List of former Jews

List of former Jews, or more accurately, people of Jewish ethnicity and adherents of Judaism who have converted to another religion. According to certain concepts of Jewish being (cf. who is a Jew?), a Jew who converts to another religion is still "a Jew," by family and heritage alone, if not also by culture, and to a certain extent, belief (cf. monotheism).

Conversion to Bahá'í Faith

• Justin Baldoni^[1] (Everwood) Actor.
• Arvid Nelson is an American comic book writer, best known for Rex Mundi ^[2]

Conversion to Christianity

The Jewish Encyclopedia gives some statistics on conversion of Jews to Protestantism, Roman Catholicism, and Orthodox Christianity (which it calls "Greek Catholicism").^[3] Some 2,000 European Jews converted to Christianity every year during the 19th century, but in the 1890s the number was running closer to 3,000 per year—1,000 in Austria Hungary (Galizian Poland), 1,000 in Russia (Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, and Lithuania), 500 in Germany (Posen), and the remainder in the English world.

• Abd-al-Masih (martyr) – killed by his father for converting^[4]
• Michael Solomon Alexander – former Rabbi and first Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem^[5]
• Petrus Alphonsi – physician in ordinary to King Alfonso VI of Castile^[6]
• Juan Alfonso de Baena – medieval Castilian troubadour^[7]
• Lovisa Augusti- opera singer and actress.^[8]
• Eduard Bendemann – German painter^[9]
• Sir Julius Benedict – English composer^[9]
• Leo de Benedicto Christiano – medieval financier^[10]
• Theodor Benfey – German philologist^[9]
• Michael Bernays – German professor of literature^[9]
• Gottfried Bernhardy – German philologist and literary historian^[9]
• Ludwig Börne – German political writer and satirist^[9]
• John Braham – English tenor opera star^[9]
• Moritz Wilhelm August Breidenbach – German jurist^[9]
• Paulus Stephanus Cassel – German who worked with the Church's Ministry Among Jewish People.^[9]
• Julius Friedrich Cohnheim – German pathologist^[9]
• Isaac da Costa – Dutch language poet^[9]
• Abraham Capadose – Dutch physician and writer; friend of Isaac da Costa^[9]
• Carl Paul Caspari – Norwegian theologian^[9]
• Jehuda Cresques – Catalan cartographer^[11]
• Ferdinand David – German virtuoso violinist and composer^[9]
• Ludwig Dessoir – German actor^[9]
• Benjamin Disraeli – British Prime Minister and leader of the Conservative Party in the 19th century^[12]
• Alfred Döblin – German expressionist novelist^[13]
• David Paul Drach – Librarian of the Propaganda in Rome.^[9]
• Alfred Edersheim – Biblical scholar^[9]
• Rachel Felix – French-Swiss theatre actress^[9]
• Pero Ferrús – Castilian poet^[14]
• Achille Fould – French financier and politician^[9]
• Heinrich von Friedberg – German jurist and statesman^[15]
• Ludwig Friedländer – German philologist^[9]
• Arnold Fruchtenbaum – Founder of Ariel Ministries ^[16]
• Eduard Gans – German philosopher and jurist, exponent of the conservative Right Hegelians^[17]
• Hermann Mayer Salomon Goldschmidt – German astronomer and painter^[9]
• Heinrich Heine – German writer^[9]
• Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle – German physician, pathologist and anatomist^[9]
• Jorge Isaacs – Colombian writer, politician and soldier^[18]
• Heinrich Jacoby – German educator^[9]
• Georg Jellinek – German legal philosopher^[19]
• Paul S. L. Johnson – American scholar and pastor^[20]
• David Kalisch – German playwright and humorist^[9]
• Felix Philipp Kanitz – Austro-Hungarian naturalist, geographer, ethnographer, archaeologist and author of travel notes^[21]
• Leopold Kronecker – German mathematician and logician^[9]
• Lawrence Kudlow – American economist
• Hermann Lebert – German physician^[9]
• Karl Lehrs – German classical scholar^[22]
• Osip Mikhailovich Lerner – 19th century Russian intellectual and lawyer^[23]
• Fanny Lewald – German author^[9]
• Jean-Marie Lustiger- Cardinal, former Archbishop of Paris ^[24]
• Heinrich Gustav Magnus – German chemist and physicist^[9]
• Ludwig Immanuel Magnus – German mathematician^[9]
• Gustav Mahler – Composer (1860–1911)
• Hugh Montefiore – Anglican Bishop of Birmingham from 1977 to 1987
• Felix Mendelssohn – composer (1809–1847)^[9]
• Karl Friedrich Neumann – German orientalist^[9]
• Robert Novak – American Conservative Commentator
• Harry Frederick Oppenheimer – South African businessman^[25]
• Francis Palgrave – English historian^[9]
• Corey Pavin – PGA golfer^[26]
• Johannes Pfefferkorn – German theologian and writer^[9]
• Friedrich Adolf Philippi – German Lutheran theologian^[9]
• Lorenzo Da Ponte – Italian librettist^[9]
• Harry Reems – Adult film actor.^[27]
• David Ricardo – English political economist^[9]
• Gillian Rose – British philosopher and sociologist^[28]
• Moishe Rosen – Founder of Jews for Jesus^[29]
• Joe Rosenthal – American photographer
• Anton Rubinstein – Russian pianist, composer, and conductor^[9]
• Samuel Isaac Joseph Schereschewsky – Episcopal Bishop of Shanghai, founder of Saint John's University, Shanghai, bible translator^[30]
• Martin Eduard von Simson – German jurist and politician^[9]
• Dan Spitz – lead guitarist of the heavy metal band Anthrax^[31]
• Friedrich Julius Stahl – Prussian jurist and conservative thinker^[9]
• Edith Stein – Nun, martyr, saint.^[32]
• Mordechai Vanunu – considered a whistle-blower on Israel's nuclear programme who was subsequently kidnapped, tried and imprisoned by Israel.^[33]
• Rahel Varnhagen (born Rahel Levin) – writer and saloniste^[34]
• Simone Weil – French philosopher and activist ^[35]
• Otto Weininger – Austrian philosopher^[36]
• Joseph Wolff – German missionary^[9]
• Sir Moses Ximenes – 18th century English merchant^[9]
• David Levy Yulee, United States Senator from Florida^[37]
• Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. – American actor^[38][39][40]
• Israel Zolli – former Chief Rabbi of Rome^[41]

Conversion to Islam

• Abdullah ibn Salam – 7th century sahabi said to have been a rabbi of aristocratic stock.^[42]
• Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari – 9th century Persian scholar physician (a hakim), who produced the first encyclopedia of medicine.^[43]
• Ali ibn Sahl Rabban al-Tabari a well-known Jewish convert to Islam doctor, belonging to the famous medical school of Tabaristan or Hyrcania) & a tutor of medicine to Abu Bakr Muhammad ibn Zakariyya al-Razi (known to the West as Rhazes).
• Hibat Allah Abu'l-Barakat al-Baghdaadi – influential physicist, philosopher, and scientist who wrote a critique of Aristotelian philosophy and Aristotelian physics.^[44]
• Ibn Kammuna or was a 13th Century physician (ophthalmologist) and philosopher who lived in Baghdad.
• Ibn Yahyā al-Maghribī al-Samaw'al was an Arab Muslim mathematician and astronomer of Jewish descent.^[45] His father was a Jewish Rabbi from Morocco, but al-Samawʾal converted to Islam.^[46]
• Jacob Querido – 17th century successor of the self-proclaimed Jewish Messiah Sabbatai Zevi.^[47]
• Ka'ab al-Ahbar an Arab Jew later on became a Sahaby.
• Leila Mourad – Egyptian singer and actress who rose to fame in the 1940s and 1950s.^[48]
• Leopold Weiss or Muhammad Asad see below.
• Lev Nussimbaum – prolific author on the topics of Middle East and Russian history; the Nazi propaganda ministry included his works on their list of "excellent books for German minds" before discovering he was an ethnic Jew.^[49]
• Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss) – Viennese journalist who became Pakistani ambassador to the United Nations,^[50] his son Talal Asad is an anthropologist at the City University of New York
• Rashid-al-Din Hamadani – 13th century Persian physician^[51]
• Sabbatai Zevi^[52]
• Sarmad – 17th century mystical poet and sufi saint, arrived from Persia to India, beheaded for assumed heresy by Aurungzebe.^[53]
• Sultan Rafi Sharif Bey (Yale Singer) – a pioneer in the development of Islamic culture in the United States.^[54]
• Yaqub ibn Killis – 10th century Egyptian vizier under the Fatimids.^[55]

Conversion to Hinduism

• Krishna Das (born Jeffrey Kagel) – singer who performs Indian chants called kirtans
• Ram Dass (born Richard Alpert)- syncretist, and follower of the Hindu deity Hanuman. Professor of psychology at Harvard University^[56]
• Hridayananda Goswami (born Howard J. Resnick) – American spiritual leader of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness^[57]
• Tamal Krishna Goswami (born Thomas G. Herzig) – governing body commissioner of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness
• John Levy – British philosopher who translated books on Advaita Vedanta^[58]

See also

• List of people who converted to Judaism
• List of former Muslims
• Conversion to Judaism
• List of former Christians
• List of former Roman Catholics
• List of former Protestants
• List of former Latter Day Saints
• Messianic Judaism
• Jews for Jesus

References