# List of South-East European Jews

Many of the Jews expelled from the Iberian Peninsula during the Spanish Inquisition settled in the Ottoman Empire, leaving behind, at the wake of Empire, large Sephardic communities in South-East Europe: mainly in Bulgaria, Turkey, Greece, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

## Bosnia and Herzegovina

* Kalmi Baruh, writer and philosopher
* Emerik Blum, businessman, founder of Energoinvest, former Mayor of Sarajevo
* Ivan Ceresnjes, architect-researcher, former president of the Jewish community in Bosnia and Herzegovina and vice-chairman of the Yugoslav Federation of Jewish Communities, 1992–1996
* Oskar Danon, composer and conductor
* David Elazar, Israeli general and Chief of Staff of Israel Defense Forces
* Jakob Finci, politician, ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Switzerland
* Daniel Kabiljo, painter
* Daniel Ozmo, painter
* Isaac Pardo, rabbi of Sarajevo
* Robert Rothbart, basketball player (Jewish mother)
* Isak Samokovlija, writer

## Bulgaria

* Albert Aftalion, Bulgarian-born French economist
* Binyamin Arditi
* Aron Aronov, tenor
* Mira Aroyo, member of the band Ladytron
* Gabi Ashkenazi
* Michael Bar-Zohar
* Maxim Behar, president of M3 Communications Group
* Haim Bejarano, Torah scholar and chief rabbi
* Shimon Bejarano
* Alexander Bozhkov, vice-premier (Jewish mother)
* Elias Canetti, author and Nobel Prize winner
* Sabetay Djaen, rabbi and teacher
* Carl Djerassi
* Itzhak Fintzi, dramatist
* Pini Gershon
* Moshe Gueron
* Shlomo Kalo
* Nikolay Kaufman, musicologist and composer
* Yehezkel Lazarov
* Moshe Leon
* Milcho Leviev, jazz composer (Jewish father)
* Raphael Mechoulam
* Moni Moshonov
* Ya'akov Nehushtan
* Ya'akov Nitzani
* Jules Pascin, artist (Jewish father)
* Isaac Passy, philosopher
* Solomon Passy, foreign minister, son of Isaac Passy
* Valeri Petrov
* Georgi Pirinski, Jr.
* David Primo
* Sarah-Theodora
* Victor Shem-Tov
* Maxim Staviski
* Angel Wagenstein, author & screenwriter
* Alexis Weissenberg, pianist
* Jaime Yankelevich
* Emanuel Zisman

## Croatia

* Viktor Axmann, architect
* Slavko Brill, sculptor and ceramics artist
* Julio Deutsch, architect
* Hugo Ehrlich, architect
* Ignjat Fischer, architect
* Josip Frank, Croatian politician
* Stjepan Gomboš, architect
* Branko Grünbaum, mathematician
* Leo Hönigsberg, architect
* Rikard Lang, prominent Croatian university professor, lawyer and economist, UN's expert
* Slobodan Lang, physician, politician, humanitarian
* Slavko Löwy, architect
* Rudolf Lubinski, architect
* Branko Lustig, film producer and winner of two Academy Awards
* Blessed Ivan Merz, beatified in 2003
* Oscar Nemon, sculptor
* Vladimir Šterk, architect
* Ivo Stern, founder of the "Zagreb Radiostation"
* Karlo Weissmann, physician and founder of the first sanatorium in Osijek
* Dragutin Wolf, industrialist, founder of the food company Koestlin in Bjelovar

## Cyprus

* Aristobulus of Britannia (converted to Christianity)
* Barnabas (mentioned in the New Testament)
* Mike Brant, French-based singer (Cyprus-born)
* Epiphanius of Salamis (converted to Christianity)
** John the Merciful
* Arie Zeev Raskin, rabbi

## Greece

* Albert Bourla
* Hank Azaria
* Sid Ganis
* Anna Rezan

## Montenegro

* Jelena Đurović, writer, politician and journalist

## North Macedonia

* Estreya Haim Ovadya, Yugoslav partisan
* Rafael Moshe Kamhi
* Žamila Kolonomos, Sephardi Jewish partisan, writer, academic, and political activist

## Serbia

* David Albahari, writer
* David Albala, military officer, physician, diplomat, and Jewish community leader
* Oskar Danon, composer
* Oskar Davičo, poet
* Filip David, playwright and columnist
* Predrag Ejdus, actor
* Vanja Ejdus, actress
* Rahela Ferari, actress
* Ivan Ivanji, writer
* Enriko Josif, composer
* Danilo Kiš, writer
* Marko Kon, pop singer
* Shaul Ladany, Holocaust survivor, racewalker and two-time Olympian
* Tommy Lapid, former Israeli politician of Hungarian descent, born in Novi Sad
* Paulina Lebl-Albala, feminist, translator, literary critic, literature theoretician, and professor of literature in Belgrade
* Sonja Licht, political activist
* Izidor Papo, cardiac surgeon, general-colonel of the Yugoslav Army medical unit
* Moša Pijade, politician, painter, art critic and publicist
* Eva Ras, actress
* Seka Sablić, actress
* Erich Šlomović, art collector
* Aleksandar Tišma, writer

## Slovenia

* Katja Boh, politician
* Berta Bojetu, author
* Israel Isserlin, Medieval rabbi
* Lev Kreft, sociologist and politician
* Dušan Šarotar, author and editor

## Turkey

* Ishak Alaton, co-founder of Alarko Holding
* Aaron Alfandari, writer
* Solomon Eliezer Alfandari, Sephardic rabbi
* Isak Andic, is a Spanish billionaire businessman
* Seyla Benhabib, political theorist
* Can Bonomo, musician from İzmir who represented Turkey at the Eurovision Song Contest 2012 in Baku, Azerbaijan
* Abraham Salomon Camondo, Ottoman-Italian financier and philanthropist; patriarch of the Camondo family
* Elijah Capsali, first Hakham Bashi (Turkish: Chief Rabbi) of the Ottoman Empire
* Moses Capsali, Hakham Bashi
* Isaac Carasso, Ottoman Jewish entrepreneur and businessman
* Bob Dylan, American singer-songwriter
* Menahem Egozi, talmudist
* Moris Farhi, Turkish author who was vice-president of International PEN from 2001 until his death in 2019
* Üzeyir Garih, co-founder of Alarko Holding
* Fernando Gerassi, Turkish artist
* Françoise Giroud, politician
* Umut Güzelses, Turkish-Israeli football player
* Ishak Haleva, Hakham Bashi of Turkey from 2002 to 2025.
* Israel Hanukoglu, biochemist
* Barzillai ben Baruch Jabez, talmudist
* Victoria Kamhi, pianist
* Emanuel Karasu, Salonica-born Ottoman statesman
* Tchéky Karyo, French actor and musician; born in Istanbul, father is Turkish-Jewish
* Hila Klein, Israeli-American YouTuber; mother is of Turkish-Jewish descent
* Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, American politician
* Linet, Turkish-Israeli singer
* Alejandro Mayorkas, American politician
* Leandra Medine, author and blogger; father, Mois Medine, is of Turkish-Jewish descent
* Elijah Mizrachi, Hakham Bashi
* Darío Moreno, İzmir-born musician
* Chaim Nahum, Hakham Bashi
* Doña Gracia Mendes Nasi
* Joseph Nasi, Portuguese Ottoman trader and the first non-Muslim to be appointed to the rank of Sanjak-bey (governor)
* Yitzhak Navon, 5th President of Israel
* Abraham Palacci, grand rabbi of İzmir
* Joseph Palacci, rabbi of İzmir
* Rahamim Nissim Palacci, grand rabbi of İzmir
* Haim Palachi, grand rabbi of İzmir
* Emin Pasha, physician, naturalist, and governor
* Mosè Piccio, lexicographer
* Haim Saban, Israeli-American TV producer; mother was of Turkish-Jewish descent
* Berry Sakharof, Israeli rock guitarist, singer, songwriter and producer
* Silvio Santos, media tycoon and television host
* Rotem Sela, Israeli actress best known for starring in the Israeli television series Beauty and the Baker (2013–2021).
* Izak Senbahar, American real estate developer
* Lenore Skenazy, activist and founder of the Free-Range kids movement
* Joseph Taitazak, Spanish-born Ottoman rabbi and Kabbalist
* Rosalyn Tureck, American pianist and founder of Music Academy of the West
* Sabbatai Zevi, Sephardic rabbi and Kabbalist
* Jaklin Kornfilt, theoretical linguist