List of Asian Jews

Jews have been present in western Asia since the beginning of their history. Some examples of ancient Jewish communities in the Mediterranean and Caucasus are: Iran (Persian Jews) and Iraq (Iraqi Jews); the Georgian Jews and Mountain Jews of the Caucasus.

Through the centuries, they also established Jewish communities in eastern parts of Asia. There are Bukharan Jews of Central Asia. Some Jews migrated to India, establishing the Bene Israel, the Baghdadi Jews and the Cochin Jews of India (Jews in India); and the former Jewish community in Kaifeng, China.

Here is a partial list of some prominent Asian Jews, arranged by country. Note that those regions of Asia where Arabic or Russian or Turkish predominate are excluded from this list (except for the Baghdadi Jews from India and Southeast Asia); see Middle Eastern Jews, Ashkenazi Jews and Sephardi Jews for information on these populations.

Armenia

 * Levon Aronian, Armenian chess player (part Jewish)

Azerbaijan

 * Misha Black, designer; brother of Max Black
 * Bella Davidovich, pianist
 * Gavril Abramovich Ilizarov, Soviet physician, known for inventing the Ilizarov apparatus
 * Lev Landau, physicist, Nobel Prize (1962). Russian-speaking Ashkenazi.
 * Lev Nussimbaum, writer (a.k.a. Kurban Said)
 * Vladimir Rokhlin, mathematician. Russian-speaking Ashkenazi.

Afghanistan
A small community of Jews lived mainly in Herat, Afghanistan and Kabul, but they emigrated to Israel, Europe and the United States. In September 2021, the last remaining Jew in Afghanistan, Zablon Simintov, fled Afghanistan's capital Kabul in response to the Taliban takeover several weeks prior.

China

 * Morris Cohen, bodyguard of Sun Yat-Sen
 * Misha Dichter, pianist (China-born)
 * Israel Epstein, journalist, author
 * Edmond Fischer, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1992)
 * Jakob Rosenfeld, doctor and general in the People's Liberation Army
 * Sidney Shapiro, member of the People's Political Consultative Council
 * Zhao Yingcheng, (Hebrew: Moshe ben Abram), Ming dynasty mandarin

Georgia

 * David Baazov, Zionist activist and rabbi
 * Ioseb Bardanashvili, composer
 * Roman Dzindzichashvili, American chess player
 * Yasha Manasherov, Israeli Greco-Roman wrestler
 * Mikhael Mirilashvili, businessman and philanthropist
 * Tamir Sapir, businessman and investor
 * Gocha Tsitsiashvili, Israeli Greco-Roman wrestler

Hong Kong

 * Ellis, Elly, Lawrence, and Michael Kadoorie, businesspeople
 * Matthew Nathan, Hong Kong governor (1904)
 * Victor Sassoon, businessman and hotelier

India

 * Sarah Avraham, Indian-born Israeli, 2014 women's world Thai kickboxing champion
 * Joseph Rabban, given copper plates of special grants from the Chera ruler Bhaskara Ravivarman II from Kerala in South India
 * David Abraham Cheulkar, actor
 * Nissim Ezekiel, poet
 * J F R Jacob, former Governor of Punjab and Goa; the Chief of Staff of the Indian Army's Eastern Command
 * Gerry Judah, artist and designer
 * Anish Kapoor, sculptor (Baghdadi Jewish mother, Indian father)
 * Samson Kehimkar, musician
 * Ezekiel Isaac Malekar, Bene Israel Rabbi
 * Pearl Padamsee, theatre personality (part Jewish)
 * David and Simon Reuben, businessmen
 * Nadira, actress of the 1950s and 1960s.
 * David Sassoon, businessman
 * Albert Abdullah David Sassoon (1818 – 24 October 1896), British-Indian merchant
 * Sassoon David Sassoon (August 1832 – 23 June 1867), Indian-born British businessman and philanthropist
 * Solomon Sopher, Jewish community leader
 * Eli Ben-Menachem, Indian-born Israeli politician
 * Ellis Kadoorie and Elly Kadoorie, philanthropists
 * Horace Kadoorie, philanthropist
 * Ruby Myers, Bollywood actress of the 1920s, otherwise known as Sulochana
 * Lalchanhima Sailo, rabbi
 * Abraham Barak Salem, Cochin Jew Indian nationalist leader
 * Bensiyon Songavkar, professional cricketer

Iran/Persia

 * Sa'ad al-Dawla, (c. 1240 – March 5, 1291), Physician and statesman
 * David Alliance, British businessman
 * Mashallah ibn Athari, eighth-century astrologer, astronomer, and mathematician
 * Moses ben Hanoch, rabbi
 * Yossi Banai, performer
 * Soleyman Binafard, wrestler
 * Sahl ibn Bishr, nine-century astrologer, astronomer, and mathematician
 * Jimmy Delshad, Californian politician
 * Roya Hakakian, writer
 * Moshe Katsav, Israeli president
 * Rita Kleinstein, Israeli singer/actress, known popularly as "Rita"
 * Janet Kohan-Sedq, track and field athlete
 * Masarjawaih, physician and translator
 * Mashallah ibn Athari, astrologer and astronomer
 * Shaul Mofaz, Israeli Minister of Transportation
 * Bahar Soomekh, American actress
 * Soleiman Haim, among first compilers of Persian dictionary

Japan

 * Alfred Birnbaum
 * Dan Calichman
 * Julie Dreyfus
 * Rachel Elior
 * Ofer Feldman, University professor
 * Péter Frankl, Hungarian mathematician
 * Shaul Eisenberg, businessman
 * Martin "Marty" Adam Friedman, rock guitarist
 * Ayako Fujitani, writer and actress, convert
 * Szymon Goldberg
 * David G. Goodman, Japanologist
 * Karl Taro Greenfeld, journalist and author
 * Manfred Gurlitt
 * Jack Halpern, Israeli linguist, Kanji-scholar
 * Shifra Horn
 * Hoshitango Imachi, né Imachi Marcelo Salomon
 * Chaim Janowski
 * Max Janowski
 * Charles Louis Kades
 * Rena "Rusty" Kanokogi, née Glickman
 * Abraham Kaufman
 * Michael Kogan, founder of Taito
 * Fumiko Kometani, author and artist, convert
 * Setsuzo (Avraham) Kotsuji, Hebrew professor, convert
 * Leonid Kreutzer, pianist
 * Yaacov Liberman
 * Henryk Lipszyc
 * Leza Lowitz, American Japanologist
 * Alan Merrill
 * Sulamith Messerer
 * Emmanuel Metter
 * Albert Mosse
 * John Nathan
 * Emil Orlík
 * Klaus Pringsheim Sr.
 * Roger Pulvers
 * Ludwig Riess
 * Joseph Rosenstock, conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra
 * Jay Rubin
 * Arie Selinger
 * Ben-Ami Shillony, Israeli Japanologist
 * Kurt Singer
 * Beate Sirota Gordon, former Performing Arts Director of Japan Society and Asia Society
 * Leo Sirota
 * Zerach Warhaftig


 * Refugees, short expatriates
 * Moshe Atzmon
 * George W. F. Hallgarten
 * Albert Kahn (banker)
 * Mirra Alfassa
 * Emil Lederer
 * Karl Löwith
 * Norman Mailer
 * Leo Melamed
 * Franz Oppenheimer
 * Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky (Christian)
 * Hayyim Selig Slonimski


 * Other related people to Judaism and Jews in Japan
 * Hana Brady, and George Brady
 * Jeremy Glick
 * Lili Kraus
 * Samuel Ullman

Ambassadors

 * Eli Cohen

Kyrgyzstan

 * Alexander Mashkevich, businessman (Kyrgyz-born)

Singapore

 * David Marshall, first Chief Minister of Singapore, founder and first chairman of the main opposition party the Workers' Party of Singapore

Sri Lanka

 * Sidney Abrahams, Chief Justice
 * Hedi Keuneman, political activist
 * Anne Ranasinghe, poet
 * Leonard Woolf, British administrative officer and author, later married author Virginia

Tajikistan

 * Rena Galibova, actress, "People's Artist of Tajikistan"
 * Meirkhaim Gavrielov, journalist and political opposition leader
 * Malika Kalantarova, dancer, "People's Artist of Soviet Union"
 * Fatima Kuinova, singer, "Merited Artist of the Soviet Union"
 * Shoista Mullodzhanova, shashmakon singer, "People's Artist of Tajikistan" (viewed as the Queen of Tajik music)
 * Moses Znaimer, TV producer
 * Rus Yusupov, designer and tech entrepreneur.

Uzbekistan

 * Ari Babakhanov, musician
 * Yefim Bronfman, pianist
 * Lev Leviev, diamond tycoon
 * Ilyas Malayev, musician and poet
 * Shlomo Moussaieff (businessman), Israeli businessman
 * Shlomo Moussaieff (rabbi), co-founder of the Bukharian Quarter in Jerusalem
 * Gavriel Mullokandov, shashmakom artist, "People's Artist of Uzbekistan"
 * Suleiman Yudakov, composer and musician, "People's Artist of the Soviet Union"