List of West European Jews

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Apart from France, established Jewish populations exist in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. With the original medieval populations wiped out by the Black Death and the pogroms that followed it, the current Dutch and Belgian communities originate in the Jewish expulsion from Spain and Portugal, while a Swiss community was only established after emancipation in 1874. However, the vast majority of the population in the Netherlands and a large proportion of the one in Belgium were killed in the Holocaust, and much of the modern Jewish population of these countries (as well as of Germany and Switzerland) derives from post-Holocaust arrivals from Eastern Europe, Germany with an estimated Jewish population of around 200 000, 100 000 of which are officially affiliated with orthodox synagogues, 20 000 with "liberal Judaism", and the rest unaffiliated, is, due to recent immigration from Russia, now the fastest growing Jewish community in the world besides the State of Israel. Here is a list of some prominent West European Jews, arranged by country of origin.

Austria

Belgium

• Chantal Akerman, director-screenwriter
• Saul Akkemay, publicist-journalist
• Zora Arkus-Duntov, father of the Chevrolet Corvette (Belgian-born)
• Gérard Blitz, Olympic water polo medallist, co-founder of Club Med
• Annie Cordy, singer (Annie Cordmann).
• Leopold Flam, philosopher
• Louis Franck, politician
• Diane von Furstenberg, fashion designer
• Jean Gol, politician
• Nico Gunzburg, professor
• Camille Gutt, finance minister; head of the International Monetary Fund
• Paul Hymans, liberal leader; president of the League of Nations
• René Kalisky, writer
• George Koltanowski, chess player
• Claude Lévi-Strauss, anthropologist (Belgian-born; atheist of Jewish descent)
• Alfred Lowenstein, financier (Jewish mother)
• Ernest Mandel, marxist theorist
• Bob Mendes, writer (Jewish father)
• Ralph Miliband, political scientist ^[1]
• Chaim Perelman, philosopher (Polish-born)
• Ilya Prigogine, chemist (Russian-born), Nobel Prize (1977)
• Henry Spira, animal rights activist
• Elias M. Stein, mathematician (Belgian-born)
• Gilbert Stork, chemist
• Olivier Strelli, fashion designer
• Guy Lee Thys, film director (Jewish mother)
• Raymond van het Groenewoud, singer-songwriter (Jewish mother)
• Sandra Wasserman, tennis player

France

Germany

Ireland

• William Annyas, Mayor of Youghal
• Thomas John Barnardo, philanthropist (Jewish father)
• Henri Bergson, philosopher (Anglo-Irish mother)
• Agnes Bernelle, entertainer
• Robert Briscoe, member of the Irish Republican Army during the Anglo-Irish War and Irish Civil War, and twice Lord Mayor of Dublin, in 1956 and 1961
• Ben Briscoe T.D., Lord Mayor of Dublin in 1988 (and son of Robert)
• Daniel Day-Lewis, actor (Jewish mother)
• Gerald Goldberg, Lord Mayor of Cork
• Chaim Herzog, Israeli president
• Yitzhak HaLevi Herzog first Chief Rabbi of Ireland (and father of Chaim)
• Sir Otto Jaffe, Lord Mayor of Belfast 1899 and 1904
• Immanuel Jakobovits, Chief Rabbi of Ireland between 1949 and 1958 and later British Chief Rabbi
• Isaac Leon Kandel
• Louis Lentin, Director - Documentary Films, Television & Theatre
• David Marcus, author, editor, broadcaster and lifelong supporter of Irish-language fiction
• Alan Shatter, Fine Gael politician
• Mervyn Taylor, former Irish Labour Party politician
• Gustav Wilhelm Wolff, founder of Harland and Wolff and MP for East Belfast

Italy

Political figures

• Emanuele Fiano, politician
• Vittorio Foa, socialist trade unionist
• Anna Kuliscioff, revolutionary feminist
• Rita Levi-Montalcini, scientist and Senator
• Luigi Luzzatti, Italian Prime Minister (1910-1911)
• Ernesto Nathan, mayor of Rome (1907-1913)
• Margherita Sarfatti, journalist & mistress of Benito Mussolini
• Claudio Treves, politician and writer, grandfather of Carlo Levi
• Leone Wollemborg, politician and former Minister of Economy

Religious and communal leaders

• Samuel Aboab, prominent rabbi
• Aaron ben Gershon Abu Al-Rabi or Aronne Abulrabi of Catania (1400-1450), rabbinic scholar, cabalist and astrologer.Called also Aldabi or Alrabi, Aaron was the First Jew in the history to be invited during a Pontificate to discuss freely and without censorship about religious subjects and papal perplexities.The Pope Martin V with his swarm of Cardinals welcomed him in Rome.^[2]
• Barbara Aiello, first Italian woman rabbi
• Benjamin Artom, Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews of Great Britain
• Umberto Cassuto, rabbi
• Abraham Isaac Castello, Rabbi
• Moshe Chaim Luzzatto, Rabbi, scholar, mystic
• Amos Luzzatto, writer and former president of the Italian Jewish Communities Union
• Raphael Meldola, Rabbi
• David Nieto, rabbi
• Riccardo Pacifici, Rabbi
• Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno, Rabbi, philosopher
• Elio Toaff, Rabbi and former Chief of Italian Jews Community

Academics

• Emilio Artom, mathematician
• pedigree of Azzopardi
• Faraj ben Salim, Sicilian physician and translator from Agrigento
• Mosé Bonavoglia de' Medici, or Bonavoglio de' Medici, (d. 1447). Sicilian physician from Messina and Dienchelele (Naggid or Dayan kelali = Universal Judge of Sicilian Jews).His Hebrew name was Moses Hefez.^[3]
• Michele Besso, engineer
• Caecilius of Calacte, Sicilian rhetorician from modern Caronìa
• Eugenio Calabi, mathematician
• Dario Calimani, Anglicist
• Laura Capón, physicist; married to non-Jew Enrico Fermi
• Guido Castelnuovo, mathematician
• Federigo Enriques, mathematician
• Gino Fano, mathematician
• Robert Fano, physicist
• Ugo Fano, physicist^[4]
• Guido Fubini, mathematician
• Carlo Ginzburg, historian
• Giovanni Jona-Lasinio, physicist (Jewish father)
• Beppo Levi, mathematician
• Tullio Levi-Civita, mathematician
• Mirella Levi D'Ancona, art historian
• Giorgio Levi della Vida
• Rita Levi-Montalcini, neurologist, Nobel Prize (1986)
• Cesare Lombroso, criminologist
• Salvador Luria, microbiologist, Nobel Prize (1969)
• Samuel David Luzzatto
• Franco Modigliani, economist, Nobel Prize (1985)
• Arnaldo Momigliano, Italian-born historian (Jewish Year Book 1985 p188)
• Bruno Pontecorvo, physicist
• Guido Pontecorvo, geneticist
• Giulio Racah, physicist
• Bruno Rossi, astrophysicist
• Asher Salah, Historian
• Beniamino Segre, mathematician
• Cesare Segre, linguistics, semiotics
• Corrado Segre, mathematician
• Emilio Segrè, physicist, Nobel Prize (1959)
• pedigree of Sforno
• Piero Sraffa, economist
• Ariel Toaff, Historian
• Andrew Viterbi, inventor of the Viterbi algorithm
• Vito Volterra, mathematician

Musicians

• Mario Ancona, baritone
• Abramo Basevi, composer and musician
• Alvise Bassano, musician ^[5]
• Anthony Bassano, musician ^[6]
• Baptista Bassano, musician ^[7]
• Jeronimo Bassano, musician ^[8]
• Haim Cipriani, violinist and reform rabbi
• Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, guitar, synagogal music composer
• Giacobbe Cervetto, cellist^[9]
• Lorenzo Da Ponte (b. Emanuele Conegliano), opera librettist (born Jewish, raised Catholic)
• Abramino dall'Arpa, harpist
• Aldo Finzi, composer
• Salamone Rossi, baroque composer
• Victor de Sabata, conductor (Jewish mother)
• Leone Sinigaglia, composer
• Obadiah the Proselyte (musician)^[10]

Writers

• Enrico Castelnuovo, father of Guido
• Giorgio Bassani, author
• Angela Bianchini, fiction writer
• Riccardo Calimani, fiction writer and historian
• Lorenzo Da Ponte (b. Emanuele Conegliano), opera librettist (born Jewish, raised Catholic)
• Leonardo de Benedetti, physician and writer
• Manuela Dviri, writer
• Alain Elkann, writer and journalist, father of John, Lapo and Ginevra
• Carlo Ginzburg, historian, writer, essayst and pioneer of microhistory
• Leone Ginzburg, writer (born in Ukraine)
• Natalia Ginzburg (b. Levi), author (Jewish father), wife of Leone and mother of Carlo
• Arrigo Levi, writer, journalist and TV anchorman
• Carlo Levi, writer, painter and physician
• Primo Levi, chemist and author
• Carlo Michelstaedter, philosopher
• Lisa Morpurgo Dordoni, writer, astrologer
• Paolo Mieli, journalist, historian and director of Corriere della Sera
• Liana Millu, writer
• Alberto Moravia (b. Pincherle), author (Jewish father)
• Alessandro Piperno, writer
• Umberto Saba, poet (single Jewish mother)
• Alessandro Schwed,writer
• Clara Sereni, writer
• Italo Svevo (b. Schmitz), author (Jewish mother)
• Humbert Wolfe, poet and civil servant^[11]

Artists

• Cristiana Capotondi, actress (half Jew)
• Gioele Dix, (b. Davide Ottolenghi) actor and comedian
• Ginevra Elkann, film director, sister of John and Lapo
• Arnoldo Foà, actor
• Massimiliano Fuksas, architect
• Alessandro Haber, actor
• Carlo Levi, writer, painter and physician
• Leo Lionni
• Emanuele Luzzati, painter
• Amedeo Modigliani, painter and sculptor
• Moni Ovadia, theatre figure
• Gillo Pontecorvo, director
• Xenia Rappoport, actress
• Bruno Zevi, architect

Business

• John & Lapo Elkann, Vice Chairman of Fiat (Jewish father).
• Armand, Georges, Maurice & Paul Marciano, founders of GUESS.^[12]
• Moses Haim Montefiore, financier & philanthropist.
• Adriano Olivetti, son of Camillo, industrialist and social activist.
• Camillo Olivetti, founder of Olivetti typewriters.
• Chaim Bracha, One of the founders of Jaffa Oranges

Other

• Eugenio Calò, a Jewish partisan awarded the Gold Medal for Military Valour
• pedigree of Castelnuovo
• Angelo Donati, banker who protected Jews in Southern France during Italian occupation in 1942-43
• Giuliano Ferrara, Politician, TV anchorman and journalist,founder of Il Foglio
• Mario Finzi, partisan (died in Auschwitz in 1945)
• Gad Lerner, TV anchorman and journalist
• Renato Mannheimer, pollster, president of IPSO
• Maurizio Molinari, journalist and essayist
• Edgardo Mortara, boy kidnapped by Catholic Papal authorities
• Fiamma Nirenstein, essayist, journalist and MP for PDL (elected in 2008)
• pedigree of Rappaport
• Enzo Sereni

Luxembourg

• Hugo Gernsback, science-fiction pioneer (unconfirmed)
• Emil Hirsch, reform rabbi
• Gabriel Lippmann, French physicist (Luxembourg-born)
• Arno Joseph Mayer, historian

Monaco

• Franz Schreker, composer (Jewish father)

Netherlands

Scotland

Spain and Portugal

Switzerland

• Maurice Abravanel, conductor
• Jeff Agoos, US soccer international
• Ernest Bloch, composer
• Felix Bloch, physicist, Nobel Prize (1952)
• Alain de Botton, writer
• Albert Cohen, novelist
• Arthur Cohn, film producer
• Ruth Dreifuss, Swiss president (1999)
• Camille & Henry Dreyfus, inventors of Celanese
• Al Dubin, lyricist
• Jean Dunand-Gotscho, sculptor, painter, lacquerer
• Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel Prize (1921)
• Edmond Fischer, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1992) (Jewish father)
• Robert Frank, photographer
• Meyer Guggenheim, businessman
• Jeanne Hersch, philosopher
• Mathilde Krim, AIDS researcher (convert)
• Dani Levy (1957 -) film maker, theatrical director and actor^[13]
• Meret Oppenheim, surrealist artist
• Rachel, stage actress (Swiss-born)
• Tadeus Reichstein, chemist, Nobel Prize (1950)
• Edmond Safra, banker
• Jean Starobinski, literary critic
• Sigismond Thalberg, pianist, composer
• Regina Ullmann, poet
• Charles Weissmann, biochemist
• Alain & Gerard Wertheimer, owners of Chanel^[14]

United Kingdom

• List of British Jews
• History of the Jews in Scotland

Notes

^ Of the 12 members of the 1928 Olympics Dutch Women's Gymnastics Team – the first ever women's gymnastics gold medalists – 5 were Jewish. All but Levie were murdered in the Holocaust.

See also

• List of Jews
• List of Belgians
• List of Dutch people
• List of Irish people
• List of Luxembourgeois
• List of Swiss people

Footnotes