List of Belarusian Jews

Presented below are lists of notable Belarusians of Jewish descent, Jewish people born on the territory of present-day Belarus or of full or partial Belarusian Jewish origin.

Scientists

 * Zhores Alferov, physicist, Nobel Prize (2000), born in Viciebsk (Jewish mother)
 * Yakov Zel'dovich, physicist
 * Lev Vygotsky, psychologist
 * Seymour Lubetzky, cataloging theorist
 * Semyon Kosberg, Soviet aircraft and rocket engineer, born in Słucak
 * Lera Boroditsky, Cognitive psychologist
 * Noam Chomsky, linguist
 * Paul Krugman, economist
 * Paul B. Sigler, biochemist, parents from Miensk

Mathematicians

 * Naum Akhiezer, mathematician, born in Čerykaŭ
 * Issai Schur, German-Israeli mathematician, born in Mahiloŭ
 * Oscar Zariski, Belarusian mathematician

United States

 * Leonard Adleman, Computer Scientist
 * David Dubinsky, US labor leader, born in Bieraście

Canada

 * David Lewis (Losz), ex-leader of the NDP

International

 * Alexander Parvus, international revolutionary, born in Bierazino

Israel

 * Shimon Peres, Israeli prime minister, Nobel Prize winner (1994)
 * Chaim Weizmann, first president of Israel, inventor of synthetic acetone, born in Motal
 * Menachem Begin, Israeli prime minister, Nobel Prize winner (1978), born in Brest
 * Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli prime minister (1984–85 1988–90), born in Ruzhany
 * Zerach Warhaftig, born in Vaukavysk
 * Berl Katznelson, One of the intellectual founders of the Labor movement in Israel
 * Kadish Luz, Israeli speaker of the Knesset, born in Bobruysk
 * Yitzhak Rabin, Israeli prime minister, Nobel Prize winner (1994)

Russian Empire and the USSR and Russia

 * Hesya Helfman, Russian revolutionary, member of Narodnaya Volya
 * Valeriya Novodvorskaya, liberal Russian politician, Soviet dissident
 * Joseph Schlossberg, labor activist
 * Iosif Bleikhman, anarchist revolutionary

Belarus

 * Viktor Sheiman, adviser to President Alexander Lukashenko, influential Belarusian politician (of partial Jewish descent)
 * Mikola Abramchyk, president of the Council of the Belarusian Democratic Republic (of partial Jewish descent)

Writers

 * Isaac Dov Berkowitz, Israeli writer
 * Źmitrok Biadula, Belarusian poet
 * Morris Raphael Cohen, philosopher
 * Leon Kobrin
 * Lazar Lagin
 * Ayn Rand, father born in Brest-Litovsk
 * David Pinski, American and Israeli writer, born in Mahiliou
 * Ryhor Reles
 * Mendele Mocher Sforim, writer
 * Carlos Sherman, Belarusian-Uruguayan writer and translator (Jewish father)
 * Immanuel Velikovsky, cosmology writer
 * Celia Dropkin, American poet (Yiddish)
 * Samuel Ornitz, American novelist and screenwriter

Journalists

 * Larry King, of Belarusian-Jewish parents
 * Eugene Lyons
 * Andrew Patner, of Belarusian-Jewish grandparents

Historians

 * Simon Dubnow, Jewish historian
 * Lazar Gulkowitsch, Jewish Studies scholar
 * Avraham Harkavi, historian
 * S. Ansky, a scholar who documented Jewish folklore and mystical beliefs, born in Chashniki

Composers and musicians

 * Modest Altschuler, cellist, orchestral conductor and composer
 * Irving Berlin, American composer
 * Arkadi Duchin, Israeli singer-songwriter and musical producer
 * Mark Fradkin, Soviet composer

Artists

 * Léon Bakst, painter and scene- and costume designer
 * Marc Chagall, painter
 * Ossip Zadkine, sculptor (Jewish father)
 * Michel Kikoine, painter
 * Naum Gabo, sculptor
 * Antoine Pevsner, sculptor
 * Pinchus Kremegne, painter
 * Chaïm Soutine, painter
 * Mark Rothko, painter
 * El Lissitzky, painter ('greater' Belarus)

Businesspeople

 * Michael Marks, co-founder of Marks and Spencers
 * Louis B. Mayer, co-founder MGM
 * Ralph Lauren, fashion designer, son of Belarusian-Jewish emigrants
 * Ida Rosenthal, founder of Maidenform Brassieres, born in Minsk
 * David Sarnoff, head of RCA
 * Ruslan Kogan
 * Gary Vaynerchuk
 * Sheryl Sandberg, technology executive, her maternal ancestors came from Vidzy
 * Jared Kushner, real estate developer, his paternal grandparents came from Navahrudak
 * Michael Bloomberg (founder of Bloomberg L.P.), whose maternal grandfather was an immigrant from what is present-day Belarus.
 * Jacob Rutstein, businessman

Rabbis

 * Naftali Zvi Yehuda Berlin, yeshiva dean of Volozhin Yeshiva
 * Eliezer Yehuda Finkel, yeshiva dean of Mir Yeshiva (Belarus)
 * Shlomo Harkavy, spiritual dean of Grodno Yeshiva
 * Yosef Yozel Horowitz, founder and dean of Novardok Yeshiva
 * Yisrael Meir Kagan, author, yeshiva dean, and spiritual leader of world-Jewry
 * Boruch Ber Leibowitz, yeshiva dean of Kaminetz Yeshiva
 * Isser Zalman Meltzer, rabbi and yeshiva in Slutsk and Jerusalem
 * Yisroel Yaakov Lubchansky, spiritual dean of Baranovich Yeshiva
 * Aaron of Pinsk, rabbi in Pinsk
 * Pesach Pruskin, rabbi and yeshiva dean in Kobrin
 * David Rappoport, yeshiva dean of Baranovich Yeshiva
 * Shimon Shkop, yeshiva dean of the Grodno Yeshiva
 * Chaim Soloveitchik, rabbi in Brest
 * Joseph Soloveitchik, rabbi and yeshiva dean in Boston and New York
 * Yitzchok Zev Soloveitchik, rabbi in Brest
 * Yosef Dov Soloveitchik (Beis Halevi), rabbi in Slutsk and Brest
 * Chaim Leib Tiktinsky, yeshiva dean of Mir Yeshiva
 * Naftoli Trop, yeshiva dean of Radin Yeshiva
 * Chaim Volozhin, yeshiva dean of Volozhin Yeshiva
 * Yitzchak Volozhin, yeshiva dean of Volozhin Yeshiva
 * Elchonon Wasserman, yeshiva dean of Baranovich Yeshiva
 * Shabsi Yogel, yeshiva dean in Slonim and Jerusalem

Hasidic rebbes

 * Chaim Chaykl Levin, rebbe of Amdur
 * Aharon Perlow (I), rebbe of Karlin
 * Aharon Perlow (II), rebbe of Karlin
 * Aharon Perlow of Koidanov, rebbe of Koidanov
 * Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, rebbe of Chabad
 * Elijah Horowitz-Winograd, scion of Nikolsburg dynasty; rabbi in Lida

Sportspeople

 * Elena Altshul, draughts player
 * Boris Gelfand, chess player
 * Yuri Foreman, boxer
 * Victor Mikhalevski, chess player
 * Anna Smashnova, tennis player
 * Alexandra Zaretsky/Roman Zaretsky, Israeli figure skaters

Military people

 * Nahum Eitingon, Soviet spy and NKVD officer
 * Tuvia Bielski and Asael Bielski, leaders of a Jewish partisan group (the Bielski partisans) in the World War II
 * Yefim Fomin, Political Commissar of 86th Regiment, 6th Rifle Division of the Red Army. Executed without delay by Nazis after being identified as a communist, Jew and commissar upon capture.
 * Grigoriy Plaskov, Soviet artillery lieutenant

Other

 * Kirk Douglas, of Belarusian Jewish parents
 * Jackie Mason, whose parents were Jewish emigrants from Smalyavichy in the Minsk Region
 * Lisa Kudrow, her ancestors emigrated from Belarus
 * Scarlett Johansson, actress and singer, maternal Jewish grandparents came from Minsk.
 * Eliezer Ben-Yehuda, Israeli linguist, father of modern Hebrew language, born in Luzhki near Viciebsk
 * Frank Gehry, an architect, his paternal grandmother came from Pinsk
 * Harrison Ford, whose maternal grandfathers were Jewish emigrants from Minsk.
 * Robert B.G. Horowitz, attorney, whose paternal grandparent were Jewish emigrants from Minsk.
 * Sacha Baron Cohen, of Belarusian Jewish grandparents