List of Jewish Nobel laureates
Of the 965 individual recipients of the Nobel Prize and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences between 1901 and 2025, at least 220 have been Jews or people with at least one Jewish parent, representing 22% of all recipients. Jews constitute only 0.2% of the world's population, meaning their share of winners is 110 times their proportion of the world's population.
Jews have been awarded all six of the Nobel Foundation's awards:
- Chemistry: 37
- Economics: 40
- Literature: 17
- Peace: 9
- Physics: 56
- Physiology or Medicine: 61
Jewish laureates Elie Wiesel and Imre Kertész survived the extermination camps during the Holocaust. François Englert survived by being hidden in orphanages and children's homes. Others, such as Hans Bethe, Walter Kohn, Otto Stern, Albert Einstein, Hans Krebs and Martin Karplus, fled Nazi Germany to avoid persecution. Still others, including Rita Levi-Montalcini, Herbert Hauptman, Robert Furchgott, Arthur Kornberg, and Jerome Karle, experienced significant antisemitism in their careers.
Arthur Ashkin, a 96-year-old American Jew, was, at the time of his award, the oldest person to receive a Nobel Prize.
Chemistry
Physiology or Medicine
Physics
Literature
Economics
Peace
Forced to decline prize
Jewish laureates per country
Below is a chart of all Jewish Nobel laureates per country. Some laureates are counted more than once if have multiple citizenship.| Country | Number of Jewish Nobel laureates | Percent of laureates |
United StatesNobel Laureates BoulevardThe Israeli city of Rishon LeZion has an avenue dedicated to honoring all Jewish Nobel laureates. Tayelet Hatanei Pras Nobel has a monument with attached plaque for each Nobel laureate. The scientific adviser of the project was Prof. Israel Hanukoglu. |
United States