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-WWII 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 some prominent North European Jews, arranged by country of origin:

Denmark

* Harald Bohr, mathematician and footballer (Jewish mother)
* Niels Bohr, physicist, Nobel Prize (1922) (Jewish mother)
* Victor Borge, entertainer
* Edvard Brandes, politician, critic and author
* Georg Brandes, author and critic, father of Danish naturalism
* Bengt Burg, TV personality
* Marcus Choleva, Chief executive officer of KFI.
* Meïr Aron Goldschmidt, author and editor
* Heinrich Hirschsprung, industrialist, art patron ("Den Hirschsprungske Samling")
* Arne Jacobsen, architect & designer (Jewish mother)
* Arne Melchior, politician and former Transport Minister and Minister for Communication and Tourism.
* Michael Melchior, rabbi and Israeli politician
* Georg Metz, journalist
* Michael Meyerheim, TV personality
* Ben Roy Mottelson, physicist, Nobel Prize (1975)
* Sonja Oppenheim, actress
* 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

Estonia

* Gunnar Friedemann, chess player
* Louis I. Kahn, architect
* Eri Klas, conductor
* Yuri Lotman, semiotician

Finland

* Max Jakobson, diplomat [http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Finland.html]
* Gunnar K. A. Njalsson, CEO, administrative scientist (conservative), local politician (1998-2004) in city of Espoocite book|title =Canadian Who's Who 2007|pages=|publisher =University of Toronto Press|date =2007-05-30|accessdate =2007-08-08]
* Moses Pergament, composer [http://www.kilpinen.org/PERGAMENT-S.htm]
* Roni Porokara, football player
* Marion Rung, pop singer
* Seela Sella, actress
* Mauritz Stiller, director
* Ruben Stiller, talk-show host
* Ben Zyskowicz, conservative leader

Iceland

* Vladimir Ashkenazy, pianist
* Elías Davíðsson, composer & human rights activist
* Bobby Fischer, chess player (Jewish mother, but did not self-identify as a Jew; American expatriate, Icelandic citizen)
* Max Goldberg, international banker
* Dorrit Moussaieff, First Lady of Iceland

Latvia

* Elya Baskin, actor
* Isaiah Berlin, historian of ideas
* Lipman Bers, mathematician & activist [http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/Biographies/Bers.html]
* David Bezmozgis, author
* Boris Brutskus
* Sergei Eisenstein, film director & theorist (Jewish father)
* Movsas Feigins, chess player
* Morris Halle, linguist
* Philippe Halsman, photographer
* Joseph Hirshhorn, financier & 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 Kremer's father was a Jewish Holocaust survivor [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4094468,00.html] .
* Nechama Leibowitz
* Yeshayahu Leibowitz
* Armands Leimanis, singer
* Hermanis Matisons, chess player
* Mischa Maisky, cellist
* Solomon Mikhoels, actor
* Aron Nimzowitsch, chess player
* Arkady Raikin*, performing artist
* Mark Rothko, painter
* Yosef Rosen, der Rogatchover Gaon
* Elizabeth Shammash, US singer (Latvian mother, Iraqi father)
* Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, rabbi
* Mikhail Tal, world chess champion
* Max Weinreich, linguist
* [http://www.jjew.ru/index.php?cnt=8554 Mikhail Alexandrovich] Famous cantor and singer(1914-2002)
* [http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%A1%D1%82%D1%80%D0%BE%D0%BA,_%D0%9E%D1%81%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%80_%D0%94%D0%B0%D0%B2%D1%8B%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%B8%D1%87 Oscar Strok] Composer(1893-1975)

Lithuania

* Professor Chimen Abramsky, professor of Hebrew
* Rabbi Yehezkel Abramsky
* Semyon Alapin, chess player
* Mark Antokolsky, sculptor to Czar Alexander II of Russia
* Moshe Arens, former Minister of Defence and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel
* Aaron Barak, President of the Supreme Court of Israel
* Isidore Barron
* Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, reviver of Hebrew
* Bernard Berenson, art critic
* Victor David Brenner, designer of the US penny
* Sir Montague Burton, British retailer [Concise Dictionary of National Biography: "born in Lithuania of Jewish parentage"]
* Abraham Cahan, writer & activist
* Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler
* Simeon Dimanstein, Soviet Commissar of Nationalities
* Nosson Tzvi Finkel, famous rosh yeshiva of the Slabodka yeshiva
* Vyacheslav Ganelin, jazz pioneer
* Morris Ginsberg, sociologist (Jewish Year Book 1975 p213)
* Louis Ginzberg
* Leah Goldberg, poet
* Emma Goldman, anarchist
* Nahum Goldmann, world Jewish leader
* Chaim Grade, writer
* Iosif Romualdovich Grigulevich
* Zvi Griliches, economist
* Shira Gorshman, Zionist pioneer, writer
* Aryeh Leib ben Asher Gunzberg, rabbi
* Aron Gurwitsch, philosopher
* Laurence Harvey, actor
* Jascha Heifetz (1901 - 1987) violinist, widely regarded as the greatest violinist of the 20th Century [Heifetz - [http://www.jewishjournal.com/home/preview.php?id=16606] "Jascha Heifetz, Fritz Kreisler, Mischa Elman... were all Jews, too"]
* Sidney Hillman, labor leader
* Leo Jogiches
* Al Jolson, entertainer
* Jakob Jocz
* Berek Joselewicz
* Joseph Kagan, Baron Kagan, clothes manufacturer [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "His parents were Orthodox Jews"]
* Yisrael Meir Kagan, rabbi
* Mordechai Kaplan, founder of Reconstructionist Judaism
* Shlomo Kleit
* Aaron Klug, chemist, Nobel Prize (1982)
* Lazare Kopelmanas, international law scholar
* Abba Kovner
* Abraham Dob Bär Lebensohn, Hebrew writer
** Micah Joseph Lebensohn, Hebrew writer
* Phoebus Levene
* Emmanuel Levinas, philosopher
* Morris Lichtenstein, rabbi, founder of the Jewish Science
* Jacques Lipchitz, cubist sculptor
* Evan Litvak, elementary school graduate (Lithuanian ancestry lost in Holocaust)
* Jay Lovestone
* Abraham Mapu, Hebrew novelist
* Osip Mandelstam, poet librettist
* Isser Zalman Meltzer
* Harvey Milk, USA gay politician
* Hermann Minkowski, mathematician
* Oskar Minkowski, physiologist
* Mitchell Parish (1900 – 1993) Lithuanian-born American lyricistcite web | last =Bloom| first =Nate| authorlink =| coauthors =| title=The Jews Who Wrote Christmas Songs| publisher =InterfaithFamily| date =2006-12-19 | url =http://www.interfaithfamily.com/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=ekLSK5MLIrG&b=297399&ct=3303147| format =| accessdate =2006-12-19 ]
* Abram Rabinovich, chess player
* Chanan Reitblat, student
* Eduardas Rozentalis, chess player
* Meyer Schapiro, art historian
* Alexander Schneider, violinist & conductor
* Ben Shahn, artist
* Andrew W. Schally medicine Nobel Prize (1977)
* Lasar Segall
* Karl Shapiro, poet (Lithuanian parents)
* Yacov Shmuskevich Commander of Soviet Air Force
* Sam, Lee & Jacob Shubert, theatre managers, producers (cf. Shubert Brothers)
* Joe Slovo, ANC activist
* Elijah ben Solomon, rabbi, The Gaon of Vilna
* Helen Suzman, anti-apartheid MP (Lithuanian parents)
* Arkadijus Vinokuras, writer, journalist, publicist, actor
* Isakas Vistaneckis, chess player
* Louis Washkansky
* Uriel Weinreich, linguist
* David Wolfsohn Second President of World Zionist Organization
* Bluma Zeigarnik
* Emanuelis Zingeris, politician
* William Zorach, painter, sculptor & writer
* Louis Zukofsky, poet (Lithuanian parents)

:"See also Litvak/Littauer, Lithuanian Jews,Kovno kollel"

Norway

* Christian B. Anfinsen, chemist, Nobel Prize (1972) (Norwegian parents, convert)
* Jo Benkow, parliament speaker
* Leo Eitinger (b. 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
* Bente Kahan, Yiddish singer and actress
* Robert Levin, pianist
* Mona Levin, actress, writer
* Oskar Mendelsohn, historian, known for his 2-volume history of Norwegian Jews
* Eva Scheer, author known especially for her descriptions of the Lithuanian-Jewish shtetl environment
* Berthold Grünfeld, specialist in psychiatry, and professor in social medicine until 1993

Sweden

* Olof Aschberg, businessman
* Lovisa Augusti, opera singer
* Jean-Pierre Barda, musician
* Sharon Bezaly, flute soloist
* Cordelia Edvardson, journalist
* Jerzy Einhorn, pathologist & politician
* Dror Feiler, artist & musician
* Herbert Felix, entrepreneur
* Josef Frank, architect & designer
* Lars Gustafsson, writer & scholar
* Johan Harmenberg, épée fencer
* Eli Heckscher, economist
* Erland Josephson, actor & writer
* Ernst Josephson, painter
* Ragnar Josephson, writer & art historian
* Ernst Klein, publicist & politician
* Georg Klein, pathologist & writer
* Oskar Klein, physicist
* Oscar Levertin, poet & literary historian
* Jerzy Sarnecki, journalist
* Rudolf Meidner, economist
* Hanna Pauli, painter
* Dominika Peczynski, musician
* Marcel Riesz, mathematician [ [http://www.jinfo.org/Mathematics_Comp.html Jewish Mathematicians ] ]
* Nelly Sachs, poet, Nobel Prize (1966) [cite encyclopedia |year=2000 |title=Sachs, Nelly |encyclopedia=Nationalencyklopedin Multimedia 2000 |publisher=Bokförlaget Bra Böcker AB |location=Höganäs |id=ISBN 91-7133-747-4]
* Harry Schein, writer & culture personality
* Sara Sommerfeld, actress
* Alexandra Rapaport, actress
* Mauritz Stiller, director [cite encyclopedia |year=2000 |title=Stiller, Mauritz |encyclopedia=Nationalencyklopedin Multimedia 2000 |publisher=Bokförlaget Bra Böcker AB |location=Höganäs |id=ISBN 91-7133-747-4]
* Marcus Storch, industrialist ["Jewish Chronicle", February 4, 2000, p.6: "Jewish business leader Marcus Storch"]
* Peter Weiss, dramatist & writer
* Isaac Grünewald, artist
* Göran Rosenberg, journalist

See also

* List of Jews
* List of Danes
* List of Estonians
* List of Finns
* List of Icelanders
* List of Latvians
* List of Lithuanians
* List of Norwegians
* List of Swedes
* History of the Jews in Scotland

Footnotes

See also the page on Joe Slovo.