List of Ukrainian Jews

Presented below are lists of famous or notable Ukrainian people of Jewish descent and other Jews born in the territory of present-day Ukraine, before 20 century borderland region in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth.

Athletes

Oksana Baiul, figure skater, Olympic gold
Alexei Beletski, Ukrainian-born Israeli, ice dancer, Olympian
Oleksii Bychenko, Ukrainian-born Israeli, figure skater, 2016 European silver medallist, Olympian
Artem Dolgopyat, Ukrainian-born Israeli, Olympic gold for Israel
Olena Dvornichenko, Israel/Ukraine, rhythmic gymnastics
Grigoriy Gamarnik, Ukrainian-born Soviet, world wrestling champion, world championship gold and silver
Samuel Gerson, Ukrainian-born US, Olympic silver wrestling
Natalia Gudina, Ukrainian-born Israeli, figure skater, Olympian
Vadym Gutzeit, saber fencer, Olympic champion, Youth and Sport Minister of Ukraine
Pavlo Ishchenko, Ukraine/Israel, bantamweight & lightweight boxer, 2x European Amateur Boxing Championships medalist, and European Games medalist
Moisei Kas’ianik, Ukrainian-born USSR, world weightlifting champion
Marina Kravchenko, Ukrainian-born Israeli, Soviet and Israel national table tennis teams
Lenny Krayzelburg, Ukrainian-born US swimmer, 4x Olympic champion ; 3x world champion and 2x silver ; 3 world records
Grigory Kriss, Ukrainian Soviet Olympic épée fencer who won four Olympic medals, including a gold medal
Tatiana Lysenko, USSR/Ukraine gymnast, 2x Olympic champion, bronze
Valeria Maksyuta, Ukraine/Israel gymnast, multiple World Cup medalist, Israeli Olympian, Maccabiah Games champion
Valentyn Mankin, Soviet/Ukraine, only sailor in Olympic history to win gold medals in three different classes, silver
Faina Melnik, Ukrainian-born USSR, 11 world records; Olympic discus throw champion
Andriy Oberemko, soccer/football midfielder
Igor Olshansky, NFL American football defensive end
Zhanna Pintusevich-Block, Ukraine, sprinter, world 100-m & 200-m champion
Katerina Pisetsky, Israel/Ukraine, rhythmic gymnast
Maxim Podoprigora, Ukrainian-born Austrian swimmer
Ian Rubin, Ukraine/Australia, Russia national rugby league team
Igor Rybak, Ukrainian-born USSR, Olympic weightlifting champion
David Tyshler, Ukraine-born Soviet sabre fencer, Olympic bronze medalist
Yulen Uralov, Ukrainian Soviet Olympic foil fencer, and USSR champion
Iosif Vitebskiy, Soviet Ukrainian Olympic medalist and world champion épée fencer, and current US fencing coach
Alexei Zhitnik, Ukraine-born Russia, hockey defenseman
Aleksandr Kolchinsky, heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler, Olympic gold.

Politicians

Mykhailo Dobkin, former governor of Kharkiv Oblast 2010-2014
Volodymyr Groysman, former Prime Minister of Ukraine
Hennadiy Kernes, Mayor of Kharkiv 2010–2020
Ihor Kolomoyskyi, former Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast 2014-2015
Pinhas Krasny, Ukrainian minister of Jewish Affairs for the Directorate of Ukraine
Vadim Rabinovich, 2014 presidential candidate
Moisei Rafes, deputy secretary of National Affairs for the General Secretariat
Abraham Revutsky, Ukrainian minister of Jewish Affairs for the Directorate of Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine
Moishe Zilberfarb, deputy secretary of National Affairs for the General Secretariat
Alexander Zolotarev, state controller for the General Secretariat
Yukhym Zvyahilsky, former Prime Minister of Ukraine 1993-1994 and entrepreneur
Oleksandr Feldman, People's Deputy of Ukraine
Oleksii Reznikov, 17th Minister of Defence
Andriy Yermak, former Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine

Russian/Soviet politicians

Karl Radek, Soviet politician
Grigory Sokolnikov, Bolshevik politician
Abram Slutsky, headed the Soviet foreign intelligence service, then part of the NKVD
Leon Trotsky, Soviet politician, the founder of the Red Army, commissar of Foreign Affairs
Lazar Kaganovich, Stalinist politician and one of the organizers of the Ukrainian Holodomor and Stalinist Great Purge
Moisei Uritsky, Soviet politician, chekist
Grigory Yavlinsky, Russian politician, head of a liberal "Yabloko" party
Grigory Zinoviev, Soviet politician

Israeli politicians

Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, second President of Israel
Shmuel Dayan, Zionist activist, Israeli politician
Levi Eshkol, Israeli Prime Minister
Ephraim Katzir, fourth President of Israel
Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister
Natan Sharansky, Israeli politician
Moshe Sharett, Israeli Prime Minister

United States politicians

Kirill Reznik, US Politician, Member, Maryland House of Delegates

Israeli military persons

Yaakov Dori, first Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces ; President of Technion.
Tzvi Tzur, sixth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces

Soldiers and revolutionaries

Pavel Axelrod, Menshevik, Marxist revolutionary
Yakov Blumkin, Soviet spy
Naftali Botwin, revolutionary terrorist
Morris Childs, American communist and spy
Leo Deutsch, revolutionary
Raya Dunayevskaya, founder of Marxist humanism in the U.S.
Israel Fisanovich, World War II submarine commander and Hero of the Soviet Union
Grigory Goldenberg, revolutionary
Ze'ev Jabotinsky, founder of British Jewish Legion
Jacob Golos, Soviet spy
Olga Kameneva, Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician
Walter Krivitsky, Soviet spy
Alexander Parvus, revolutionary, major investor and financial supporter of the October Revolution
Sidney Reilly, a Ukrainian-born adventurer and Secret Intelligence Service agent
Pinhas Rutenberg, Zionist, Social revolutionary
Grigori Shtern, Red Army commander
Naum Sorkin, Red Army military intelligence chief in the Far East
V. Volodarsky, communist revolutionary
Mark Zborowski, Soviet spy
Iona Yakir, Red Army commander and one of the world's major military reformers between World War I and World War II
Mishka Yaponchik, gangster, leader of the Odesa Jewish Resistance group in 1917-1921

Other historical figures

Michael Dorfman, Russian-Israeli essayist and human rights activist
Yisroel ben Eliezer (The Baal Shem Tov), Rabbi, founder of Hasidic Judaism
Shlomo Ganzfried, Rabbi
Fanny Kaplan, would-be assassin of Lenin
Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Hasidic Judaism
Isroel Shmulson, architect
Simon Wiesenthal, Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, writer
Semion Mogilevich, "boss of all bosses" of the worldwide Russian Mafia, former member of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives

Business figures

Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp
Leon Bagrit, pioneer of automation
Zino Davidoff
Bernard Delfont, impresario
Lew Grade, founder of ATV
Ihor Kolomoyskyi, a major Ukrainian business oligarch
Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal
Hryhoriy Surkis, head of public organization Football Federation of Ukraine, Ukrainian parliamentary
Viktor Vekselberg, billionaire, steelmaker
Gennadiy Korban, Ukrainian businessman, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish community of Dnipro, Patron of the Jewish community of Kryvyi Rih
Boris Lohzkin, President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine
Michael Kogan, entrepreneur, founder of Taito

Natural scientists

Aleksander Akhiezer, physicist
Matvei Petrovich Bronstein
Mikhail Gurevich
Waldemar Haffkine, biologist, developed vaccine against cholera and plague
Boris Hessen, physicist
Abram Ioffe, nuclear scientist
Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov
Veniamin Levich, electrochemist
Boris Podolsky
Isaak Pomeranchuk
Jacob Rabinow
Anatol Rapoport
Grigory Shajn
Iosif Shklovsky
Vladimir Veksler
Alexander Vilenkin, cosmologist
Selman Waksman, biochemist, Nobel Prize

Mathematicians

Social scientists

Solomon Buber, Hebraist
Ariel Durant, historian,
Boris Eichenbaum, historian
Mikhail Epstein, literary theorist
Moshe Feldenkrais, inventor of the Feldenkrais method
Alexander Gerschenkron, economic historian
Jean Gottmann, geographer
Zellig Harris
Jacob Marschak, economist
Elye Spivak

Musicians

Sophia Agranovich, pianist
Simon Barere, pianist
Sidor Belarsky, operatic basso and music educator
Felix Blumenfeld, pianist
Shura Cherkassky, pianist
Michael Ben David, singer
Isaak Dunayevsky, composer
Mischa Elman, violinist
Anthony Fedorov, singer, American Idol finalist
Samuil Feinberg, composer
Emil Gilels, pianist
Maria Grinberg, pianist
Eden Golan, singer
Mordechai Hershman, cantor and singer
Jascha Horenstein, conductor
Vladimir Horowitz, pianist
Leonid Kogan, violinist
Mikhail Kopelman, violinist
Oleg Maisenberg, pianist
Samuel Maykapar, composer/pianist
Nathan Milstein, violinist
Benno Moiseiwitsch, pianist
David Oistrakh, violinist
Igor Oistrakh, violinist
Leo Ornstein, composer
Gregor Piatigorsky, cellist
Pokrass brothers, composers
Mark Reizen, operatic bass
Yossele Rosenblatt, cantor and composer
Heinrich Schenker, music theorist
Joseph Schillinger, composer, music theorist, and composition teacher
Leo Sirota, pianist
Isaac Stern, violinist
Roman Turovsky-Savchuk, lutenist-composer
Lyubov Uspenskaya, singer
DJ Vlad, DJ, producer, interviewer, journalist, and YouTuber
Yakov Zak, pianist

Fine artists

Michael Matusevitch, painter
Nathan Altman, painter and stage designer
Boris Aronson, painter and designer
Nudie Cohn, fashion designer
Sonia Delaunay, painter
Maya Deren, filmmaker
Boris Efimov, cartoonist
Yitzhak Frenkel, School of Paris painter and sculptor.
Naum Gabo, sculptor
Boris Iofan, architect
Ilya Kabakov, conceptualist artist
Yevgeny Khaldei, photographer
Jacob Kramer, painter
Morris Lapidus, architect
Louise Nevelson, sculptor
Abraham Mintchine, painter
Solomon Nikritin
Jules Olitski, painter
Leonid Pasternak, painter
Antoine Pevsner, sculptor
Olga Rapay-Markish, ceramicist
Mikhail Turovsky, painter
Roman Turovsky, painter

Performing artists

Jacob Adler, actor
Yosl Cutler, puppeteer
Abraham Goldfaden, playwright and theatre director
Alexander Granach, actor in theater and film
Aleksei Kapler, film artist
Mila Kunis, actress
Mark Donskoy, Soviet film director
Anatole Litvak, director
Alla Nazimova, actress
Otto Preminger, director, producer, actor
Ingo Preminger, producer, literary agent
Elena Ralph, model
Yakov Smirnoff, American comedian
Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukrainian screenwriter, actor, comedian, and director, who was elected the President of Ukraine in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.

Writers and poets

Sholom Aleichem, Yiddish-language writer
Eli Schechtman, Yiddish writer
Isaac Babel, writer
Eduard Bagritsky, poet
Hayyim Nahman Bialik, poet
Yosef Haim Brenner, Hebrew-language writer
Sasha Cherny, poet
Michael Dorfman, journalist and essayist
Moysey Fishbein, poet
Ilya Ehrenburg, writer
Alexander Galich, playwright poet
Asher Hirsch Ginsberg, Hebrew-language writer
Lydia Ginzburg, writer
Jacob Gordin, American playwright
Erol Güney, journalist and translator
Vasily Grossman, writer
Ilya Ilf, writer
Vera Inber, poet
Alejandro Jodorowsky, Spanish-language writer and filmmaker
A.M. Klein, poet
Pavel Kogan, poet
Lev Kopelev, author and dissident
Clarice Lispector, writer from Brazil
Benedikt Livshits, writer
Nadezhda Mandelstam, writer
Yunna Morits, poet
Charles Neider, writer, editor, Antarctic explorer
Anatoli Rybakov, writer
Boris Slutsky, war-time poet
Shaul Tchernichovsky, poet and translator