List of Polish Jews

List of Jews by
country

Sub-Saharan Africa

Arab World | Israel*

South-East Europe

Austria | Hungary

Poland | East Europe

Russia | North Europe

UK | Germany | Italy

France | West Europe

Iberia | Latin America

Caribbean | Canada

US | Asia | Oceania

(*most are Jewish)

From the Middle Ages until the Holocaust, Jews were a significant part of the Polish population. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, known for its religious tolerance as a "Jewish paradise", attracted numerous Jews who fled persecution from other European countries. Poland soon became a major spiritual and cultural center for Ashkenazi Jewry, and Polish Jews contributed strongly to Polish cultural, economic and political life. By the Second World War Poland had the largest Jewish population in the world (about 3 million), the vast majority of whom were killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust. The current Polish Jewish population is approximately 8,000. The following is a list of some famous Polish Jews.

Historical figures

Missing image
Powazki_wrzesien_4.JPG

Graves of Polish Jews among the fallen soldiers of the Polish Defence War of 1939; Powązki Cemetery, Warsaw

Politicians

David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), Israeli prime minister
Jakub Berman (1901-1984), Secretary of PUWP (Polish United Workers' Party)
Bronisław Geremek (b. 1932), former Polish foreign minister
Shimon Peres (b. 1923), Israeli prime minister, Nobel prize (1994)
Adam Rotfeld (b. 1938), current Polish foreign minister
Yitzhak Shamir (b. 1915), Israeli prime minister
Saul Wahl (1541-1617), according to tradition, temporary King of Poland in 1586
Szmul Zygielbojm (1895-1943), Polish Jewish leader

Soldiers and fighters

Mordechaj Anielewicz (1919-1943), leader of Warsaw ghetto uprising
Marek Edelman, (b. 1922), last living leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Berek Joselewicz (1764-1809), colonel during Kościuszko Uprising and Napoleonic wars (unconfirmed)
Hyman Rickover (1900-1986), US Navy Admiral
Krystyna Skarbek (1915-1952), WW2 spy

Activists

Joseph Rotblat (b. 1908), founder of Pugwash, Nobel Prize (1995)
Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959), human rights lawyer
Rosa Luxembourg (1870-1919), Marxist
Adam Michnik (b. 1946), dissident
Henry Morgentaler (b. 1923), abortion activist
Ludwik Rajchman (1881-1965), founder of UNICEF
Ernestine Rose (1810-1892), feminist

Religious figures

Israel ben Eliezer (the Baal Shem Tov) (ca 1700-1760), Hasiddic rabbi
Jacob Frank (1726-1791), messiah claimant
Kalonymus Haberkasten
Arthur Hertzberg, (b. 1921) rabbi
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), theologian
Zevi Hirsch Kalischer (1795-1874), rabbi & zionism pioneer
Elimelech of Leżajsk (1717-1786), Hasiddic rabbi
Solomon Luria
Dovber of Mezeritch (d. 1772), Hasiddic rabbi

Academics

Math & Computer scientists

Paul Baran, engineer: packet switching
Salomon Bochner, mathematician
Jacob Bronowski, scientist & broadcaster, works: algebraic geometry
Samuel Eilenberg, mathematician: category theory
Witold Hurewicz, mathematician (Jewish father)
Mark Kac, mathematician
Benoit Mandelbrot, mathematician: fractals (Jewish father)
Szolem Mandelbrojt, mathematician
Emil Leon Post, mathematician
Mojzesz Presburger, logician
Stanislaw Saks, mathematician
Juliusz Schauder, mathematician
Hugo Steinhaus, mathematician
Alfred Tarski, logician (converted to Catholicism)
Stanislaw Ulam, mathematician

Natural scientists

Kasimir Fajans, physicist
Roald Hoffmann, chemist and writer, Nobel prize (1981)
Leopold Infeld, physicist
Jakub Natanson, chemist
Wladyslaw Natanson, physicist (Jewish father)
Tadeus Reichstein, chemist, Nobel prize (1950)
Andrew V. Schally, endocrinologist, Nobel prize (1977) (Jewish father)

Social academics

Solomon Asch, Gestalt psychologist
Szymon Aszkenazy, historian
Salo Wittmayer Baron, Jewish historian
Zygmunt Bauman, sociologist
Ivan Bloch, military writer
Isaac Deutscher, historian
Henryk Grossmann, economist
Joseph Jastrow, psychologist (unconfirmed)
Lewis Namier, historian
Paul Radin, anthropologist
Manfred Sakel, neurophysiologist & psychiatrist
Milton Rokeach, psychologist
Avraham Stern, famous Zionist
Ludwik Zamenhof, doctor and inventor of Esperanto (Russian origin)

Cultural figures

Artists

Balthus, painter (Jewish mother)
Chim, photographer
Maurycy Gottlieb, painter
Tamara de Lempicka, painter
Moise Kisling, painter
Joe Kubert, comic book artist
Daniel Libeskind, architect
Helena Rubinstein, fashion designer
Arthur Szyk, political cartoonist
Max Weber, painter
Esther Wertheimer, sculptor

Musicians

Emanuel Ax, pianist
Adolph Baller, pianist
Leonard & Phil Chess, founders of Chess Records
Walter Damrosch, conductor
Ignaz Friedman, pianist
Szymon Goldberg, violinist/conductor
Ida Haendel, violinist
George Henschel, singer/conductor
Bronislaw Huberman, violinist
Wanda Landowska, harpsichordist
Geddy Lee, vocalist in Rush (Polish parents)
Artur Rodzinski, conductor (unconfirmed)
Arthur Rubinstein, pianist
Artur Schnabel, pianist
Henryk Szeryng, violinist
Władysław Szpilman pianist, author of The Pianist memoir
Alexandre Tansman, composer, pianist
Carl Tausig, composer, pianist
Moisei Vainberg, composer
Henryk Wieniawski, composer, violinist (unconfirmed ancestry)

Screen and stage

Artur Brauner, film producer
Samuel Goldwyn, film producer
Anna Held, stage actress
Agnieszka Holland, film director, screenwriter (Jewish father)
Moses Horowitz, yiddish playwright
Ida Kaminska, actress & theatre manager
Jan Kott, theatre critic
Roman Polański, film director
Sydney Pollack, film director
Lew Rywin, film producer
Harry, Sam & Albert Warner, film producers

Writers and poets

Polish-language

Kazimierz Brandys, writer
Jan Brzechwa, poet
Henryk Grynberg, writer
Mieczysław Jastrun, poet
Janusz Korczak, pediatrician, children's writer, pedagogist
Stanislaw Jerzy Lec, satirical poet (unconfirmed)
Hanna Krall, author
Bolesław Leśmian, poet
Bruno Schulz, prose writer
Antoni Słonimski, poet
Julian Stryjkowski, prose writer
Julian Tuwim, poet

Yiddish-language

Sholem Asch, writer
Isaac Bashevis Singer, writer, Nobel prize (1978)
Israel Joshua Singer, novelist

Other writers

Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Hebrew writer, Nobel prize (1966)
Lisa Appignanesi, English writer
Jurek Becker, German writer
Naphtali Herz Imber, Hebrew poet
Jerzy Kosinski, American writer
Anna Langfus, French writer, Prix Goncourt (1962)
Osip Mandelstam, Russian poet
Uri Orlev, Hebrew writer, Hans Christian Andersen Award (1996)
Marcel Reich-Ranicki, German literary critic

Business figures

Henry & Helal Hassenfeld, founders of Hasbro
Izrael Poznański, textile magnate, philanthropist
Jack Tramiel, founder of Commodore

Sport figures

Chess players

David Janowski, chess player
Miguel Najdorf, chess player
Akiba Rubinstein, chess player
Samuel Reshevsky, chess player
Savielly Tartakower, chess player
Daniel Yanofsky, chess player
Johannes Zukertort, chess player

Others

Charley Goldman, boxing trainer (International Boxing Hall of Fame)
Myer Prinstein, long- and triple-jumper (4 Olympic golds)
Irena Kirszenstein Szewinska, sprinter (7 medals over 4 Olympics)
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, spies

Miscellaneous

Meyer Lansky, US gangster