List of Ukrainian Jews

Presented below are lists of famous or notable Ukrainian people of Jewish descent and other Jews born in the territory of present-day Ukraine, before 20 century borderland region in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (later in Russian Partition and Austrian Partition).

Athletes

 * Oksana Baiul, figure skater, Olympic gold
 * Alexei Beletski, Ukrainian-born Israeli, ice dancer, Olympian
 * Oleksii Bychenko, Ukrainian-born Israeli, figure skater, 2016 European silver medallist, Olympian
 * Artem Dolgopyat, Ukrainian-born Israeli, Olympic gold (artistic gymnast - floor) for Israel
 * Olena Dvornichenko, Israel/Ukraine, rhythmic gymnastics
 * Grigoriy Gamarnik, Ukrainian-born Soviet, world wrestling champion (Greco-Roman lightweight), world championship gold and silver
 * Samuel Gerson, Ukrainian-born US, Olympic silver wrestling (freestyle featherweight)
 * Natalia Gudina, Ukrainian-born Israeli, figure skater, Olympian
 * Vadym Gutzeit (born 1971), saber fencer, Olympic champion, Youth and Sport Minister of Ukraine
 * Pavlo Ishchenko ("Wild Man"), Ukraine/Israel, bantamweight & lightweight boxer, 2x European Amateur Boxing Championships medalist, and European Games medalist
 * Moisei Kas’ianik, Ukrainian-born USSR, world weightlifting champion
 * Marina Kravchenko, Ukrainian-born Israeli, Soviet and Israel national table tennis teams
 * Lenny Krayzelburg, Ukrainian-born US swimmer, 4x Olympic champion (100 m backstroke, 200-m backstroke, twice 4x100-m medley relay); 3x world champion (100 m and 200-m backstroke, 4×100-m medley) and 2x silver (4×100-m medley, 50-m backstroke); 3 world records (50-, 100-, and 200-m backstroke)
 * Grigory Kriss (born 1940), Ukrainian Soviet Olympic épée fencer who won four Olympic medals, including a gold medal
 * Tatiana Lysenko, USSR/Ukraine gymnast, 2x Olympic champion (balance beam, team combined exercises), bronze (horse vault)
 * Valeria Maksyuta, Ukraine/Israel gymnast, multiple World Cup medalist, Israeli Olympian, Maccabiah Games champion
 * Valentyn Mankin, Soviet/Ukraine, only sailor in Olympic history to win gold medals in three different classes (yachting: finn class, tempest class, and star class), silver (yachting, tempest class)
 * Faina Melnik, Ukrainian-born USSR, 11 world records; Olympic discus throw champion
 * Andriy Oberemko, soccer/football midfielder (Mariupol & U21 national team)
 * Igor Olshansky, NFL American football defensive end
 * Zhanna Pintusevich-Block, Ukraine, sprinter, world 100-m & 200-m champion
 * Katerina Pisetsky, Israel/Ukraine, rhythmic gymnast
 * Maxim Podoprigora, Ukrainian-born Austrian swimmer
 * Ian Rubin, Ukraine/Australia, Russia national rugby league team
 * Igor Rybak, Ukrainian-born USSR, Olympic weightlifting champion (lightweight)
 * David Tyshler (1927–2014), Ukraine-born Soviet sabre fencer, Olympic bronze medalist
 * Yulen Uralov (born 1924), Ukrainian Soviet Olympic foil fencer, and USSR champion
 * Iosif Vitebskiy (born 1938), Soviet Ukrainian Olympic medalist and world champion épée fencer, and current US fencing coach
 * Alexei Zhitnik, Ukraine-born Russia, hockey defenseman (NHL)
 * Aleksandr Kolchinsky, heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler, Olympic gold.

Politicians



 * Mykhailo Dobkin, former governor of Kharkiv Oblast 2010-2014
 * Volodymyr Groysman, former Prime Minister of Ukraine (2016–2019)
 * Hennadiy Kernes, Mayor of Kharkiv 2010–2020
 * Ihor Kolomoyskyi, former Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast 2014-2015
 * Pinhas Krasny, Ukrainian minister of Jewish Affairs for the Directorate of Ukraine
 * Vadim Rabinovich, 2014 presidential candidate
 * Moisei Rafes, deputy secretary of National Affairs (Jewish Affairs) for the General Secretariat
 * Abraham Revutsky, Ukrainian minister of Jewish Affairs for the Directorate of Ukraine
 * Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine (2019–present)
 * Moishe Zilberfarb, deputy secretary of National Affairs (Jewish Affairs) for the General Secretariat
 * Alexander Zolotarev, state controller for the General Secretariat
 * Yukhym Zvyahilsky, former Prime Minister of Ukraine 1993-1994 and entrepreneur
 * Oleksandr Feldman, People's Deputy of Ukraine (2002–present)
 * Oleksii Reznikov, 17th Minister of Defence (2021-2023)

Russian/Soviet politicians

 * Karl Radek, Soviet politician
 * Grigory Sokolnikov, Bolshevik politician
 * Abram Slutsky, headed the Soviet foreign intelligence service (INO), then part of the NKVD
 * Leon Trotsky, Soviet politician, the founder of the Red Army, commissar (Soviet minister) of Foreign Affairs
 * Lazar Kaganovich, Stalinist politician and one of the organizers of the Ukrainian Holodomor and Stalinist Great Purge
 * Moisei Uritsky, Soviet politician, chekist
 * Grigory Yavlinsky, Russian politician, head of a liberal "Yabloko" party (half Jewish)
 * Grigory Zinoviev, Soviet politician

Israeli politicians

 * Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, second President of Israel (1952–63)
 * Shmuel Dayan, Zionist activist, Israeli politician
 * Levi Eshkol, Israeli Prime Minister (1963–69)
 * Ephraim Katzir, fourth President of Israel (1973–78)
 * Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister (1969–74)
 * Natan Sharansky, Israeli politician
 * Moshe Sharett, Israeli Prime Minister (1954–55)

United States politicians

 * Kirill Reznik, US Politician, Member, Maryland House of Delegates (2007–Present)

Israeli military persons

 * Yaakov Dori, first Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) (1948–1949); President of Technion.
 * Tzvi Tzur, sixth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (1961–1964)

Soldiers and Revolutionaries

 * Pavel Axelrod, Menshevik, Marxist revolutionary
 * Yakov Blumkin, Soviet spy
 * Naftali Botwin, revolutionary terrorist
 * Morris Childs (born Moishe Chilovsky), American communist and spy
 * Leo Deutsch, revolutionary
 * Raya Dunayevskaya, founder of Marxist humanism in the U.S.
 * Israel Fisanovich, World War II submarine commander and Hero of the Soviet Union
 * Grigory Goldenberg, revolutionary
 * Ze'ev Jabotinsky, founder of British Jewish Legion
 * Jacob Golos, Soviet spy
 * Olga Kameneva, Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician (sister of Leon Trotsky)
 * Walter Krivitsky (born Samuel Ginsberg), Soviet spy
 * Alexander Parvus, revolutionary, major investor and financial supporter of the October Revolution
 * Sidney Reilly (born Shlomo Rosenblum), a Ukrainian-born adventurer and Secret Intelligence Service agent
 * Pinhas Rutenberg, Zionist, Social revolutionary
 * Grigori Shtern (Grigory Stern), Red Army commander (Colonel General)
 * Naum Sorkin, Red Army military intelligence chief in the Far East (Major-General)
 * V. Volodarsky (born Moisei Goldstein), communist revolutionary
 * Mark Zborowski, Soviet spy
 * Iona Yakir, Red Army commander and one of the world's major military reformers between World War I and World War II
 * Mishka Yaponchik, gangster, leader of the Odesa Jewish Resistance group in 1917-1921

Other Historical figures

 * Michael Dorfman, Russian-Israeli essayist and human rights activist
 * Yisroel ben Eliezer (The Baal Shem Tov), Rabbi, founder of Hasidic Judaism
 * Shlomo Ganzfried, Rabbi
 * Fanny Kaplan, would-be assassin of Lenin
 * Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Hasidic Judaism
 * Isroel Shmulson, architect
 * Simon Wiesenthal, holocaust survivor from the Nazi Holocaust, Nazi hunter, writer
 * Semion Mogilevich, "boss of all bosses" of the worldwide Russian Mafia, former member of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives

Business figures

 * Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp
 * Leon Bagrit, pioneer of automation
 * Zino Davidoff
 * Bernard Delfont, impresario
 * Lew Grade, founder of ATV
 * Ihor Kolomoyskyi, a major Ukrainian business oligarch
 * Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal
 * Hryhoriy Surkis, head of public organization Football Federation of Ukraine, Ukrainian parliamentary
 * Viktor Vekselberg, billionaire, steelmaker
 * Gennadiy Korban, Ukrainian businessman, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish community of Dnipro, Patron of the Jewish community of Krivoy Rog
 * Boris Lohzkin, President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine
 * Michael Kogan, entrepreneur, founder of Taito

Natural scientists

 * Aleksander Akhiezer, physicist
 * Matvei Petrovich Bronstein
 * Mikhail Gurevich
 * Waldemar Haffkine, biologist, developed vaccine against cholera and plague
 * Boris Hessen, physicist
 * Abram Ioffe, nuclear scientist
 * Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov
 * Veniamin Levich, electrochemist
 * Boris Podolsky
 * Isaak Pomeranchuk
 * Jacob Rabinow
 * Anatol Rapoport
 * Grigory Shajn
 * Iosif Shklovsky
 * Vladimir Veksler
 * Alexander Vilenkin, cosmologist


 * Selman Waksman, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1952)

Mathematicians

 * Naum Akhiezer
 * Vladimir Arnold
 * Chudnovsky brothers
 * Vladimir Drinfeld
 * Felix Gantmacher
 * Israel Gelfand
 * Alexander Goncharov
 * Marc Kac
 * Naum Krasner
 * Mark Krasnoselsky
 * Mark Krein
 * Evgenii Landis
 * Boris Levin
 * Leonid Levin
 * Boris Levitan
 * Jacob Levitzki
 * David Milman
 * Pierre Milman
 * Vitali Milman
 * Mark Naimark
 * Moses Schönfinkel
 * Samuil Shatunovsky
 * Pavel Urysohn
 * Oscar Zariski

Social scientists

 * Solomon Buber, Hebraist
 * Ariel Durant, historian,
 * Boris Eichenbaum, historian
 * Mikhail Epstein, literary theorist
 * Moshe Feldenkrais, inventor of the Feldenkrais method
 * Alexander Gerschenkron, economic historian
 * Jean Gottmann, geographer
 * Zellig Harris
 * Jacob Marschak, economist
 * Elye Spivak

Musicians

 * Sophia Agranovich, pianist
 * Simon Barere, pianist
 * Sidor Belarsky, operatic basso and music educator
 * Felix Blumenfeld, pianist
 * Shura Cherkassky, pianist
 * Isaak Dunayevsky, composer
 * Mischa Elman, violinist
 * Anthony Fedorov, singer, American Idol finalist
 * Samuil Feinberg, composer
 * Emil Gilels, pianist
 * Maria Grinberg, pianist
 * Mordechai Hershman, cantor and singer
 * Jascha Horenstein, conductor
 * Vladimir Horowitz, pianist
 * Leonid Kogan, violinist
 * Mikhail Kopelman, violinist
 * Oleg Maisenberg, pianist
 * Samuel Maykapar, composer/pianist
 * Nathan Milstein, violinist
 * Benno Moiseiwitsch, pianist
 * David Oistrakh, violinist
 * Igor Oistrakh, violinist
 * Leo Ornstein, composer
 * Gregor Piatigorsky, cellist
 * Pokrass brothers, composers
 * Mark Reizen, operatic bass
 * Yossele Rosenblatt, cantor and composer
 * Heinrich Schenker, music theorist
 * Joseph Schillinger, composer, music theorist, and composition teacher
 * Leo Sirota, pianist
 * Isaac Stern, violinist
 * Roman Turovsky-Savchuk, lutenist-composer
 * Lyubov Uspenskaya, singer
 * DJ Vlad, DJ, producer, interviewer, journalist, and YouTuber
 * Yakov Zak, pianist

Fine artists

 * Michael Matusevitch (1929–2007), painter
 * Nathan Altman, painter and stage designer
 * Boris Aronson, painter and designer
 * Nudie Cohn, fashion designer
 * Sonia Delaunay, painter
 * Maya Deren, filmmaker
 * Boris Efimov, cartoonist
 * Naum Gabo, sculptor
 * Boris Iofan, architect
 * Ilya Kabakov, conceptualist artist
 * Yevgeny Khaldei, photographer
 * Jacob Kramer, painter
 * Morris Lapidus, architect
 * Louise Nevelson, sculptor
 * Solomon Nikritin
 * Jules Olitski, painter
 * Leonid Pasternak, painter
 * Antoine Pevsner, sculptor
 * Olga Rapay-Markish (1929–2012), ceramicist
 * Mikhail Turovsky, painter
 * Roman Turovsky, painter

Performing artists

 * Jacob Adler, actor
 * Yosl Cutler, puppeteer
 * Abraham Goldfaden (1840–1908), playwright and theatre director
 * Alexander Granach (1890–1945), actor in theater and film (Berlin & Germany, Poland, USSR, Hollywood and Broadway)
 * Aleksei Kapler, film artist
 * Mila Kunis, actress
 * Mark Donskoy, Soviet film director
 * Anatole Litvak, director
 * Alla Nazimova, actress
 * Otto Preminger, director, producer, actor
 * Ingo Preminger, producer, literary agent
 * Elena Ralph, model
 * Yakov Smirnoff, American comedian
 * Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian screenwriter, actor, comedian, and director, who was elected the President of Ukraine in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.

Writers and poets

 * Sholom Aleichem, Yiddish-language writer
 * Eli Schechtman, Yiddish writer
 * Isaac Babel, writer
 * Eduard Bagritsky, poet
 * Hayyim Nahman Bialik, poet
 * Yosef Haim Brenner, Hebrew-language writer
 * Sasha Cherny, poet
 * Michael Dorfman, journalist and essayist
 * Moysey Fishbein, poet
 * Ilya Ehrenburg, writer
 * Alexander Galich, playwright poet
 * Asher Hirsch Ginsberg (Ahad Ha'Am), Hebrew-language writer
 * Lydia Ginzburg, writer
 * Jacob Gordin, American playwright
 * Erol Güney, journalist and translator
 * Vasily Grossman, writer
 * Ilya Ilf, writer
 * Vera Inber, poet
 * Alejandro Jodorowsky, Spanish-language writer and filmmaker
 * A.M. Klein, poet
 * Pavel Kogan, poet
 * Lev Kopelev, author and dissident
 * Clarice Lispector, writer from Brazil
 * Benedikt Livshits, writer
 * Nadezhda Mandelstam, writer
 * Yunna Morits, poet
 * Anatoli Rybakov, writer
 * Boris Slutsky, war-time poet
 * Shaul Tchernichovsky, poet and translator

Chess players

 * Alexander Beliavsky
 * Ossip Bernstein
 * Isaac Boleslavsky
 * David Bronstein, World Championship challenger
 * Iossif Dorfman
 * Louis Eisenberg
 * Alexander Evensohn
 * Efim Geller
 * Eduard Gufeld
 * Ilya Gurevich
 * Mikhail Gurevich
 * Nicolai Jasnogrodsky
 * Gregory Kaidanov
 * Alexander Konstantinopolsky
 * Konstantin Lerner
 * Moishe Lowtzky
 * Vladimir Malaniuk
 * Sam Palatnik
 * Ernest Pogosyants
 * Iosif Pogrebyssky
 * Leonid Stein
 * Mark Taimanov
 * Boris Verlinsky
 * Yakov Vilner