Jo Benkow is a prominent politician and writer in Norway.

He was born in Trondheim, Norway in 1924 but moved to the municipality of Bærum outside of Oslo as a child. As a member of the tiny Jewish minority of Norway, he experienced firsthand prejudice while growing up.

In 1942, he fled Nazi persecution into Sweden and the United Kingdom. He returned after the war and took up photography as a trade.

In 1965 he was elected to the Norwegian parliament, the Storting as a representative of the Norwegian Conservative Party, Høyre, where he served for 28 years. He was named president of parliament, has president of the Helsinki Federation of Human Rights, taught international relations at Boston University, and has written several books on human rights, the monarchy in Norway, and other issues.