List of Belarusian Jews
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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
Politicians
USA
- 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)
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
