksei Kapler, film artist
• Mila Kunis, actress [73]
• Anatole Litvak, director
• Alla Nazimova, actress
• Elena Ralph, model[74]
• Yakov Smirnoff, American comedian[75]
• Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian screenwriter, actor, comedian, and director, who was elected the President of Ukraine in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.

Writers and poets

• Sholom Aleichem, Yiddish-language writer[76]
• Eli Schechtman, Yiddish writer[77]
• Isaac Babel, writer[13]
• Eduard Bagritsky, poet[13]
• Hayyim Nahman Bialik, poet[13]
• Yosef Haim Brenner, Hebrew-language writer[13]
• Sasha Cherny, poet[78]
• Michael Dorfman, journalist and essayist
• Moysey Fishbein, poet
• Ilya Ehrenburg, writer[17]
• Alexander Galich, playwright poet[79]
• Asher Hirsch Ginsberg (Ahad Ha'Am), Hebrew-language writer
• Lydia Ginzburg, writer[79]
• Jacob Gordin, American playwright[79]
• Erol Güney, journalist and translator[80]
• Vasily Grossman, writer[79]
• Ilya Ilf, writer[81]
• Vera Inber, poet[81]
• Alejandro Jodorowsky, Spanish-language writer and filmmaker
• A.M. Klein, poet
• Pavel Kogan, poet
• Lev Kopelev, author and dissident
• Clarice Lispector, writer from Brazil
• Benedikt Livshits, writer
• Nadezhda Mandelstam, writer
• Yunna Morits, poet
• Anatoli Rybakov, writer[82]
• Boris Slutsky, war-time poet
• Shaul Tchernichovsky, poet and translator [83]

Chess players

• Alexander Beliavsky[84]
• Ossip Bernstein[84]
• Isaac Boleslavsky[84]
• David Bronstein, World Championship challenger[84]
• Iossif Dorfman[85]
• Louis Eisenberg
• Alexander Evensohn[86]
• Efim Geller[87]
• Eduard Gufeld[87]
• Ilya Gurevich[87]
• Mikhail Gurevich[87]
• Nicolai Jasnogrodsky
• Gregory Kaidanov[88]
• Alexander Konstantinopolsky[88]
• Konstantin Lerner[89]
• Moishe Lowtzky[89]
• Vladimir Malaniuk[90]
• Sam Palatnik[91]
• Ernest Pogosyants[91]
• Iosif Pogrebyssky[91]
• Leonid Stein[92]
• Mark Taimanov[93]
• Boris Verlinsky[39]
• Yakov Vilner[39]

See also

• History of the Jews in Ukraine
• List of Galician Jews
• List of Jews born in the former Russian Empire

References

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