List of Polish Jews

Template:Jew list Template:JewsByCountry

List of Polish Jews:

From the Middle Ages until the Holocaust, Jews were a significant part of the Polish population. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, known for its religious tolerance as a "Jewish paradise", attracted numerous Jews who fled persecution from other European countries, even though, at times, discrimination against Jews surfaced like it did elsewhere in Europe. Poland was a major spiritual and cultural center for Ashkenazi Jewry, and Polish Jews contributed strongly to Polish cultural, economic and political life. By the Second World War Poland had the largest Jewish population in the world, the vast majority of whom were killed by the Nazis in the Holocaust during German ocupation of Poland. The current Polish Jewish population is approximately 8,000.

The following is a list of people with Polish-Jewish heritage. Note that the list includes people of Jewish faith, Ashkenazi culture and/or Jewish ancestry.

Historical figures

Politicians

Menachem Begin (1913-1992), Israeli prime minister
David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), Israeli prime minister
Jakub Berman (1901-1984), Secretary of PUWP (Polish United Workers' Party)
Marek Borowski (b. 1946), former Speaker of the Sejm
Jerzy Einhorn (1925-2000), politician
Hilary Minc (1905-1974), economist
Shimon Peres (b. 1923), Israeli prime minister, Nobel prize laureate (1994)
Adam Rotfeld (b. 1938), former Polish foreign minister (2004)
Yitzhak Shamir (b. 1915), Israeli prime minister
Saul Wahl (1541-1617), according to tradition, temporary King of Poland in 1586
Szmul Zygielbojm (1895-1943), Polish Jewish leader
Jerzy Urban (b. 1933), journalist, commentator, writer and politician

Soldiers and fighters

Mordechaj Anielewicz (1919-1943), leader of Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), Jewish Legion
Marek Edelman (b. 1922), last living leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
Berek Joselewicz (1764-1809), colonel during Kościuszko Uprising and Napoleonic wars
Izydor Modelski (1889–1962), General of the Polish Army and deputy minister of war affairs
Mieczysław Norwid-Neugebauer (1884–1954), General of the Polish Army
Hyman Rickover (1900-1986), US Navy Admiral
Krystyna Skarbek (1915-1952), WW2 spy (Jewish mother)
Sir John Monash (1865-1931), Australian military commander (father from Krotoszyn)

Activists

Joseph Rotblat (b. 1908), founder of Pugwash, Nobel Prize (1995)
Raphael Lemkin (1900-1959), human rights lawyer
Rosa Luxembourg (1870-1919), Marxist
Henry Morgentaler (b. 1923), abortion activist
Ludwik Rajchman (1881-1965), founder of UNICEF
Ernestine Rose (1810-1892), feminist
Kazimiera Szczuka (b. 1966), feminist (Jewish mother, polish father)

Religious figures

Israel ben Eliezer (the Baal Shem Tov) (ca 1700-1760), Hasiddic rabbi
Jacob Frank (1726-1791), messiah claimant
Kalonymus Haberkasten
Arthur Hertzberg, (b. 1921) rabbi
Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907-1972), theologian
Zevi Hirsch Kalischer (1795-1874), rabbi & zionism pioneer
Elimelech of Leżajsk (1717-1786), Hasiddic rabbi
Solomon Luria
Dovber of Mezeritch (d. 1772), Hasiddic rabbi
Samuel Judah Löb Rapoport, Orthodox rabbi, scholar

Academics

Math & Computer scientists

Herman Auerbach, mathematician (Jewish father)
Paul Baran, engineer: packet switching
Salomon Bochner, mathematician
Jacob Bronowski, scientist & broadcaster, works: algebraic geometry
Samuel Eilenberg, mathematician: category theory
Salo Finkelstein, mental calculator
Witold Hurewicz, mathematician (Jewish father)
Mark Kac, mathematician
Abraham Lempel, computer scientist: LZW compression
Adolf Lindenbaum, logician
Benoit Mandelbrot, mathematician: fractals
Szolem Mandelbrojt, mathematician
Emil Leon Post, mathematician
Mojzesz Presburger, logician
Stanislaw Saks, mathematician
Juliusz Schauder, mathematician
Hugo Steinhaus, mathematician
Stanislaw Ulam, mathematician (unconfirmed; Jewish grandparent)

Natural scientists

Georges Charpak, physicist, Nobel prize (1992) (Jewish father)
Kasimir Fajans, physicist
Roald Hoffmann, chemist and writer, Nobel prize (1981)
Leopold Infeld, physicist
Jakub Natanson, chemist
Tadeus Reichstein, chemist, Nobel prize (1950)
Albert Sabin, inventor of the oral Polio vaccine
Andrew V. Schally, endocrinologist, Nobel prize (1977) (Jewish father)
Andrzej Trautman, physicist

Social academics

Solomon Asch, Gestalt psychologist
Szymon Aszkenazy, historian
Salo Wittmayer Baron, Jewish historian
Zygmunt Bauman, sociologist
Ivan Bloch, military writer
Isaac Deutscher, historian
Henryk Grossman, economist
Joseph Jastrow, psychologist (Jewish father)
Henryk Lipszyc, specialist in Japanese culture, translator, embassador of Poland in Tokyo
Lewis Namier, historian
Paul Radin, anthropologist
Manfred Sakel, neurophysiologist & psychiatrist
Milton Rokeach, psychologist
Michel Thomas, language teacher
Avraham Stern, famous Zionist
Ludwik Zamenhof, eye doctor and inventor of Esperanto

Cultural figures

Artists

Mordecai Ardon, artist
Balthus, painter (Jewish mother)
Chim, photographer
Maurycy Gottlieb, painter
Tamara de Lempicka, painter (Jewish mother)
Moise Kisling, painter
Joe Kubert, comic book artist
Daniel Libeskind, architect
Louis Marcoussis, painter
Elie Nadelman, sculptor
Erna Rosenstein, painter, poetess
Helena Rubinstein, fashion designer
Arthur Szyk, political cartoonist
Max Weber, painter
Esther Wertheimer, sculptor
Samuel Yellin, sculptor

Musicians

Emanuel Ax, pianist
Leonard & Phil Chess, founders of Chess Records
René Leibowitz, composer
Ignaz Friedman, pianist
Szymon Goldberg, violinist/conductor
Ida Haendel, violinist
Bronislaw Huberman, violinist
Wanda Landowska, harpsichordist (Jewish mother)
Geddy Lee, vocalist in Rush (Polish parents)
Jerzy Peterburski (of Jewish ancestry)
Moriz Rosenthal, pianist
Arthur Rubinstein, pianist
Artur Schnabel, pianist
Władysław Szpilman pianist, author of The Pianist memoir
Alexandre Tansman, composer, pianist
Carl Tausig, composer, pianist
Ignaz Tiegerman, pianist (Jewish father)
Ignatz Waghalter, composer
Mieczyslaw Weinberg, composer

Screen and stage

Artur Brauner, film producer
Aleksander Ford, director
Samuel Goldwyn, film producer
Joseph Green (Yoysef Grinberg), Yiddish actor
Anna Held, stage actress
Aleksander Hertz, film pioneer and director
Agnieszka Holland, film director, screenwriter (Jewish father)
Moses Horowitz, Yiddish playwright
Wanda Jakubowska, director
Andrzej Munk, director (partial Jewish ancestry)
Roman Polański, film director (Jewish father and Jewish maternal grandparent)
Lew Rywin, film producer
Harry, Sam & Albert Warner, film producers

Writers and poets

Polish-language

Kazimierz Brandys, writer
Jan Brzechwa, poet
Konstanty Gebert, writer, activist (Jewish mother)
Henryk Grynberg, writer
Mieczysław Jastrun, poet
Janusz Korczak, pediatrician, children's writer, pedagogist
Jerzy Kosinski American writer
Hanna Krall, author
Stanisław Lem, writer
Bolesław Leśmian, poet
Artur Sandauer, writer, literature critic, and publicist
Bruno Schulz, prose writer
Arnold Słucki, poet
Julian Stryjkowski, novelist
Julian Tuwim, poet, song lyrics
Bronisław Wildstein, journalist

Yiddish-language

Sholem Asch, writer
Morris Rosenfeld, proretariat writer
I. L. Peretz, writer
Isaac Bashevis Singer, writer, Nobel prize (1978)
Israel Joshua Singer, novelist

Other writers

Shmuel Yosef Agnon, Hebrew writer, Nobel prize (1966)
Lisa Appignanesi, English writer
Yoram Bronowski, Israeli literary critic
Naphtali Herz Imber, Hebrew poet
Osip Mandelstam, Russian poet
Uri Orlev, Hebrew writer, Hans Christian Andersen Award (1996)