List of North European Jews

Before the Holocaust, Jews were a significant part of the population in Lithuania where they numbered around 240,000, including approximately 100,000 in Vilnius, or about 45% of that city's pre-World War II population (Vilnius was also once known as the "Jerusalem of Lithuania"). A large Jewish community also existed in Latvia. In comparison, Estonia and the Nordic countries have had much smaller communities, concentrated mostly in Denmark and Sweden. The following is a list of prominent North European Jews, arranged by country of origin:

Denmark

 * Mogens Ballin, painter
 * Victor Bendix, composer, conductor and pianist
 * Susanne Bier, film director
 * Kim Bodnia, actor
 * Harald Bohr, mathematician and footballer (Jewish mother)
 * Niels Bohr, physicist, Nobel Prize (1922) (Jewish mother)
 * Victor Borge, entertainer
 * Edvard Brandes, politician, critic and author, minister of finance from 1909 to 1910
 * Ernst Brandes, economist and editor
 * Georg Brandes, author and critic, father of Danish naturalism
 * Marcus Choleva, chief executive officer of KFI
 * Dagmar Cohn, illustrator
 * Esther Gehlin, painter
 * Meïr Aron Goldschmidt, author and editor
 * Heinrich Hirschsprung, industrialist, art patron (Den Hirschsprungske Samling)
 * Arne Jacobsen, architect and designer (Jewish mother)
 * Abraham Kurland, Olympic wrestling medalist
 * Arne Melchior, politician and former Transport Minister and Minister for Communication and Tourism
 * Marcus Melchior, chief rabbi of Denmark, father of Arne Melchior
 * Michael Melchior, rabbi and Israeli politician
 * Ivan Osiier, seven-time Olympic fencer
 * Lee Oskar, harmonica player, member of War
 * Herbert Pundik, journalist
 * Raquel Rastenni, jazz and popular singer
 * Edgar Rubin, Gestalt psychologist
 * Dan Zahavi, philosopher
 * Nikolaj Znaider, violinist, conductor

Estonia

 * Jüri Alperten (1957–2020), conductor, pianist and music teacher
 * Eino Baskin (1929–2015), actor and theatre director
 * Avi Benjamin (born 1959), composer
 * Ben Berlin (1896–1944), jazz musician
 * Maria Dangell (born 1974), singer and pianist
 * Aaron Feinstein, chess player
 * Moses Wolf Goldberg (1905–1964), chemist
 * Heinrich Gutkin (1879–1941), businessman and politician
 * Idel Jakobson (1904–1997), NKVD investigator
 * Louis Kahn (1901–1974), architect
 * Anna Klas (1912–1999), pianist
 * Eri Klas (1939–2016), conductor
 * Mihhail Lotman (born 1952), philologist and politician
 * Juri Lotman (1922–1993), semiotician
 * Zara Mints (1927–1990), literary scientist
 * Vladimir Padwa (1900–1981), pianist and composer
 * Ita Saks (1921–2003), translator and publicist
 * Hagi Šein (born 1945), journalist, film director, screenwriter and professor
 * Benno Schotz (1891–1984), sculptor
 * Samuel H. Shapiro (1907–1987), politician
 * Emmanuel Steinschneider (1886–1970), physician
 * Leonid Stolovich (1929–2013), philosopher
 * David Vseviov (born 1949), historian

Finland

 * Mathilda Berwald, singer
 * Max Dimont, historian and author
 * Ida Ekman, soprano singer
 * Abba Gindin, Finnish-born Israeli football player
 * Rosalia Gurovich, barber
 * Kim Hirschovits, ice hockey player
 * Ruben Jaari, businessman
 * Max Jakobson, diplomat
 * Wolf Karni, football referee
 * Daniel Katz, writer
 * Elias Katz, athlete, Olympic medalist
 * Salomon Klass (1907–1985), Finnish Army captain
 * Roni Porokara, football player
 * Boris Rotenberg, football player
 * Marion Rung, pop singer
 * Elis Sella, actor
 * Seela Sella, actress
 * Mauritz Stiller, director
 * Uniikki, rapper
 * Sam Vanni, painter
 * Poju Zabludowicz, business magnate
 * Ben Zyskowicz, conservative leader

Iceland

 * Vladimir Ashkenazy, pianist
 * Bobby Fischer, chess player (Jewish mother, but did not self-identify as a Jew; American expatriate, Icelandic)
 * Dorrit Moussaieff, First Lady of Iceland
 * Sruli Recht, award-winning designer

Latvia

 * Elya Baskin, actor
 * Isaiah Berlin, historian of ideas
 * Lipman Bers, mathematician and activist
 * David Bezmozgis, author
 * Boris Brutskus
 * Sergei Eisenstein, film director
 * Movsas Feigins, chess player
 * Morris Halle, linguist
 * Philippe Halsman, photographer
 * Joseph Hirshhorn, financier and philanthropist
 * Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish musicologist
 * Hermann Jadlowker, musician (born at Riga)
 * Mariss Jansons, conductor (Jewish mother)
 * Gil Kane, comic book illustrator
 * Alexander Koblencs, chess player
 * Abraham Isaac Kook, rabbi
 * Gidon Kremer, violinist; father was a Jewish Holocaust survivor
 * Nechama Leibowitz
 * Yeshayahu Leibowitz
 * Hermanis Matisons, chess player
 * Mischa Maisky, cellist
 * Solomon Mikhoels, actor
 * Aron Nimzowitsch, chess player
 * Arkady Raikin, performing artist
 * Yosef Rosen, der Rogatchover Gaon
 * Mark Rothko, painter
 * Judith Shklar, political philosopher
 * Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, rabbi
 * Mikhail Tal, world chess champion
 * Max Weinreich, linguist

Lithuania

 * Semyon Alapin (1856–1923), chess player
 * Mark Antokolsky (1840–1902), sculptor to Tzar Alexander II of Russia
 * Moshe Arens (1925–2019), former Minister of Defence and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel
 * Aaron Barak (born 1936), President of the Supreme Court of Israel
 * Zerach Barnett (1843–1935), one of founders of Mea Shearim (Jerusalem), Petach Tikva and Neve Shalom, Israel
 * Saul Bellow (1915–2005), writer and laureate of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1976)
 * Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858–1922), reviver of Hebrew
 * Bernard Berenson (1865–1959), art critic
 * Izis Bidermanas (1911–1980), photographer
 * Reuben Asher Braudes (1851–1902), Hebrew-language novelist and journalist
 * Victor David Brenner (1871–1924), designer of the US penny
 * Eli Broad (1933–2021), American philanthropist and investor; founder of KB Home
 * Sir Montague Burton, British retailer
 * Abraham Cahan (1860–1951), writer and activist
 * Leonard Cohen (1934–2016), musician, poet
 * David Cronenberg (born 1943), film director
 * Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (1892–1953), rabbi, Talmudic scholar
 * Simeon Dimanstein (1886–1938), Soviet Commissar of Nationalities
 * Bob Dylan (born 1941), singer-songwriter, artist, writer
 * Ilya Ehrenburg (1891–1967), one of the most prolific and well-known writers during the Soviet Union
 * Nosson Tzvi Finkel, Orthodox Judaism leader
 * Vyacheslav Ganelin (born 1944), jazz musician
 * Sara Ginaite (1924–2018), former resistance fighter, now Canadian academic
 * Romain Gary, novelist, the Prix Goncourt (twice)
 * Morris Ginsberg, sociologist
 * Louis Ginzberg, scholar of the Talmud
 * Philip Glass, music composer
 * Leah Goldberg, poet
 * Emma Goldman, political activist
 * Nahum Goldmann, world Jewish leader
 * Chaim Grade, writer
 * Iosif Grigulevich, secret agent, historian
 * Zvi Griliches, economist
 * Shira Gorshman, Zionist pioneer, writer
 * Aryeh Leib ben Asher Gunzberg, rabbi
 * Bernard Lown, scientist, Nobel prize winner
 * Aron Gurwitsch, philosopher
 * Laurence Harvey, actor
 * Jascha Heifetz (1901–1987), widely regarded as the greatest violinist of the 20th century
 * Sidney Hillman, political activist
 * Shemp Howard (1895–1955), comedian and actor
 * Moe Howard (1897–1975), comedian and actor
 * Curly Howard (1903–1952), comedian and actor
 * Jay M. Ipson, founder of the Virginia Holocaust Museum
 * Leo Jogiches, revolutionary
 * Al Jolson, singer, comedian, and actor
 * Berek Joselewicz, colonel of the Polish Army
 * Joseph Kagan, Baron Kagan, clothes manufacturer
 * Yisrael Meir Kagan, rabbi
 * Daniel Kahneman, psychologist, Nobel Prize (2002) (Lithuanian parents)
 * Mordechai Kaplan, founder of Reconstructionist Judaism
 * Shlomo Kleit, political activist
 * Aaron Klug, chemist, Nobel Prize (1982)
 * Gurwin Kopel (1923–1990), artist
 * Lazare Kopelmanas, international law scholar
 * Abba Kovner, poet, writer
 * Abraham Dob Bär Lebensohn, writer
 * Micah Joseph Lebensohn, writer
 * Phoebus Levene, biochemist
 * Emmanuel Levinas, philosopher
 * Isaac Levitan, artist
 * Bernard Lewis, historian
 * Morris Lichtenstein, rabbi, founder of the Jewish Science
 * Jacques Lipchitz, cubist sculptor
 * Jay Lovestone, politician
 * Alexander Ziskind Maimon, author and scholar of the Talmud
 * Osip Mandelstam, poet librettist
 * Abraham Mapu, novelist
 * Isser Zalman Meltzer, rabbi
 * Harvey Milk, gay politician in the U.S.
 * Hermann Minkowski, mathematician
 * Oskar Minkowski, physiologist
 * Benjamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel
 * Mitchell Parish (1900–1993), Lithuanian-born American lyricist
 * Abram Rabinovich, chess player
 * Bar Refaeli, Israeli supermodel, television host, actress, and businesswoman
 * Willy Ronis, artist
 * Eduardas Rozentalis, chess player
 * Yisroel Salanter, rabbi, famed Talmudist
 * Meyer Schapiro, art historian
 * Alexander Schneider, violinist and conductor
 * Lasar Segall, painter, engraver and sculptor
 * Benjamin Schlesinger, American labor leader, former President of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union
 * Ben Shahn, artist
 * Esther Shalev-Gerz, artist
 * Karl Shapiro, poet (Lithuanian parents)
 * Sam, Lee and Jacob Shubert, theatre managers, producers (cf. Shubert Brothers)
 * Joe Slovo, ANC activist
 * Elijah ben Solomon, rabbi, The Gaon of Vilna
 * Maximilian Steinberg, composer
 * David Suchet, English actor
 * Helen Suzman, anti-apartheid MP (Lithuanian parents)
 * Isakas Vistaneckis, chess player
 * Louis Washkansky, recipient of the world's first human heart transplant
 * Uriel Weinreich, linguist
 * David Wolfsohn, second President of World Zionist Organization
 * Bluma Zeigarnik, psychologist and psychiatrist
 * Emanuelis Zingeris, politician
 * William Zorach, painter, sculptor and writer
 * Louis Zukofsky, poet (Lithuanian parents)
 * Benjamin Zuskin, actor

Norway

 * Bjørn Benkow, journalist, known for faking interviews
 * Jo Benkow, President of the Parliament of Norway
 * Carl Paul Caspari, professor in theology (Lutheranism)
 * Leo Eitinger (born in Slovakia), professor of psychiatry at University of Oslo and Holocaust survivor, known mainly for his work on late-onset psychological trauma amongst Holocaust survivors
 * Victor Goldschmidt, professor in mineralogy
 * Salo Grenning, pen name Pedro, editorial cartoonists in Verdens Gang
 * Berthold Grünfeld, specialist in psychiatry, and professor in social medicine until 1993
 * Imre Hercz, physician and public debater
 * Bente Kahan, Yiddish singer and actress
 * Hermann Kahan, Holocaust survivor, activist
 * Morten Levin, professor of organization and work science
 * Robert Levin, pianist
 * Oskar Mendelsohn, historian, known for his two-volume history of Norwegian Jews
 * Charles Philipson, Supreme Court Justice Judge, Chairman of the Petroleum Law Committee, deputy chairman of the Petroleum Council and chairman of the Riksel Committee
 * Moritz Rabinowitz, merchant, active in public debate against antisemitism and Nazism before World War II
 * Øystein Wingaard Wolf, poet and author

Sweden

 * Olof Aschberg, businessman and banker
 * Robert Aschberg, journalist, media executive, TV personality
 * Amalia Assur, first female dentist in Sweden
 * Lovisa Augusti, opera singer
 * Jean-Pierre Barda, musician
 * Mathilda Berwald, née Cohn, musician
 * Sharon Bezaly, flute soloist
 * Jerzy Einhorn, pathologist and politician
 * Herbert Felix, entrepreneur
 * Josef Frank, architect and designer
 * Isaac Grünewald, artist
 * Lars Gustafsson, writer and scholar
 * Johan Harmenberg, épée fencer, Olympic fencing medalist
 * Eli Heckscher, economist
 * Aaron Isaac, businessman from Swedish Pomerania, pioneer in the history of Sweden's Jewish population
 * Erland Josephson, actor and writer
 * Ernst Josephson, painter
 * Ragnar Josephson, writer and art historian
 * Anne Kalmering, singer
 * Mirjam Katzin, academic
 * Joel Kinnaman, actor
 * George Klein, pathologist and writer
 * Oskar Klein, physicist
 * Oscar Levertin, poet and literary historian
 * Jacob Marcus, businessman, pioneer in the history of Sweden's Jewish population
 * Rudolf Meidner, economist
 * Hanna Pauli, painter
 * Dominika Peczynski, musician
 * Alexandra Rapaport, actress
 * Marcel Riesz, mathematician
 * Göran Rosenberg, journalist
 * Bo Rothstein, political scientist
 * Nelly Sachs, poet, Nobel Prize (1966)
 * Jerzy Sarnecki, criminologist
 * Harry Schein, writer and culture personality
 * Leif Silbersky, lawyer and author
 * Sara Sommerfeld, actress
 * Ute Steyer, Sweden's first female rabbi
 * Mauritz Stiller, director
 * Marcus Storch, industrialist
 * Anna Warburg (1881–1967), educator
 * Peter Weiss, dramatist and writer
 * Peter Weiss, dramatist and writer