Before the Holocaust, Jews were a significant part of the population in Lithuania where they numbered around 240,000, including approximately 100,000 in Vilnius, or about 45% of that city's pre-World War II population (Vilnius was also once known as the "Jerusalem of Lithuania"). A large Jewish community also existed in Latvia. In comparison, Estonia and the Nordic countries have had much smaller communities, concentrated mostly in Denmark and Sweden. The following is a list of prominent North European Jews, arranged by country of origin:

Denmark

  • Mogens Ballin, painter
  • Victor Bendix, composer, conductor and pianist
  • Susanne Bier, film director
  • Kim Bodnia, actor
  • Harald Bohr, mathematician and footballer (Jewish mother)
  • Niels Bohr, physicist, Nobel Prize (1922) (Jewish mother)
  • Victor Borge, entertainer
  • Edvard Brandes, politician, critic and author, minister of finance from 1909 to 1910
  • Ernst Brandes, economist and editor
  • Georg Brandes, author and critic, father of Danish naturalism
  • Marcus Choleva, chief executive officer of KFI
  • Dagmar Cohn, illustrator
  • Esther Gehlin, painter
  • Meïr Aron Goldschmidt, author and editor
  • Heinrich Hirschsprung, industrialist, art patron (Den Hirschsprungske Samling)
  • Arne Jacobsen, architect and designer (Jewish mother)
  • Abraham Kurland, Olympic wrestling medalist
  • David Bezmozgis, author
  • Boris Brutskus
  • Sergei Eisenstein, film director
  • Movsas Feigins, chess player
  • Morris Halle, linguist
  • Philippe Halsman, photographer
  • Joseph Hirshhorn, financier and philanthropist
  • Abraham Zevi Idelsohn, Jewish musicologist
  • Hermann Jadlowker, musician (born at Riga)
  • Mariss Jansons, conductor (Jewish mother)
  • Gil Kane, comic book illustrator
  • Alexander Koblencs, chess player
  • Abraham Isaac Kook, rabbi
  • Gidon Kremer, violinist; father was a Jewish Holocaust survivor
  • Nechama Leibowitz
  • Yeshayahu Leibowitz
  • Hermanis Matisons, chess player
  • Mischa Maisky, cellist
  • Solomon Mikhoels, actor
  • Aron Nimzowitsch, chess player
  • Arkady Raikin, performing artist
  • Yosef Rosen, der Rogatchover Gaon
  • Mark Rothko, painter
  • Judith Shklar, political philosopher
  • Meir Simcha of Dvinsk, rabbi
  • Mikhail Tal, world chess champion
  • Max Weinreich, linguist

Lithuania

  • Semyon Alapin (1856–1923), chess player
  • Mark Antokolsky (1840–1902), sculptor to Tzar Alexander II of Russia
  • Moshe Arens (1925–2019), former Minister of Defence and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Israel
  • Aaron Barak (born 1936), President of the Supreme Court of Israel
  • Zerach Barnett (1843–1935), one of founders of Mea Shearim (Jerusalem), Petach Tikva and Neve Shalom, Israel
  • Saul Bellow (1915–2005), writer and laureate of the Nobel Prize for Literature (1976)
  • Eliezer Ben-Yehuda (1858–1922), reviver of Hebrew
  • Bernard Berenson (1865–1959), art critic
  • Izis Bidermanas (1911–1980), photographer
  • Reuben Asher Braudes (1851–1902), Hebrew-language novelist and journalist
  • Victor David Brenner (1871–1924), designer of the US penny
  • Eli Broad (1933–2021), American philanthropist and investor; founder of KB Home
  • Sir Montague Burton (1885–1952), British retailer
  • Abraham Cahan (1860–1951), writer and activist
  • Leonard Cohen (1934–2016), musician, poet
  • David Cronenberg (born 1943), film director
  • Eliyahu Eliezer Dessler (1892–1953), rabbi, Talmudic scholar
  • Simeon Dimanstein (1886–1938), Soviet Commissar of Nationalities
  • Bob Dylan (born 1941), singer-songwriter, artist, writer
  • Ilya Ehrenburg (1891–1967), one of the most prolific and well-known writers during the Soviet Union
  • Nosson Tzvi Finkel (1849–1927), Orthodox Jewish leader
  • Vyacheslav Ganelin (born 1944), jazz musician
  • Sara Ginaite (1924–2018), former resistance fighter, now Canadian academic
  • Romain Gary (1914–1980), novelist, the Prix Goncourt (twice)
  • Morris Ginsberg (1889–1970), sociologist
  • Louis Ginzberg (1873–1953), scholar of the Talmud
  • Philip Glass (born 1937), classical composer
  • Leah Goldberg (1911–1970), poet
  • Emma Goldman (1869–1940), political activist
  • Nahum Goldmann (1895–1982), world Jewish leader
  • Chaim Grade (1910–1982), Yiddish writer
  • Iosif Grigulevich (1913–1988), secret agent, historian
  • Zvi Griliches (1930–1999), economist
  • Shira Gorshman (1906–2001), Zionist pioneer, Yiddish writer
  • Aryeh Leib ben Asher Gunzberg (–1785), rabbi
  • Bernard Lown (1921–2021), scientist, Nobel prize winner
  • Aron Gurwitsch (1901–1973), philosopher
  • Laurence Harvey (1928–1973), actor
  • Jascha Heifetz (1901–1987), widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of the 20th century
  • Sidney Hillman (1887–1946), political activist
  • Shemp Howard (1895–1955), comedian and actor
  • Moe Howard (1897–1975), comedian and actor
  • Curly Howard (1903–1952), comedian and actor
  • Jay M. Ipson (born 1935), founder of the Virginia Holocaust Museum
  • Leo Jogiches (1867–1919), revolutionary
  • Al Jolson (1886–1950), singer, comedian, and actor
  • Berek Joselewicz (1764–1809), colonel of the Polish Army
  • Joseph Kagan, Baron Kagan (1915–1995), clothes manufacturer
  • Yisrael Meir Kagan (1838–1933), rabbi
  • Daniel Kahneman (1934–2024), psychologist, Nobel Prize (2002) (Lithuanian parents)
  • Mordechai Kaplan (1881–1983), founder of Reconstructionist Judaism
  • Shlomo Kleit (1891–1962), political activist
  • Aaron Klug (1926–2018), chemist, Nobel Prize (1982)
  • Gurwin Kopel (1923–1990), artist
  • Lazare Kopelmanas (1907–1980), international law scholar
  • Abba Kovner (1918–1987), poet, writer
  • Abraham Dob Bär Lebensohn (–1878), Hebraist, poet, and educator
  • Micah Joseph Lebensohn (1828–1852), poet and translator
  • Phoebus Levene (1869–1940), biochemist
  • Emmanuel Levinas (1906–1995), philosopher
  • Isaac Levitan (1860–1900), landscape painter
  • Bernard Lewis (1916–2018), historian
  • Morris Lichtenstein 1889–1938), rabbi, founder of the Jewish Science
  • Jacques Lipchitz (1891–1973), cubist sculptor
  • Jay Lovestone (1897–1990), politician
  • Alexander Ziskind Maimon (1809–1887), author and scholar of the Talmud
  • Osip Mandelstam (1891–1938), poet and librettist
  • Abraham Mapu (1808–1867), Hebrew novelist
  • Isser Zalman Meltzer (1870–1953), rabbi
  • Harvey Milk (1930–1978), gay-rights activist
  • Hermann Minkowski (1864–1909), mathematician
  • Oskar Minkowski (1858–1931), physiologist
  • Benjamin Netanyahu (born 1949), Prime Minister of Israel
  • Mitchell Parish (1900–1993), Lithuanian-born American lyricist
  • Abram Rabinovich (1878–1943), chess player
  • Bar Refaeli (born 1985), Israeli supermodel, television host, actress, and businesswoman
  • Willy Ronis (1910–2009), photographer
  • Eduardas Rozentalis (born 1963), chess player
  • Yisroel Salanter (1809–1883), rabbi and Talmudist
  • Meyer Schapiro (1904–1996), art historian
  • Alexander Schneider (1908–1993), violinist and conductor
  • Lasar Segall (1891–1957), painter, engraver, and sculptor
  • Benjamin Schlesinger (1876–1932), American labor leader and former President of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union
  • Ben Shahn (1898–1969), artist
  • Esther Shalev-Gerz (born 1948), artist
  • Karl Shapiro (1913–2000), poet (Lithuanian parents)
  • Sam (1878–1905), Lee (1871–1953), and Jacob Shubert (1879–1963), theatre managers and producers (cf. Shubert Brothers)
  • Joe Slovo (1926–1995), ANC activist
  • Elijah ben Solomon (1720–1797), rabbi, the Gaon of Vilna
  • Maximilian Steinberg (1883–1946), classical composer
  • David Suchet (born 1946), English actor
  • Helen Suzman (1917–2009), anti-apartheid MP (Lithuanian parents)
  • Isakas Vistaneckis (1910–2000), chess player
  • Louis Washkansky (1912–1967), recipient of the world's first human heart transplant
  • Uriel Weinreich (1926–1967), linguist
  • Irv Weinstein (1930–2017), American broadcaster (Lithuanian parents)
  • David Wolfsohn (1855–1914), second President of the World Zionist Organization
  • Bluma Zeigarnik (1900–1988), psychologist and psychiatrist
  • Emanuelis Zingeris (born 1957), politician
  • William Zorach (1889–1966), painter, sculptor, printmaker, and writer
  • Louis Zukofsky (1904–1978), poet and professor (Lithuanian parents)
  • Benjamin Zuskin (1899–1952), actor

Norway

  • Bjørn Benkow, journalist, known for faking interviews
  • Jo Benkow, President of the Parliament of Norway
  • Carl Paul Caspari, professor in theology (Lutheranism)
  • Leo Eitinger (born in Slovakia), professor of psychiatry at University of Oslo and Holocaust survivor, known mainly for his work on late-onset psychological trauma amongst Holocaust survivors
  • Victor Goldschmidt, professor in mineralogy
  • Salo Grenning, pen name Pedro, editorial cartoonists in Verdens Gang
  • Berthold Grünfeld, specialist in psychiatry, and professor in social medicine until 1993
  • Imre Hercz, physician and public debater
  • Bente Kahan, Yiddish singer and actress
  • Hermann Kahan, Holocaust survivor, activist
  • Morten Levin, professor of organization and work science
  • Robert Levin, pianist
  • Oskar Mendelsohn, historian, known for his two-volume history of Norwegian Jews
  • Charles Philipson, Supreme Court Justice Judge, Chairman of the Petroleum Law Committee, deputy chairman of the Petroleum Council and chairman of the Riksel Committee
  • Moritz Rabinowitz, merchant, active in public debate against antisemitism and Nazism before World War II
  • Øystein Wingaard Wolf, poet and author

Sweden

  • Olof Aschberg, businessman and banker
  • Robert Aschberg, journalist, media executive, TV personality
  • Amalia Assur, first female dentist in Sweden
  • Lovisa Augusti, opera singer
  • Jean-Pierre Barda, musician
  • Mathilda Berwald, née Cohn, musician
  • Sharon Bezaly, flute soloist
  • Jonathan Conricus (born 1979), Swedish-Israeli IDF Lieutenant-Colonel (ret), IDF International Spokesperson
  • Jerzy Einhorn, pathologist and politician
  • Herbert Felix, entrepreneur
  • Aron Flam (born 1978), comedian, podcaster, and writer, and actor
  • Josef Frank, architect and designer
  • Isaac Grünewald, artist
  • Lars Gustafsson, writer and scholar
  • Johan Harmenberg, épée fencer, Olympic fencing medalist
  • Eli Heckscher, economist
  • Aaron Isaac, businessman from Swedish Pomerania, pioneer in the history of Sweden's Jewish population
  • Erland Josephson, actor and writer
  • Ernst Josephson, painter
  • Ragnar Josephson, writer and art historian
  • Anne Kalmering, singer
  • Mirjam Katzin, academic
  • Joel Kinnaman, actor
  • George Klein, pathologist and writer
  • Oskar Klein, physicist
  • Oscar Levertin, poet and literary historian
  • Jacob Marcus, businessman, pioneer in the history of Sweden's Jewish population
  • Rudolf Meidner, economist
  • Hanna Pauli, painter
  • Dominika Peczynski, musician
  • Alexandra Rapaport, actress
  • Marcel Riesz, mathematician
  • Göran Rosenberg, journalist
  • Bo Rothstein, political scientist
  • Nelly Sachs, poet, Nobel Prize (1966)
  • Jerzy Sarnecki, criminologist
  • Harry Schein, writer and culture personality
  • Leif Silbersky, lawyer and author
  • Sara Sommerfeld, actress
  • Ute Steyer, Sweden's first female rabbi
  • Mauritz Stiller, director
  • Marcus Storch, industrialist
  • Anna Warburg (1881–1967), educator
  • Peter Weiss, dramatist and writer

References