Note that "
Jewishness" has the meanings both of "adherence to the religion of
Judaism" and "membership in the ethnic group '
Jews'". People of both groups are listed here.
- Woody Allen (born 1935), United States comedian, film director
- Theda Bara, US actress
- David Blaine (born 1973), US illusionist
- Mel Brooks (b. 1926) US comedian, filmmaker
- Lenny Bruce, US satirist
- Eddie Cantor US comedian, singer, entertainer
- Al Capp, US cartoonist
- Sacha Baron Cohen, UK comedian best known for his fictional character, Ali G
- David Copperfield[?], US illusionist
- Sammy Davis Jr., American actor and performer
- Marty Feldman, British comedian
- Max Fleischer US animated cartoonist
- Harry Houdini (1874-1926), US illusionist
- Al Jolson, US singer, actor, early sound film star
- Stan Lee (born 1922), US comic book creator
- Barry Manilow (born 1946), US entertainer
- Marx Brothers, US actors
- S.J. Perelman[?], US writer
- Jerry Seinfeld, US comedian
- Elizabeth Taylor, British actress
- Billy Wilder (1906-2002), director
- Irving Berlin US songwriter, composer
- Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990), US composer
- Ernest Bloch[?], Swiss-born composer
- Leonard Cohen, Canadian singer (converted to Buddhism)
- Bob Dylan (b. 1941), US singer, songwriter
- Benny Goodman, US musician, bandleader
- Otto Klemperer, German-born conductor
- Ted Lewis, musician, entertainer
- György Ligeti, Hungarian composer
- Gustav Mahler, composer (converted to Catholicism)
- Felix Mendelssohn, Romantic composer (converted to Christianity)
- Giacomo Meyerbeer, Opera composer
- Mezz Mezzrow[?], US jazz musician
- Anton Rubinstein, Russian pianist and composer
- Curt Sachs, musicologist
- Artur Schnabel, pianist
- Arnold Schoenberg, Austrian composer
- Artie Shaw, US musician, bandleader
- Willie "The Lion" Smith[?], US pianist
- John Zorn, American saxophonist and composer
- Sholom Aleichem[?]
- Isaac Asimov, American science fiction author
- Saul Bellow, American writer
- Anne Frank (1929-1945), Holocaust victim, diarist
- Jacques Derrida (born 1930), French philosopher
- Edmund Husserl (1859-1938), German philosopher and holocaust victim
- Franz Kafka Czech writer
- Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Austrian psychologist
- Maimonides (1135-1204), Philosopher, doctor, rabbi
- Nachmanides[?] Philosopher, mystic, rabbi
- Noam Chomsky (born 1928), American linguistic and political writer
- Bernard Malamud (1914-1986), American writer
- Erich Mühsam[?] (1878-1934), German poet and revolutionary
- Amos Oz[?] (born 1937), Israeli writer
- Daniel Pearl (1963-2002[?]), Wall Street Journal journalist, kidnapped and killed.
- Ayn Rand (1905-1982), writer
- Philip Roth (b.1933), American writer
- Robert Silverberg, American science fiction author
- Isaac Bashevis Singer, (1904-1991), Yiddish writer
- Baruch Spinoza, (1632-1677) philosopher
- Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951), Austrian philosopher
- Stefan Zweig, (1881-1942), Austrian writer
- Madeleine Albright (born 1937), US Secretary of State (1997-2001)
- Ehud Barak (b.1942), Israeli prime minister
- Menachem Begin (1913-1992), Prime Minister of Israel (1977-1983)
- David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), founder of Israel, Prime Minister of Israel (1948-1953 and 1955-1963)
- Judah P. Benjamin[?] (1811-1884), Secretary of State for the Confederate States of America
- Michael Bloomberg (born 1943), founder of Bloomberg[?] Financial Markets, Mayor of New York City (2002-)
- Moshe Dayan (1915-1981), Israeli politician and general. Directed the 1956 Suez War and Six-Day War
- Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881), British Prime Minister (1868 and 1874-1880), raised as an Anglican
- Kurt Eisner[?] (1867-1919), German politician (socialist), first prime minister of Bavaria
- Ruth Bader Ginsburg US Supreme Court Justice
- Emma Goldman (1869-1940), feminist and anarchist
- Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), founder of Zionism
- Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading[?] (1860-1935), British politician and Viceroy of India
- Henry Kissinger (born 1923), US Secretary of State (1973-1977), winner of 1973 Nobel Peace Prize
- Rosa Luxemburg (1870-1919), German Communist leader
- Karl Marx (1818-1883), founder of Marxism, raised as a Lutheran
- Ariel Sharon (born 1928), retired Israeli general, Prime Minister of Israel (2001-)
- Golda Meir (1898-1978), Prime Minister of Israel (1969-1974)
- Benjamin Netanyahu (born 1949), Prime Minister of Israel (1996-1999)
- Shimon Peres (born 1923), Prime Minister of Israel (1977, 1984-1986, and 1995-1996), shared winner of Nobel Peace Prize in 1994
- Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995), Prime Minister of Israel (1974-1977 and 1992-1995), shared 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, assassinated in 1995
- Walther Rathenau (1867-1922), German industrialist and statesman
- Jack Ruby (1911-1965) US assassin of assassin
- Herbert Samuel[?] (1870-1963), British politician and High Commissioner of Palestine
- Ariel Sharon (b. 1928), Israeli general and prime minister
- Leon Trotsky (1879-1940), Russian Bolshevik
- Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952), leading Zionist and first President of Israel
- Grigory Zinoviev (1883-1936), Russian Bolshevik
- Niels Henrik Bohr (1885-1962), Danish physicist, winner of 1922 Nobel Prize
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955), scientist, winner of 1921 Nobel Physics Prize
- Paul Erdös, prolific mathematician
- Richard Feynman (1918-1988), physicist
- Benoit Mandelbrot (born 1924), Mathematician, creator of fractal geometry
- Gregory Pincus (1906-1969), Biologist, inventor of the birth control pill
- Lionel Rothschild, 2nd Lord Rothschild[?] (1868-1937), British zoologist, businessman, and politician
- Oliver Sacks (born 1933), neurologist and author
See also: List of people by belief, List of Biblical figures