List of West European Jews

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List of Jews by
country
Europe
Eastern Europe | North Europe
South-East Europe
West Europe
Americas
Latin America | Caribbean
Canada | United States
Rest of World
Oceania | Sub-Saharan Africa
Arab World | Asia | Israel*
(*most are Jewish)

Apart from France, established Jewish populations exist in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. With the original medieval populations wiped out by the Black Death and the pogroms that followed it, the current Dutch and Belgian communities originate in the Jewish expulsion from Spain and Portugal, while a Swiss community was only established after emancipation in 1874. However, the vast majority of the population in the Netherlands and a large proportion of the one in Belgium were killed in the Holocaust, and much of the modern Jewish population of these countries (as well as of Germany and Switzerland) derives from post-Holocaust arrivals from Eastern Europe, Germany with an estimated Jewish population of around 200 000, 100 000 of which are officially affiliated with orthodox synagogues, 20 000 with "liberal Judaism", and the rest unaffiliated, is, due to recent immigration from Russia, now the fastest growing Jewish community in the world besides the State of Israel. Here is a list of some prominent West European Jews, arranged by country of origin.

Contents

[edit] Austria

Main article: List of Austrian Jews

[edit] Belgium

[edit] France

Main article: List of French Jews

[edit] Germany

Main article: List of German Jews

[edit] Ireland

[edit] Italy

[edit] Political figures

[edit] Religious and communal leaders

[edit] Academics

[edit] Musicians

[edit] Writers

[edit] Artists

[edit] Business

[edit] Other

[edit] Luxembourg

[edit] Monaco

[edit] Netherlands

[edit] Political figures

  • Job Cohen, mayor of Amsterdam
  • Louis Fles, activist
  • Samuel Gompers, labor union leader (Dutch parents)
  • Ed van Thijn, former mayor of Amsterdam, senator
  • Henri Polak, founder of diamond workers' trade union
  • Wim Polak, former mayor of Amsterdam
  • Ivo Samkalden, former mayor of Amsterdam (Jewish father)

[edit] Academics

[edit] Rabbis

[edit] Musicians

[edit] Writers

includes some notable Jews mentioned in their works
See also List of Dutch Jewish writers and poets

[edit] Artists

[edit] Actors

  • Julia Levy-Boeken, actress (Dutch father, French mother)
  • Sarah Bernardt, actress

[edit] Business

  • Solomon de Medina, Army contractor
  • Van den Bergh family, founders of Unilever
  • Roel Abraham, obituaries Dutch Jewish Weekly (NIW)

[edit] Sports people

[edit] Portugal

Main article: List of Iberian Jews

[edit] Scotland

Main article: List of Scottish Jews

[edit] Spain

Main article: List of Iberian Jews

[edit] Switzerland

[edit] United Kingdom

[edit] Notes

^ Of the 12 members of the 1928 Olympics Dutch Women's Gymnastics Team – the first ever women's gymnastics gold medalists – 5 were Jewish. All but Levie were murdered in the Holocaust.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ [http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v410/n6825/full/410164a0.html Obituary in Nature] "A member of a wealthy Italian Jewish family" Accessed 24 Nov 2006.
  2. ^ Concise Dictionary of National Biography: "an Italian Jew"
  3. ^ The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd ed 2001), art. Obadiah the Proselyte
  4. ^ Concise Dictionary of National Biography: "born Umberto Wolff in Milan of Jewish parentage"
  5. ^ Jewish Chronicle, March 16, 2007 p.36: "Nancy Dell'Olio is the ultimate Jewish princess"
  6. ^ [1] de Ridder - "he netted a Ajax's only goal in the Champions League game at Maccabi Tel Aviv, which Ajax lost in dramatic fashion. That fixture was a special one for De Ridder, who is Jewish and has an Israeli mother."
  7. ^ Fleishman, Jeffrey. "A farcical attack on Hitler taboos", The Los Angeles Times, 2006-12-17. Retrieved on 2006-12-17.