List of Sephardic Jews

The following is a list of Sephardic Jews. See also List of Iberian Jews.

A list of Jews of Sephardic ancestry:

:

"This is an , which may never be able to satisfy certain standards for completeness. Revisions and additions are welcome."

A

* Abravanel family
** Maurice Abravanel, conductor
** Senor Abravanel (Sílvio Santos), TV show host in Brazil and owner of SBT (Sistema Brasileiro de Televisão), the second biggest Brazilian television network
* Uriel Acosta, rationalist
*Grace Aguilar, Sephardic poet, Daughter of Emmanuelle and Sara Aguilar
* Moshe Raphael d'Aguilar, Portuguese Rabbi, helped establish the Jewish Community in Brazil
* George Allen, American politician (Sephardic maternal grandparents)
* Shlomo Moshe Amar, Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel, Born in Morocco
* Albert Jean Amateau, rabbi
* Franck Amsallem, Algerian-born French-American jazz pianist
*Shiri Appleby, actress, star of Roswell (television series)
* Ronni Ancona, impressionist
* Edward Andrade, physicist
* Marc D. Angel, rabbi
* Benjamin Artom, Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews of Great Britain [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography]
* Samuel Avital, founder of Le Centre du Silence Mime School
* Hank Azaria, actor
* Max Azria, fashion designer, founder of BCBG

B

* Washington Bartlett, mayor of San Francisco, California
* Kalmi Baruh, philologist and literary critic
* Shoshana Bean, Broadway actress (mother is half Sephardic, half Ashkenazic; grandmother's family is from the Ottoman Empire)
*Emmanuelle Béart, actress (part sephardic father)
* David Belasco, playwright
* Frieda Belinfante, cellist, conductor
* Yossi Benayoun, Footballer
* Baruj Benacerraf, immunologist, Nobel Prize winner in Medicine
* Shlomo Ben-Ami, Israeli diplomat
* Menasseh Ben Israel, rabbi, scholar, printer and diplomat
* Judah P. Benjamin, politician and lawyer
* Émile Benveniste, linguist
* David Benvenisti, writer, historian and geographer
* Jacques Benveniste, French immunologist
* Meron Benvenisti, vice-mayor of Jerusalem around 1980, researcher on the occupation of the West Bank
* Maurice Berger, cultural historian, art critic, curator (Sephardic Mother ;father non-Sephardic Jew) [Lee, Felicia. “Facing Down His Color as a Path to Privilege,” The New York Times (5 May 1999), pp. E1, 10; reprinted as “A Writer Confronts His Color as A Path to Privilege,” in The International Herald Tribune (6 May 1999)]
* J. D. Bernal, scientist, Marxist writer (Sephadic father and non-Jewish mother) [Encyclopaedia Britannica, art. "Bernal": "BERNAL, Sephardi family of Marrano extraction. ... The physicist JOHN DESMOND BERNAL (1901–) is also descended from this family."]
* Bernays family
** Edward Bernays, father of public relations
* Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records (English father and Sephardic mother)
* Lili Boniche, Algerian singer
* Jorge Luis Borges, author (descendant of Isidoro Suárez, Argentinian Colonel of possible Sephardic origins - disputed)Fact|date=March 2007.
* Michel Boujenah, comedian
* Caryl Brahms, writer [Obituary, "Jewish Chronicle" Dec 10, 1982 p.12]
* Tony Bullimore ["Bullimore's sister buoyed by rabbis' support", "Jewish Chronicle" January 24, 1997 p.1] , British yachtsman

C

*Neve Campbell (1973 - ) Canadian film and television actress ("Scream") ^{[http://www.joonbug.com/Images/press/articles/newsday-12-29-03.htm]}
* Elias Canetti, author, Nobel Prize winner in literature
* Veza Canetti, author (Sephardic mother & Ashkenazic father)
* Aaron Nissim Cantor ( 1967 - ) Canadian literacy advocate, public servant and NGO director, mother and father are sephardic
* Georg Cantor, mathematician (mother and father are of a family of converted Sephardi Jews)
* Isaac & Daniel Carasso, founders of Danone [http://www.public-histoire.com/saga/yaourt/yaourt7.html]
* Benjamin Cardozo, United States Supreme Court justice
* Sem Tob de Carrión, Spanish poet
* Anthony Caro, sculptor
* Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, composer
* Cláudia Ohana (carneiro), Actress _ Brazil
* David Charvet, actor
* Emmanuelle Chriqui, actress
* Hélène Cixous, feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher and literary critic (Ashkenazic mother and Sephardic father)
* Albert Cohen, Greek-born Swiss writer
* Arlette and Edwin Cohen, Egyptian
* Claude Cohen-Tannoudji, Nobel Prize winner in physics
* Ronald Cohen, businessman and political figure
* yaakov Carneiro, grafic designer
* Isaac da Costa, poet
* Maria Luiza Tucci Carneiro,
* Michael Costa, conductor and composer
* Sam Costa, singer and comedian
* Peter Coyote, actor (Sephardic father)

D

* Moses da Costa, English financier
* Moïse de Camondo
* Béatrice de Camondo
* Nissim de Camondo
* Lorenzo da Ponte, librettist
* Alberto Omero Lopez De La Cadena, publisher "Our Secret Heritage" HaLapid
* Daniel De Leon, socialist
* Cecil B. DeMille, film director (mother Sephardic)
* Jacques Derrida, philosopher
* Benjamin Disraeli, British politician
* Joseph Duveen, art dealer
* Bob Dylan, musician-Sephardic father, Ashkenazic mother. The name 'Zimmerman' (very Ashkenazic) adopted recently.

F

* Moris Farhi, Turkish-born British writer
* Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, Prince of Maratra, Spanish General
* Karl Emil Franzos, author (Russian mother)
* Anna Freud, psychoanalyst (Sephardic mother & Ashkenazic father)
* Diane von Fürstenberg, fashion designer (Greek-Jewish Sephardic mother)

G

* Lewis Goldsmith, journalist and political writer [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "he was of Portuguese Jewish descent"]
* Eydie Gorme, singer
* Hélène Grimaud, pianist
* Philip Guedalla, biographer [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "the only son of David Guedalla, an almond broker in Mincing Lane, who came from a Spanish-Jewish family ... He was buried in Golders Green Jewish cemetery"]

H

* Yehuda Halevy, poet
* Selomuth Halevy, aka Pablo Santa Maria, was Rab (Rabbi) de Burgos, Spain. He converted in the late 1300s and became Pablo Santa Maria, Bishop of Burgos. His sister Ana Nunez also converted and married into the De La Cadena family of Spain, Mexico and New Mexico/Texas

* Harari Family, prominent Egyptian family
* Sidney Hart, British trade unionist
* Dan Hedaya, American actor
* Sir Basil Henriques [Concise Dictionary of National Biography: "born into old, established Jewish family"] , philanthropist
* Henriette Herz, the first Jewish woman to host a salon (née de Lemos)
* Leslie Hore-Belisha, British Member of Parliament and Cabinet minister

I

* Inês Pires, Mistress of King John I of Portugal. Ancestor of Dukes and Portuguese Kings of the House of Braganza and many of European royalty and nobility. [Isabel Violante Pereira, "De Mendo da Guarda a D. Manuel I," Lisbon: Livros Horizonte, 2001. Notice that Inês Pires is only presently presented as a conversa, and that for centuries there was no known doubt regarding her non-Jewish Portuguese ethnicity (which, of course could have been hidden for religious and political reasons, her being the mother of Afonso, 1st Duke of Braganza).]
* Ivan Illich, polymath, polemicist (Sephardic mother)
* Isaac d'Israeli, British writer, father of Benjamin Disraeli

J

* Edmond Jabès, author

K

* Lainie Kazan, singer and actress (Sephardic mother & Ashkenazic father)
* Otto Klemperer, conductor (Sephardic mother & Ashkenazic father)
* Jayme King, Famous Television Weatherman in Phoenix, Arizona. (Sephardic Mother "Sholomith Family") Ashkenazic Father)

L

* Emma Lazarus, poet
* Primo Levi, author
* Rita Levi-Montalcini, neurologist, Nobel Prize winner in Medicine
* Yosi Saffi Levy, sephardic Israeli singer in Los Angeles
* Benny Lévy, author, secretary to Sartre
* Bernard-Henri Levy, philosopher
* David Levy, Israeli politician
* Uriah P. Levy, American Commodore
* Arthur Lourié, composer
* Isaac Luria, scholar and mystic (Ashkenazic father and Sephardic mother)
* Salvador Luria, Nobel Prize winner in medicine
*Luciano Mordekhai Levi de Lopes, Rabbi, linguist, translator
* Lol Levy, actor

M

* Moses Maimonides, physician and commentator
* David Malouf, writer (Lebanese-Christian father and English-Jewish mother of Portuguese descent)
* Georges, Paul, Armand, and Maurice Marciano, founders of Guess?
* Raphael Meldola (Sephardic Rabbi)
* Raphael Meldola (chemist and first president of the Maccabaeans) [Encyclopaedia Judaica 11:1290]
* Benjamin Melendez, broker for the gang truce
* Albert Memmi, author
* Catulle Mendès, poet
* Frederick de Sola Mendes, rabbi
* Menahen Ben Elhanan Rizzolo, French rabbi
* Jacob Mendes da Costa, physician
* Pierre Mendès-France, French politician
* Daniel Mendoza, boxer
* Samuel Jessurun de Mesquita, painter
* Christian Julius De Meza, Danish General
*Michel de Montaigne, philosopher (converso sephardi mother)
* Darius Milhaud, composer (maternal Sephardic grandfather)
* Michael Mizrachi, poker player (Iraqi father)
* Isaac Mizrahi, fashion designer
* Alan Mocatta, Judge
* Frederic Mocatta, philanthropist [Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "The Mocatta family were Jews driven from the Iberian peninsula in 1492"]
* Patrick Modiano, author (Sephardic-Italian father and Flemish mother)
* Amedeo Modigliani, painter
* Moses Montefiore, Jewish leader
* Dario Moreno, singer
* Shelley Morrison, Actress
* Georges Moustaki, Greek-French singer

N

* Sir Gerald Nabarro, British MP
* Dona Gracia Mendes Nasi
* Yitzhak Navon, Israeli politician
* Yechiel Nahari, among the greatest Sephardic cantors of all time
* David Nieto (1654-1728), English rabbi and scholar
* Vicky Nizri, Writer
* Mordecai Manuel Noah, playwright, diplomat, journalist and utopian
* Danny Nucci, actor
* Peter Nero, pianist/conductor. a/k/a Bernard Nierow. Mother: Mary Menasche

O

*Achy Obejas, writer
*Rodrigues Ottolengui, writer
*Yaaqob haLevi de Oliveira, Rabbi, translator

P

*Jules Pascin, painter (Sephardic father)
*Sean Paul, Jamaican musician, Dancehall singer (Sephardic Jewish father)
*Murray Perahia, American concert pianist
*Victor Perera, Guatemalan author
*Avi Peretz, Israeli musician (Mizrahit Music)
*Camille Pissarro, painter (Sephardic Jewish father)
*Norman Podhoretz
*Georges de Porto-Riche, playwright

Q, R

* David Ricardo, economist
* Edouard Roditi, author

S, T

* Jacques Saada, Canadian Cabinet minister and politician
* Charles Saatchi, founder of Saatchi and Saatchi
* Maurice Saatchi, founder of Saatchi and Saatchi
* Haim Saban, media mogul
* Safra Family, prominent Syrian bankers
* Francis Salvador, first American Jew to be killed in the American Revolution
* Jacob Samuda, civil engineer
* Siegfried Sassoon, poet (Sephardic father)
* Victor Sassoon, hotelier
* Vidal Sassoon, hair stylist (Sephardic father)
* Neil Sedaka, singer
* Emilio G. Segrè, physicist, Nobel Prize winner in physics
* Peter Sellers, actor (descendant of Daniel Mendoza, a marrano boxer)
* Abraham Serfaty, Moroccan dissident
* Silvan Shalom, Foreign Minister of Israel
* Jamie-Lynn Sigler, actress (father Steve Sigler is Sephardic)
* Martial Solal, Algerian-born, French jazz pianist
* Raphael Soriano, modernist architect
* Baruch Spinoza, philosopher
* Matt Stone, animator (Sephardic mother)
* André Suarès, poet
* Adolph Sutro, mayor of San Francisco, California
* Ralph de Toledano, journalist

U, V

* Chaim Aharon Valero, banker, Jerusalem
* Aaron Valero, physician,Jerusalem
* Mordechai Vanunu, nuclear technician
* Diego Velázquez, Spanish painter . [Otaka, Yasujiro: " An Aspiration Sealed". [http://www.sangensha.co.jp/allbooks/index/070E.htm] Retrieved on March 10, 2007. ]
* Jacob (Ya'akov) Valero,banker,Jerusalem
* Valansi Marcelo, businessman, San Jose, Costa Rica

W, X

* Warburg family (Italian origin, Bologna)
* Aby Warburg, art critic

Y

* Avrham B. Yehoshua, author
* David Levy Yulee, politician
* Yosef haLevi de Oliveira, outstanding Talmudist, translator and founder of Yahdut Sefarad, in Israel
* Ovadia Yosef, former Chief Rabbi of Israel, of Iraqi Descent

Z

* Alexander von Zemlinsky, composer (maternal Sephardic grandfather)

ee also

*List of Iberian Jews
*List of Ashkenazi Jews
*Sephardi Jews
*Lists of Jews
*List of Portuguese
*List of Spaniards
*Spanish Inquisition
*Portuguese Inquisition

Footnotes