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Until the Holocaust, Jews were a significant part of the population of Eastern Europe. Outside Poland, the largest population was in the European part of the USSR, especially the Ukraine (1.5 million in the 1930s), but major populations also existed in Romania and Czechoslovakia. Here is a list of some prominent East European Jews, arranged by country of origin. (Note: Baltic and Balkan Jews are on different lists.)
Belarus
- Zhores Alferov, physicist, Nobel Prize (2000) (Jewish mother)
- Menachem Begin, Israeli PM, Nobel Prize (1978)
- Marc Chagall, painter
- Morris Raphael Cohen, philosopher
- David Dubinsky, labor leader
- Simon Dubnow, Jewish historian
- Michel Kikoine, painter
- Pinchus Kremegne, painter
- Seymour Lubetzky, cataloging theorist
- Michael Marks, co-founder of Marks and Spencers
- Louis B. Mayer, co-founder MGM
- Shimon Peres, Israeli PM, Nobel Prize (1994)
- Ida Rosenthal, founder of Maidenform Brassieres
- David Sarnoff, head of RCA
- Issai Schur, mathematician
- Yitzhak Shamir, Israeli PM
- Chaim Soutine, painter
- Immanuel Velikovsky, cosmology writer
- Lev Vygotsky, psychologist
- Ossip Zadkine, sculptor
- Oscar Zariski, mathematician
Czech Republic
Political figures
Academic figures
- Gerty Cori, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1947)
- Martin Fleischmann, chemist
- Sigmund Freud, psychoanalyst (Czech-born)
- Ernest Gellner, anthropologist
- Edmund Husserl, philosopher (Czech-born)
- Karl Kautsky, Marxist theorist
- Hans Kelsen, legal philosopher (Czech-born)
- Carl Koller, introduced local anaesthetics
- Ernest Nagel, philosopher
- Olga Taussky-Todd, mathematician
- Max Wertheimer, Gestalt psychologist
Film and stage
- Milos Forman, director (Jewish father)
- Karl Freund, cinematographer
- Arnost Goldflam, playwright, director
- Hugo Haas, director/actor
- Milos Kopecky, actor (Jewish mother)
- Francis Lederer, actor
- Herbert Lom, actor
- Karel Reisz, director
- Jiri Voskovec, playwright & actor
Musicians
- Guido Adler, musicologist (Czech-born)
- Karel Ancerl, conductor
- Rudolf Friml, composer
- Pavel Haas, composer
- Gideon Klein, composer
- Hans Krasa, composer
- Erich Wolfgang Korngold, film composer
- Gustav Mahler, composer (Czech-born)
- Ignaz Moscheles, pianist & composer
- David Popper, cellist
- Rudolf Serkin, pianist
- Walter Susskind, conductor
- Jaromir Weinberger, composer
Writers and poets
Miscellaneous
Moldova
Romania
Political figures
Academic figures
Film and stage
Musicians
- Sergiu Comissiona, conductor
- Miriam Fried, violinist
- Alma Gluck, soprano
- Clara Haskil, pianist
- Yoel Levi, conductor
- Radu Lupu, pianist (unconfirmed)
- Silvia Marcovici, violinist
- Joseph Schmidt, cantor, tenor, actor
Writers and poets
- Nina Cassian, poet
- Paul Celan, poet
- Andrei Codrescu, poet
- Eugene Ionesco, playwright (Jewish mother)
- Isidore Isou, poet
- Irving Layton, poet
- Stan Lee, writer, co-creator of Spider-Man (Romanian parents)
- Gherasim Luca, poet
- Norman Manea, novelist
- Delmore Schwartz, poet (Romanian parents)
- Mihail Sebastian, playwright
- Tristan Tzara, dadaist
- Elie Wiesel, writer, Nobel Peace Prize (1986)
Artists
Miscellaneous
Sports
- Leon Rotman, canoeist (2 Olympic golds, 1 bronze)
- Angelica Rozeanu, table tennis world champion
Slovakia
Ukraine
Political figures
Academic figures
- Vladimir Arnold, mathematician (Jewish mother)
- Sergei Bernstein, mathematician
- Herbert C. Brown, chemist, Nobel Prize (1979) (Ukrainian parents)
- Vladimir Drinfeld, mathematician
- Ariel Durant, historian
- Israel M. Gel'fand, mathematician
- Waldemar Haffkine, bacteriologist
- Zellig Harris, linguist
- Leonid Levin, mathematician
- Jacob Rabinow, inventor
- Selman Waksman, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1952)
Film and stage
Musicians
- Simon Barere, pianist
- Shura Cherkassky, pianist
- Mischa Elman, violinist
- Emanuel Feuermann, cellist
- Emil Gilels, pianist
- Jascha Horenstein, conductor
- Vladimir Horowitz, pianist
- Leonid Kogan, violinist
- Nathan Milstein, violinist
- Benno Moiseiwitsch, pianist
- David Oistrakh, violinist
- Igor Oistrakh, violinist (Jewish father)
- Leo Ornstein, composer
- Gregor Piatigorsky, cellist
- Isaac Stern, violinist
- Dimitri Tiomkin, film composer
Writers and poets
Miscellaneous
Sports
- Oksana Baiul, figure skater (Olympic gold) (Jewish mother)
- David Bronstein, chess player
- Efim Geller, chess player
- Maria Gorokhovskaya, gymnast (2 Olympic golds, 5 silvers)
- Lenny Krayzelburg, swimmer (3 Olympic golds)
- Valentin Mankin, sailor (3 Olympic golds, 1 silver)
- Fania Melnik, discus thrower (Olympic gold)
- Tamara & Irina Press, sister athletes (5 Olympic golds, 1 silver in total)
- Zhanna Pintusevich-Block, sprinter (World Championship gold)
- Leonid Stein, chess player
See also
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