List of Jews from Sub-Saharan Africa
This is a list of Jews from Sub-Saharan Africa. It is arranged by country of origin. The vast majority of African Jews inhabiting areas below the Sahara live in South Africa, and are mainly of Ashkenazi origin. A number of Beta Israel also reside in Ethiopia. Additionally, small post-colonial communities exist elsewhere.
Cameroon
- Yaphet Kotto, actor
DR Congo
- Léon Kengo wa Dondo, Prime Minister of Zaire
- Moïse Katumbi, businessman and politician
- Olivier Strelli, fashion designer
Ethiopia and Eritrea
- Ephraim Isaac, Phd Princeton Scholar
- Adisu Massala, politician
- Esti Mamo, Ethiopian-Israeli model
- Meskie Shibru-Sivan, actress and singer
Kenya
- Israel Somen, businessman and diplomat
- Jonathan Somen, entrepreneur
- Erica Mann, architect, town planner, NGO leader, women's cooperatives developer
- Igor Mann, veterinarian, senior civil service professional
Mozambique
- Albie Sachs, ANC activist
- Ruth First, ANC activist
Namibia
- Harold Pupkewitz, entrepreneur
South Africa
Politicians and activists
- Morris Alexander, pre-apartheid MP
- Hilda Bernstein, anti-apartheid activist
- Lionel Bernstein, anti-apartheid activist
- Harry Bloom, anti-apartheid activist
- Jules Browde, barrister, jurist and anti-apartheid activist. Law school classmate of Nelson Mandela.
- Arthur Chaskalson, chief justice
- Abba Eban, Israeli diplomat
- Andrew Feinstein, former ANC MP, author & anti-arms trade activist
- Bram Fischer, anti-apartheid activist
- Bernard Friedman, anti-apartheid MP
- Richard Goldstone, judge and international war crimes prosecutor
- Joel Joffe, human rights activist
- Ronnie Kasrils, former South African Intelligence Minister
- Tony Leon, former opposition leader
- Joe Slovo, ANC activist and leader of the South African Communist Party
- Harry Schwarz, anti-apartheid politician, lawyer and diplomat
- Helen Suzman, anti-apartheid MP
- Harold Hanson, QC and strong supporter of civil liberties
Academics
- Abraham Manie Adelstein, UK Chief Medical Statistician
- Selig Percy Amoils, Inventor & Surgeon
- Moses Blackman, crystallographer
- Sydney Brenner, biologist, Nobel Prize
- Leo Camron, educationalist
- Sydney Cohen, pathologist
- Meyer Fortes, anthropologist
- Max Gluckman, anthropologist
- Frank Herbstein, crystallographer, 1926-2011
- Aaron Klug, chemist, Nobel Prize
- Ludwig Lachmann, economist
- Arnold Lazarus, psychologist
- Roland Levinsky, biologist
- Stanley Mandelstam, physicist
- Shula Marks, historian
- Frank Nabarro, physicist
- Seymour Papert, Artificial Intelligence pioneer
- Peter Sarnak, mathematician
- Isaac Schapera, anthropologist
- Anthony Segal, biochemist
- Joseph Sonnabend, HIV/AIDS researcher
- Phillip V. Tobias, palaeoanthropologist
- Joseph Wolpe, psychotherapist
- Lewis Wolpert, developmental biologist
- Basil Yamey, economist
- Solly Zuckerman, UK zoologist
- Max Price, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town
Cultural figures
- Lionel Abrahams, poet
- Jillian Becker, writer
- Dani Behr, TV presenter
- Harry Bloom, writer and lecturer
- Johnny Clegg, World Beat musician
- John Cranko, choreographer
- Adam Friedland, comedian and podcaster
- Graeme Friedman, writer
- David Goldblatt, photographer
- Nadine Gordimer, writer, Nobel Prize
- Laurence Harvey, actor
- Ronald Harwood, playwright
- Manu Herbstein, writer
- Dan Jacobson, writer
- Sid James, comic actor
- Danny K, pop singer
- William Kentridge, artist
- Lennie Lee, artist
- Manfred Mann, R&B keyboardist
- Sarah Millin, writer
- Trevor Rabin, guitarist & film composer
- Jonathan Shapiro, political cartoonist
- Antony Sher, stage actor
- Janet Suzman, stage actress
Business and professional figures
- Raymond Ackerman, supermarket tycoon
- Alfred Beit, diamond magnate
- Donald Gordon, founder of insurance company Liberty Life, shopping centre owner & philanthropist
- Sydney Jacobson, newspaper editor
- Solomon Joel, financier
- Sol Kerzner, hotel & casino owner
- Sammy Marks, early entrepreneur from Pretoria
- Ernest & Harry Oppenheimer, diamond tycoons & philanthropists
- Percy Yutar, South Africa's first Jewish attorney general and prosecutor of Nelson Mandela in the 1963 Rivonia Treason Trial.
- Walter Matulis JR. Co owner of a driver training business. Walter was raised as Roman Catholic only to find out in the 6th decade of his life that his ancestors were Lithuanian Jews. Walter remains a Christian while identifying himself as being of Jewish blood.
Sports figures
- Ali & Adam Bacher, cricketers
- Leo Camron, rugby union player and cricketer.
- Okey Geffin, rugby union player
- Harry Isaacs, Olympic boxing medalist
- Ilana Kloss, tennis player
- Sarah Poewe, swimmer
- Philip Rabinowitz (runner), 100-year-old sprinter
- Jeremy Reingold, World Champion Swimmer, Rugby Player
- Jody Scheckter, Formula 1 driver
- Shaun Tomson, surfer
- Mandy Yachad, cricketer
Rugby union
- Max Baise, South African rugby union referee.
- Louis Babrow
- Leo Camron, South African who helped introduce rugby to Israel., also a cricketer
- Okey Geffin, South African Rugby Union player
- Joe Kaminer
- Jonathan Kaplan, South African who holds the world record for refereeing the highest number of international rugby union test matches.
- Alan Menter, South African Rugby Union Player
- Cecil Moss, South African rugby union player and coach
- Sydney Nomis, South African Rugby Union player
- Wilf Rosenberg, rugby union player
- Fred Smollan
- Joel Stransky, South African rugby union player
Uganda
- Gershom Sizomu, rabbi and Member of Parliament
Zambia
- Denise Scott Brown, architect
- Stanley Fischer, IMF economist
Zimbabwe
- Norman Geras, professor of Government
- Anthony Gubbay, former chief justice
- Laurence Levy, pioneering neurosurgeon
- Alexander Pines, chemist
- Roy Welensky, prime minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland