List of Jewish Nobel laureates



Of the 965 individual recipients of the Nobel Prize and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences between 1901 and 2023, at least 214 have been Jews or people with at least one Jewish parent, representing 22% of all recipients. Jews comprise only 0.2% of the world's population, meaning their share of winners is 110 times their proportion of the world's population. *
 * "Jews rank high among winners of Nobel, but why not Israelis", J. The Jewish News of Northern California, October 25, 2002. "There are three central theories given for Jewish academic achievement, according to Shulamit Volkov, professor of history at Tel Aviv University and author of "The Magic Circle: Germans, Jews and Anti-Semites." The first theory says that Jews are cleverer than others, a theory dismissed by Volkov and other serious academics. The second theory, proposed first by an American sociologist in 1919, holds that because Jews were on the margins of society they were forced to excel. The third and more common explanation, says Volkov, states that generations of Jewish Orthodox learning later translated brilliantly into secular learning."
 * Noah Efron, "The Real Reason Why Jews Win So Many Nobel Prizes", Haaretz, October 21, 2013.
 * Mark Mietkiewicz, "Nobel Prize and the Jews", Canadian Jewish News, December 10, 2018.
 * Raphael Patai, The Jewish Mind, Wayne State University Press, 1996, pp. 339-371, 547-548.
 * Mark Mietkiewicz, "Nobel Prize and the Jews", Canadian Jewish News, December 10, 2018.
 * Raphael Patai, The Jewish Mind, Wayne State University Press, 1996, pp. 339-371, 547-548.

Jews have been awarded all six of the Nobel Foundation's awards:
 * Chemistry: 36 (19% of total)
 * Economics: 38 (41% of total)
 * Literature: 16 (13% of total)
 * Peace: 9 (8% of total)
 * Physics: 56 (25% of total)
 * Physiology or Medicine: 59 (26% of total)

Adolf von Baeyer, recipient of the 1905 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, was Jewish on his mother's side and is considered the first Jewish awardee.

Jewish laureates Elie Wiesel and Imre Kertész survived the extermination camps during the Holocaust. François Englert survived by being hidden in orphanages and children's homes. Others, such as Hans Bethe, Walter Kohn, Otto Stern, Albert Einstein, Hans Krebs and Martin Karplus fled Nazi Germany to avoid persecution. Still others, including Rita Levi-Montalcini, Herbert Hauptman, Robert Furchgott, Arthur Kornberg, and Jerome Karle, experienced significant antisemitism in their careers.

Arthur Ashkin, a 96-year-old American Jew, was, at the time of his award, the oldest person to receive a Nobel Prize.

Jewish laureates per country
Below is a chart of all Jewish Nobel laureates per country (updated to 2022 laureates). Some laureates are counted more than once if have multiple citizenship.

Nobel Laureates Boulevard


The Israeli city of Rishon LeZion has an avenue dedicated to honoring all Jewish Nobel laureates. The street, called Tayelet Hatanei Pras Nobel (Nobel Laureates Boulevard/Promenade), has a monument with attached plaque for each Nobel laureate. The scientific adviser of the project was Prof. Israel Hanukoglu.