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, before 20 century borderland region in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (later in Russian Partition and Austrian Partition).

Athletes

Oksana Baiul, figure skater, Olympic gold^[1]
Alexei Beletski, Ukrainian-born Israeli, ice dancer, Olympian^[2]
Oleksii Bychenko, Ukrainian-born Israeli, figure skater, 2016 European silver medallist, Olympian
Artem Dolgopyat, Ukrainian-born Israeli, Olympic gold (artistic gymnast - floor) for Israel^[3]
Olena Dvornichenko, Israel/Ukraine, rhythmic gymnastics^[4]
Grigoriy Gamarnik, Ukrainian-born Soviet, world wrestling champion (Greco-Roman lightweight), world championship gold and silver
Samuel Gerson, Ukrainian-born US, Olympic silver wrestling (freestyle featherweight)
Natalia Gudina, Ukrainian-born Israeli, figure skater, Olympian^[5]
Vadym Gutzeit (born 1971), saber fencer, Olympic champion, Youth and Sport Minister of Ukraine^[6]
Pavlo Ishchenko ("Wild Man"), Ukraine/Israel, bantamweight & lightweight boxer, 2x European Amateur Boxing Championships medalist, and European Games medalist^[7]
Moisei Kas’ianik, Ukrainian-born USSR, world weightlifting champion
Marina Kravchenko, Ukrainian-born Israeli, Soviet and Israel national table tennis teams^[8]
Lenny Krayzelburg, Ukrainian-born US swimmer, 4x Olympic champion (100 m backstroke, 200-m backstroke, twice 4x100-m medley relay); 3x world champion (100 m and 200-m backstroke, 4×100-m medley) and 2x silver (4×100-m medley, 50-m backstroke); 3 world records (50-, 100-, and 200-m backstroke)
Grigory Kriss (born 1940), Ukrainian Soviet Olympic épée fencer who won four Olympic medals, including a gold medal
Tatiana Lysenko, USSR/Ukraine gymnast, 2x Olympic champion (balance beam, team combined exercises), bronze (horse vault)
Valeria Maksyuta, Ukraine/Israel gymnast, multiple World Cup medalist, Israeli Olympian, Maccabiah Games champion^[9]^[10]^[11]
Valentyn Mankin, Soviet/Ukraine, only sailor in Olympic history to win gold medals in three different classes (yachting: finn class, tempest class, and star class), silver (yachting, tempest class)
Faina Melnik, Ukrainian-born USSR, 11 world records; Olympic discus throw champion
Andriy Oberemko, soccer/football midfielder (Mariupol & U21 national team)^[12]
Igor Olshansky, NFL American football defensive end
Zhanna Pintusevich-Block, Ukraine, sprinter, world 100-m & 200-m champion
Katerina Pisetsky, Israel/Ukraine, rhythmic gymnast^[13]
Maxim Podoprigora, Ukrainian-born Austrian swimmer
Ian Rubin, Ukraine/Australia, Russia national rugby league team^[14]
Igor Rybak, Ukrainian-born USSR, Olympic weightlifting champion (lightweight)
David Tyshler (1927–2014), Ukraine-born Soviet sabre fencer, Olympic bronze medalist
Yulen Uralov (born 1924), Ukrainian Soviet Olympic foil fencer, and USSR champion
Iosif Vitebskiy (born 1938), Soviet Ukrainian Olympic medalist and world champion épée fencer, and current US fencing coach
Alexei Zhitnik, Ukraine-born Russia, hockey defenseman (NHL)^[15]
Aleksandr Kolchinsky, heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler, Olympic gold.

Politicians

Mykhailo Dobkin, former governor of Kharkiv Oblast 2010-2014
Volodymyr Groysman, former Prime Minister of Ukraine (2016–2019)
Hennadiy Kernes, Mayor of Kharkiv 2010–2020
Ihor Kolomoyskyi, former Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast 2014-2015
Pinhas Krasny, Ukrainian minister of Jewish Affairs for the Directorate of Ukraine^[16]
Vadim Rabinovich, 2014 presidential candidate
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 Zelenskyy, 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
Oleksandr Feldman, People's Deputy of Ukraine (2002–present)
Oleksii Reznikov, 17th Minister of Defence (2021-2023)

Russian/Soviet politicians

Karl Radek, Soviet politician^[17]
Grigory Sokolnikov, Bolshevik politician^[18]
Abram Slutsky, headed the Soviet foreign intelligence service (INO), then part of the NKVD
Leon Trotsky, Soviet politician, the founder of the Red Army,^[19]^[20]^[21]^[22] commissar (Soviet minister) of Foreign Affairs
Lazar Kaganovich, Stalinist politician and one of the organizers of the Ukrainian Holodomor and Stalinist Great Purge
Moisei Uritsky, Soviet politician,^[23]^[24] chekist
Grigory Yavlinsky, Russian politician, head of a liberal "Yabloko" party^[25] (half Jewish)
Grigory Zinoviev, Soviet politician^[26]^[20]^[27]

Israeli politicians

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, second President of Israel (1952–63)^[28]^[29]^[30]
Shmuel Dayan, Zionist activist, Israeli politician^[31]
Levi Eshkol, Israeli Prime Minister (1963–69)^[32]^[33]
Ephraim Katzir, fourth President of Israel (1973–78)^[34]^[35]
Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister (1969–74)^[36]^[37]
Natan Sharansky, Israeli politician^[38]
Moshe Sharett, Israeli Prime Minister (1954–55)^[18]^[39]

United States politicians

Kirill Reznik, US Politician, Member, Maryland House of Delegates (2007–Present)

Israeli military persons

Yaakov Dori, first Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) (1948–1949); President of Technion.^[40]
Tzvi Tzur, sixth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (1961–1964)^[41]

Soldiers and Revolutionaries

Pavel Axelrod, Menshevik, Marxist revolutionary^[26]^[42]
Yakov Blumkin, Soviet spy ^[43]
Naftali Botwin, revolutionary terrorist
Morris Childs (born Moishe Chilovsky), American communist and spy
Leo Deutsch, revolutionary^[44]
Raya Dunayevskaya, founder of Marxist humanism in the U.S.^[45]
Israel Fisanovich, World War II submarine commander and Hero of the Soviet Union
Grigory Goldenberg, revolutionary^[46]
Ze'ev Jabotinsky, founder of British Jewish Legion ^[47]^[48]
Jacob Golos, Soviet spy
Olga Kameneva, Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician (sister of Leon Trotsky) ^[49]
Walter Krivitsky (born Samuel Ginsberg), Soviet spy
Alexander Parvus, revolutionary,^[26]^[50] major investor and financial supporter of the October Revolution
Sidney Reilly (born Shlomo Rosenblum), a Ukrainian-born adventurer and Secret Intelligence Service agent ^[51]
Pinhas Rutenberg, Zionist, Social revolutionary^[52]
Grigori Shtern (Grigory Stern), Red Army commander (Colonel General)
Naum Sorkin, Red Army military intelligence chief in the Far East (Major-General)^[53]
V. Volodarsky (born Moisei Goldstein), communist revolutionary^[54]
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^[55]
Mishka Yaponchik, gangster, leader of the Odesa 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, holocaust survivor from the Nazi Holocaust, Nazi hunter, writer
Semion Mogilevich, "boss of all bosses" of the worldwide Russian Mafia, former member of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives

Business figures

Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp
Leon Bagrit, pioneer of automation^[56]
Zino Davidoff
Bernard Delfont, impresario^[57]
Lew Grade, founder of ATV^[58]
Ihor Kolomoyskyi, a major Ukrainian business oligarch
Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal^[59]
Hryhoriy Surkis, head of public organization Football Federation of Ukraine, Ukrainian parliamentary
Viktor Vekselberg, billionaire, steelmaker^[60]
Gennadiy Korban, Ukrainian businessman, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish community of Dnipro, Patron of the Jewish community of Krivoy Rog^[61]^[62]
Boris Lohzkin, President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine^[63]
Michael Kogan, entrepreneur, founder of Taito

Natural scientists

Aleksander Akhiezer, physicist
Matvei Petrovich Bronstein
Mikhail Gurevich
Waldemar Haffkine, biologist, developed vaccine against cholera and plague^[64]^[65]
Boris Hessen, physicist^[66]
Abram Ioffe, nuclear scientist^[67]
Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov
Veniamin Levich, electrochemist^[68]
Boris Podolsky
Isaak Pomeranchuk
Jacob Rabinow
Anatol Rapoport
Grigory Shajn
Iosif Shklovsky
Vladimir Veksler
Alexander Vilenkin, cosmologist^[69]
Selman Waksman, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1952)^[70]

Mathematicians

Social scientists

Solomon Buber, Hebraist^[72]
Ariel Durant, historian,
Boris Eichenbaum, historian
Mikhail Epstein, literary theorist
Moshe Feldenkrais, inventor of the Feldenkrais method
Alexander Gerschenkron, economic historian
Jean Gottmann, geographer^[73]
Zellig Harris
Jacob Marschak, economist^[74]
Elye Spivak

Musicians

Sophia Agranovich, pianist^[75]
Simon Barere, pianist
Sidor Belarsky^[76], operatic basso and music educator
Felix Blumenfeld, pianist
Shura Cherkassky, pianist
Isaak Dunayevsky, composer
Mischa Elman, violinist^[77]
Anthony Fedorov, singer, American Idol finalist^[78]
Samuil Feinberg, composer^[79]^[80]
Emil Gilels, pianist^[81]
Maria Grinberg, pianist
Mordechai Hershman, cantor and singer
Jascha Horenstein, conductor
Vladimir Horowitz, pianist
Leonid Kogan, violinist
Mikhail Kopelman, violinist
Oleg Maisenberg, pianist
Samuel Maykapar, composer/pianist^[82]
Nathan Milstein, violinist
Benno Moiseiwitsch, pianist
David Oistrakh, violinist
Igor Oistrakh, violinist
Leo Ornstein, composer
Gregor Piatigorsky, cellist
Pokrass brothers, composers
Mark Reizen, operatic bass
Yossele Rosenblatt, cantor and composer
Heinrich Schenker, music theorist
Joseph Schillinger, composer, music theorist, and composition teacher
Leo Sirota, pianist ^[83]^[84]
Isaac Stern, violinist ^[85]
Roman Turovsky-Savchuk, lutenist-composer
Lyubov Uspenskaya, singer
DJ Vlad, DJ, producer, interviewer, journalist, and YouTuber
Yakov Zak, pianist

Fine artists

Michael Matusevitch (1929–2007), painter
Nathan Altman, painter and stage designer
Boris Aronson, painter and designer
Nudie Cohn, fashion designer
Sonia Delaunay, painter
Maya Deren, filmmaker
Boris Efimov, cartoonist
Naum Gabo, sculptor
Boris Iofan, architect
Ilya Kabakov, conceptualist artist
Yevgeny Khaldei, photographer
Jacob Kramer, painter^[86]
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^[87]
Alexander Granach (1890–1945), actor in theater and film (Berlin & Germany, Poland, USSR, Hollywood and Broadway)
Aleksei Kapler, film artist
Mila Kunis, actress ^[88]
Mark Donskoy, Soviet film director
Anatole Litvak, director
Alla Nazimova, actress
Otto Preminger, director, producer, actor
Ingo Preminger, producer, literary agent
Elena Ralph, model^[89]
Yakov Smirnoff, American comedian^[90]
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, 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^[91]
Eli Schechtman, Yiddish writer^[92]
Isaac Babel, writer^[28]
Eduard Bagritsky, poet^[28]
Hayyim Nahman Bialik, poet^[28]
Yosef Haim Brenner, Hebrew-language writer^[28]
Sasha Cherny, poet^[93]
Michael Dorfman, journalist and essayist
Moysey Fishbein, poet
Ilya Ehrenburg, writer^[32]
Alexander Galich, playwright poet^[94]
Asher Hirsch Ginsberg (Ahad Ha'Am), Hebrew-language writer
Lydia Ginzburg, writer^[94]
Jacob Gordin, American playwright^[94]
Erol Güney, journalist and translator^[95]
Vasily Grossman, writer^[94]
Ilya Ilf, writer^[96]
Vera Inber, poet^[96]
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^[97]
Boris Slutsky, war-time poet
Shaul Tchernichovsky, poet and translator ^[98]

Chess players

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