List of North European Jews

Before the Holocaust, Jews were a significant part of the population in Lithuania where they numbered around 240,000, including approximately 100,000 in Vilnius, or about 45% of that city's pre-World War II population (Vilnius was also once known as the "Jerusalem of Lithuania"). A large Jewish community also existed in Latvia. In comparison, Estonia and the Nordic countries have had much smaller communities, concentrated mostly in Denmark and Sweden. The following is a list of prominent North European Jews, arranged by country of origin:

Denmark

Mogens Ballin, painter
Victor Bendix, composer, conductor and pianist
Susanne Bier, film director
Kim Bodnia, actor
Harald Bohr, mathematician and footballer (Jewish mother)
Niels Bohr, physicist, Nobel Prize (1922) (Jewish mother)
Victor Borge, entertainer
Edvard Brandes, politician, critic and author, minister of finance from 1909 to 1910
Ernst Brandes, economist and editor
Georg Brandes, author and critic, father of Danish naturalism
Marcus Choleva, chief executive officer of KFI
Dagmar Cohn, illustrator
Esther Gehlin, painter
Meïr Aron Goldschmidt, author and editor
Heinrich Hirschsprung, industrialist, art patron (Den Hirschsprungske Samling)
Arne Jacobsen, architect and designer (Jewish mother)
Abraham Kurland, Olympic wrestling medalist
Arne Melchior, politician and former Transport Minister and Minister for Communication and Tourism
Marcus Melchior, chief rabbi of Denmark, father of Arne Melchior
Michael Melchior, rabbi and Israeli politician
Ivan Osiier, seven-time Olympic fencer
Lee Oskar, harmonica player, member of War
Herbert Pundik, journalist
Raquel Rastenni, jazz and popular singer
Edgar Rubin, Gestalt psychologist
Dan Zahavi, philosopher
Nikolaj Znaider, violinist, conductor

Estonia

Jüri Alperten (1957–2020), conductor, pianist and music teacher
Eino Baskin (1929–2015), actor and theatre director
Avi Benjamin (born 1959), composer
Ben Berlin (1896–1944), jazz musician
Maria Dangell (born 1974), singer and pianist
Aaron Feinstein, chess player
Moses Wolf Goldberg (1905–1964), chemist
Heinrich Gutkin (1879–1941), businessman and politician
Idel Jakobson (1904–1997), NKVD investigator
Louis Kahn (1901–1974), architect
Anna Klas (1912–1999), pianist
Eri Klas (1939–2016), conductor
Mihhail Lotman (born 1952), philologist and politician
Juri Lotman (1922–1993), semiotician
Zara Mints (1927–1990), literary scientist
Vladimir Padwa (1900–1981), pianist and composer
Ita Saks (1921–2003), translator and publicist
Hagi Šein (born 1945), journalist, film director, screenwriter and professor
Benno Schotz (1891–1984), sculptor
Samuel H. Shapiro (1907–1987), politician
Emmanuel Steinschneider (1886–1970), physician
Leonid Stolovich (1929–2013), philosopher
David Vseviov (born 1949), historian

Finland

Mathilda Berwald, singer
Max Dimont, historian and author
Ida Ekman, soprano singer
Abba Gindin, Finnish-born Israeli football player
Rosalia Gurovich, barber
Kim Hirschovits, ice hockey player
Ruben Jaari, businessman
Max Jakobson, diplomat
Wolf Karni, football referee
Daniel Katz, writer
Elias Katz, athlete, Olympic medalist
Kalle Katz, footballer
Salomon Klass (1907–1985), Finnish Army captain
Yorai Maliach, Israeli footballer of Finnish-descent
Roni Porokara, footballer
Boris Rotenberg, football player
Marion Rung, pop singer
Elis Sella, actor
Seela Sella, actress
Pekka K. Sinervo, Finnish-Canadian physicist
Mauritz Stiller, director
Uniikki, rapper
Sam Vanni, painter
Poju Zabludowicz, business magnate
Ben Zyskowicz, conservative leader

Iceland

Vladimir Ashkenazy (born 1937), pianist (Jewish father)
Bobby Fischer (1943–2008), chess player (Jewish mother, but did not self-identify as a Jew; American expatriate, Icelandic)
Dorrit Moussaieff (born 1950), former First Lady of Iceland
Sruli Recht (born 1979), fashion designer

Latvia

Elya Baskin, actor
Isaiah Berlin, historian of ideas
Lipman Bers, mathematician and activist
David Bezmozgis, author
Boris Brutskus
Sergei Eisenstein, film director
Movsas Feigins, chess player
Morris Halle, linguist
Philippe Halsman, photographer
Joseph Hirshhorn, financier and philanthropist
Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish musicologist
Hermann Jadlowker, musician (born at Riga)
Mariss Jansons, conductor (Jewish mother)
Gil Kane, comic book illustrator
Alexander Koblencs, chess player
Abraham Isaac Kook, rabbi
Gidon Kremer, violinist; father was a Jewish Holocaust survivor
Nechama Leibowitz
Yeshayahu Leibowitz
Hermanis Matisons, chess player
Mischa Maisky, cellist
Solomon Mikhoels, actor
Aron Nimzowitsch, chess player
Arkady Raikin, performing artist
Yosef Rosen, der Rogatchover Gaon
Mark Rothko, painter
Judith Shklar, political philosopher
Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, rabbi
Mikhail Tal, world chess champion
Max Weinreich, linguist

Lithuania

Semyon Alapin (1856–1923), chess player
Mark Antokolsky (1840–1902), sculptor to Tzar Alexander II of Russia
Moshe Arens (1925–2019), former Minister of Defence and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel
Aaron Barak (born 1936), President of the Supreme Court of Israel
Zerach Barnett (1843–1935), one of founders of Mea Shearim (Jerusalem), Petach Tikva and Neve Shalom, Israel
Saul Bellow (1915–2005), writer and laureate of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1976)
Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858–1922), reviver of Hebrew
Bernard Berenson (1865–1959), art critic
Izis Bidermanas (1911–1980), photographer
Reuben Asher Braudes (1851–1902), Hebrew-language novelist and journalist
Victor David Brenner (1871–1924), designer of the US penny
Eli Broad (1933–2021), American philanthropist and investor; founder of KB Home
Sir Montague Burton (1885–1952), British retailer
Abraham Cahan (1860–1951), writer and activist
Leonard Cohen (1934–2016), musician, poet
David Cronenberg (born 1943), film director
Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (1892–1953), rabbi, Talmudic scholar
Simeon Dimanstein (1886–1938), Soviet Commissar of Nationalities
Bob Dylan (born 1941), singer-songwriter, artist, writer
Ilya Ehrenburg (1891–1967), one of the most prolific and well-known writers during the Soviet Union
Nosson Tzvi Finkel (1849–1927), Orthodox Jewish leader
Vyacheslav Ganelin (born 1944), jazz musician
Sara Ginaite (1924–2018), former resistance fighter, now Canadian academic
Romain Gary (1914–1980), novelist, the Prix Goncourt (twice)
Morris Ginsberg (1889–1970), sociologist
Louis Ginzberg (1873–1953), scholar of the Talmud
Philip Glass (born 1937), classical composer
Leah Goldberg (1911–1970), poet
Emma Goldman (1869–1940), political activist
Nahum Goldmann (1895–1982), world Jewish leader
Chaim Grade (1910–1982), Yiddish writer
Iosif Grigulevich (1913–1988), secret agent, historian
Zvi Griliches (1930–1999), economist
Shira Gorshman (1906–2001), Zionist pioneer, Yiddish writer
Aryeh Leib ben Asher Gunzberg (c. 1695–1785), rabbi
Bernard Lown (1921–2021), scientist, Nobel prize winner
Aron Gurwitsch (1901–1973), philosopher
Laurence Harvey (1928–1973), actor
Jascha Heifetz (1901–1987), widely regarded as the greatest violinist of the 20th century
Sidney Hillman (1887–1946), political activist
Shemp Howard (1895–1955), comedian and actor
Moe Howard (1897–1975), comedian and actor
Curly Howard (1903–1952), comedian and actor
Jay M. Ipson (born 1935), founder of the Virginia Holocaust Museum
Leo Jogiches (1867–1919), revolutionary
Al Jolson (1886–1950), singer, comedian, and actor
Berek Joselewicz (1764–1809), colonel of the Polish Army
Joseph Kagan, Baron Kagan (1915–1995), clothes manufacturer
Yisrael Meir Kagan (1838–1933), rabbi
Daniel Kahneman (1934–2024), psychologist, Nobel Prize (2002) (Lithuanian parents)
Mordechai Kaplan (1881–1983), founder of Reconstructionist Judaism
Shlomo Kleit (1891–1962), political activist
Aaron Klug (1926–2018), chemist, Nobel Prize (1982)
Gurwin Kopel (1923–1990), artist
Lazare Kopelmanas (1907–1980), international law scholar
Abba Kovner (1918–1987), poet, writer
Abraham Dob Bär Lebensohn (c. 1789/1794–1878), Hebraist, poet, and educator
Micah Joseph Lebensohn (1828–1852), poet and translator
Phoebus Levene (1869–1940), biochemist
Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995), philosopher
Isaac Levitan (1860–1900), landscape painter
Bernard Lewis (1916–2018), historian
Morris Lichtenstein 1889–1938), rabbi, founder of the Jewish Science
Jacques Lipchitz (1891–1973), cubist sculptor
Jay Lovestone (1897–1990), politician
Alexander Ziskind Maimon (1809–1887), author and scholar of the Talmud
Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938), poet and librettist
Abraham Mapu (1808–1867), Hebrew novelist
Isser Zalman Meltzer (1870–1953), rabbi
Harvey Milk (1930–1978), gay-rights activist
Hermann Minkowski (1864–1909), mathematician
Oskar Minkowski (1858–1931), physiologist
Benjamin Netanyahu (born 1949), Prime Minister of Israel
Mitchell Parish (1900–1993), Lithuanian-born American lyricist
Abram Rabinovich (1878–1943), chess player
Bar Refaeli (born 1985), Israeli supermodel, television host, actress, and businesswoman
Willy Ronis (1910–2009), photographer
Eduardas Rozentalis (born 1963), chess player
Yisroel Salanter (1809–1883), rabbi and Talmudist
Meyer Schapiro (1904–1996), art historian
Alexander Schneider (1908–1993), violinist and conductor
Lasar Segall (1891–1957), painter, engraver, and sculptor
Benjamin Schlesinger (1876–1932), American labor leader and former President of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union
Ben Shahn (1898–1969), artist
Esther Shalev-Gerz (born 1948), artist
Karl Shapiro (1913–2000), poet (Lithuanian parents)
Sam (1878–1905), Lee (1871–1953), and Jacob Shubert (1879–1963), theatre managers and producers (cf. Shubert Brothers)
Joe Slovo (1926–1995), ANC activist
Elijah ben Solomon (1720–1797), rabbi, the Gaon of Vilna
Maximilian Steinberg (1883–1946), classical composer
David Suchet (born 1946), English actor
Helen Suzman (1917–2009), anti-apartheid MP (Lithuanian parents)
Isakas Vistaneckis (1910–2000), chess player
Louis Washkansky (1912–1967), recipient of the world's first human heart transplant
Uriel Weinreich (1926–1967), linguist
David Wolfsohn (1855–1914), second President of the World Zionist Organization
Bluma Zeigarnik (1900–1988), psychologist and psychiatrist
Emanuelis Zingeris (born 1957), politician
William Zorach (1889–1966), painter, sculptor, printmaker, and writer
Louis Zukofsky (1904–1978), poet and professor (Lithuanian parents)
Benjamin Zuskin (1899–1952), actor

Norway

Bjørn Benkow, journalist, known for faking interviews
Jo Benkow, President of the Parliament of Norway
Carl Paul Caspari, professor in theology (Lutheranism)
Leo Eitinger (born in Slovakia), professor of psychiatry at University of Oslo and Holocaust survivor, known mainly for his work on late-onset psychological trauma amongst Holocaust survivors
Victor Goldschmidt, professor in mineralogy
Salo Grenning, pen name Pedro, editorial cartoonists in Verdens Gang
Berthold Grünfeld, specialist in psychiatry, and professor in social medicine until 1993
Imre Hercz, physician and public debater
Bente Kahan, Yiddish singer and actress
Hermann Kahan, Holocaust survivor, activist
Morten Levin, professor of organization and work science
Robert Levin, pianist
Oskar Mendelsohn, historian, known for his two-volume history of Norwegian Jews
Charles Philipson, Supreme Court Justice Judge, Chairman of the Petroleum Law Committee, deputy chairman of the Petroleum Council and chairman of the Riksel Committee
Moritz Rabinowitz, merchant, active in public debate against antisemitism and Nazism before World War II
Øystein Wingaard Wolf, poet and author

Sweden

Olof Aschberg, businessman and banker
Robert Aschberg, journalist, media executive, TV personality
Amalia Assur, first female dentist in Sweden
Lovisa Augusti, opera singer
Jean-Pierre Barda, musician
Mathilda Berwald, née Cohn, musician
Sharon Bezaly, flute soloist
Jonathan Conricus (born 1979), Swedish-Israeli IDF Lieutenant-Colonel (ret), IDF International Spokesperson
Jerzy Einhorn, pathologist and politician
Herbert Felix, entrepreneur
Aron Flam (born 1978), comedian, podcaster, and writer, and actor
Josef Frank, architect and designer
Isaac Grünewald, artist
Lars Gustafsson, writer and scholar
Johan Harmenberg, épée fencer, Olympic fencing medalist
Eli Heckscher, economist
Aaron Isaac, businessman from Swedish Pomerania, pioneer in the history of Sweden's Jewish population
Erland Josephson, actor and writer
Ernst Josephson, painter
Ragnar Josephson, writer and art historian
Anne Kalmering, singer
Mirjam Katzin, academic
Joel Kinnaman, actor
George Klein, pathologist and writer
Oskar Klein, physicist
Oscar Levertin, poet and literary historian
Jacob Marcus, businessman, pioneer in the history of Sweden's Jewish population
Rudolf Meidner, economist
Hanna Pauli, painter
Dominika Peczynski, musician
Alexandra Rapaport, actress
Marcel Riesz, mathematician
Göran Rosenberg, journalist
Bo Rothstein, political scientist
Nelly Sachs, poet, Nobel Prize (1966)
Jerzy Sarnecki, criminologist
Harry Schein, writer and culture personality
Leif Silbersky, lawyer and author
Sara Sommerfeld, actress
Ute Steyer, Sweden's first female rabbi
Mauritz Stiller, director
Marcus Storch, industrialist
Anna Warburg (1881–1967), educator
Peter Weiss, dramatist and writer