# 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

* Naum Akhiezer, mathematician, born in Čerykaŭ
* Issai Schur, German-Israeli mathematician, born in Mahiloŭ
* Oscar Zariski, Belarusian mathematician

## Politicians
### United States

* Leonard Adleman, Computer Scientist
* David Dubinsky, labor leader, born in Bieraście
* Baruch Charney Vladeck, journalist, labor leader and politician

### Canada

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

### International

* Alexander Parvus, international revolutionary, born in Bierazino

### 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

* Hesya Helfman, Russian revolutionary, member of Narodnaya Volya
* Valeriya Novodvorskaya, liberal Russian politician, Soviet dissident
* Joseph Schlossberg, labor activist
* Iosif Bleikhman, anarchist revolutionary

### Belarus

* Viktor Sheiman, adviser to President Alexander Lukashenko, 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)
* Samuel Ornitz, American novelist and screenwriter

## Journalists

* Larry King, of Belarusian-Jewish parents
* Eugene Lyons
* Andrew Patner, of Belarusian-Jewish grandparents

## 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

## 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
* Jared Kushner, real estate developer, his paternal grandparents came from Navahrudak
* 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

* Chaim Chaykl Levin, rebbe of Amdur
* Aharon Perlow (I), rebbe of Karlin
* Aharon Perlow (II), rebbe of Karlin
* Aharon Perlow of Koidanov, rebbe of Koidanov
* Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, rebbe of Chabad
* Elijah Horowitz-Winograd, scion of Nikolsburg dynasty; rabbi in Lida

## 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
* Yefim Fomin, Political Commissar of 86th Regiment, 6th Rifle Division of the Red Army. Executed without delay by Nazis after being identified as a communist, Jew and commissar upon capture.
* Grigoriy Plaskov, Soviet artillery lieutenant

## 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
* 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