List of West European Jews - Definition and Overview

Apart from France, established Jewish populations exist in the Netherlands, Belgium 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 most of the Swiss community arrived after emancipation in 1874. The Dutch population, however, was decimated during the Holocaust, while major Jewish communities never again arose in Spain or Portugal. Here is a list of some prominent West European Jews, arranged by country of origin.

Belgium

• Chantal Akerman, director
• Zora Arkus-Duntov, father of the Chevrolet Corvette (Belgian-born)
• Natacha Atlas, singer (Jewish father; Belgian-born)
• Lt-General Louis Bernheim, WWI General
• Gérard Blitz, Olympic water polo medallist, co-founder of Club Med
• Diane von Furstenberg, fashion designer
• Camille Gutt, finance minister; head of the IMF
• Paul Hymans, liberal leader; president of the League of Nations
• George Koltanowski, chess player
• Claude Lévi-Strauss, anthropologist (Belgian-born)
• Alfred Lowenstein, financier (Jewish mother)
• Ilya Prigogine, chemist, Nobel Prize (1977)
• Henry Spira, animal rights activist
• Elias M. Stein, mathematician (Belgian-born)
• Gilbert Stork, chemist
• Olivier Strelli, fashion designer

Ireland

• Henri Bergson, philosopher (Anglo-Irish mother)
• John Desmond Bernal, molecular biologist (Jewish father)
• Agnes Bernelle, entertainer
• Robert & Ben Briscoe, lord mayors of Dublin
• Daniel Day Lewis, actor (Jewish mother)
• Josephine Hart, author (unconfirmed)
• Walter Heitler, physicist
• Chaim Herzog, Israeli president
• Sam Obernik, singer

Luxembourg

• Hugo Gernsback, science-fiction pioneer (unconfirmed)
• Gabriel Lippmann, French physicist (Luxembourg-born)

Monaco

• Franz Schreker, composer (Jewish father)

Netherlands

• Tobias Asser, jurist, Nobel Peace Prize (1911)
• Alfred Ayer, philosopher (Dutch mother)
• Frieda Belinfante, conductor (Jewish father)
• Carina Benninga, field hockey player, Olympic flag bearer
• Bart Berman, pianist (unconfirmed)
• Sarah Bernhardt, actress (Dutch Jewish single mother)
• Job Cohen, mayor of Amsterdam
• Anne Frank, diarist
• Samuel Gompers, labor union leader (Dutch parents)
• Samuel Goudsmit, physicist
• Jacob Israël de Haan, poet
• Etty Hillesum, writer
• Xaviera Hollander, writer (Jewish father)
• Hendrik S. Houthakker, economist
• Izaak Kolthoff, chemist
• Leo Lionni, illustrator (Jewish father)
• Karl Marx, social theorist (Dutch mother)
• Harry Mulisch, author (Jewish mother)
• Abraham Pais, historian of science
• David Ricardo, economist (Dutch parents)
• Tom Okker, tennis player
• Samuel Sarphati, physician, city planner
• Leo Smit, composer
• Baruch Spinoza, philosopher
• Sjaak Swart, Ajax footballer (Jewish father)

Portugal

• Isaac Abravanel, Jewish statesman and philosopher
• Uriel Acosta, philosopher
• Menasseh ben Israel, Jewish leader
• Yosef Karo, rabbi, halakhist (possibly born in Spain)
• Amato Lusitano, doctor
• Garcia de Orta, doctor
• Jorge Sampaio, president (Moroccan Jewish grandmother)
• Baruch Spinoza, philosopher (Portuguese parents)
• Luis de Torres, explorer

Spain

• Benjamin of Tudela, explorer
• Isaac Carasso, founder of Danone
• Miguel de Cervantes, writer (converso mother?)
• Hasdai Crescas, philosopher, halakhist
• Abraham ibn Daud, philosopher, scholar
• Abraham ibn Ezra, grammarian, scholar
• Solomon ibn Gabirol, philosopher, poet
• Yehuda Halevi, philosopher, poet
• Diego Lainez, Jesuit leader (father of 'Jewish descent')
• Maimónides, philosopher
• Fernando de Rojas, writer (converso)
• Cecilia Roth, actress
• Milton Wolff, head of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade

Switzerland

• Jeff Agoos, US soccer international
• Ernest Bloch, composer
• Felix Bloch, physicist, Nobel Prize (1952)
• Alain de Botton, writer
• John M. Brunswick, founder of the Brunswick Corporation
• Albert Cohen, novelist
• Arthur Cohn, film producer
• Ruth Dreifuss, Swiss president (1999)
• Camille & Henry Dreyfus, inventors of Celanese
• Al Dubin, lyricist
• Albert Einstein, physicist, Nobel Prize (1921)
• Edmond Fischer, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1992) (Jewish father)
• Robert Frank, photographer
• Meyer Guggenheim, businessman
• Jeanne Hersch, philosopher
• Viktor Korchnoi, chess player (Jewish mother)
• Mathilde Krim, AIDS researcher (convert)
• Meret Oppenheim, surrealist artist
• Rachel, stage actress (Swiss-born)
• Tadeus Reichstein, chemist, Nobel Prize (1950)
• Edmond Safra, banker
• Jean Starobinski, literary critic
• Charles Weissmann, biochemist

See also

• List of Jews, Belgians, Irish people, Luxembourgeois, Monegasque people, Dutch people, Portuguese, Spaniards, Swiss people