List of Jews from Sub-Saharan Africa

This is a list of Jews from Sub-Saharan Africa. It is arranged by country of origin. The vast majority of African Jews inhabiting areas below the Sahara live in South Africa, and are mainly of Ashkenazi (largely Lithuanian) origin. A number of Beta Israel also reside in Ethiopia. Additionally, small post-colonial communities exist elsewhere.

Cameroon

• Yaphet Kotto, actor (Cameroonian father)

DR Congo

• Olivier Strelli, fashion designer

Eritrea

• Yahnathan Michael,(A number of Beta Israel also reside in Eritrea)

Ethiopia

• Ephraim Isaac, Phd Princeton Scholar
• Adisu Massala, politician
• Esti Mamo, Ethiopian-Israeli model
• Meskie Shibru-Sivan, actress and singer
• Yosef Ben-Jochannan, historian

Mozambique

• Albie Sachs, ANC activist (lived in Mozambique during exile from South Africa)
• Ruth First, ANC activist (lived in Mozambique during exile from South Africa)

South Africa

Politicians and activists

• Hilda Bernstein, anti-apartheid activist
• Lionel Bernstein, anti-apartheid activist
• Harry Bloom, anti-apartheid activist
• Jules Browde, barrister, jusrist and anti-apartheid activist. Law school classmate of Nelson Mandela.
• Selma Browde, physician, anti-apartheid activist, former Councilwoman - Johanessburg City Council, AIDS activist.
• Arthur Chaskalson, chief justice
• Abba Eban, Israeli diplomat (South African-born)
• Bernard Friedman, anti-apartheid MP
• Richard Goldstone, judge and international war crimes prosecutor
• Joel Joffe, human rights activist
• Ronnie Kasrils, current South African Intelligence Minister
• Tony Leon, previous opposition leader
• Joe Slovo, ANC activist and leader of the South African Communist Party
• Harry Schwarz, anti-apartheid politician, lawyer and diplomat
• Helen Suzman, anti-apartheid MP
• Harold Hanson, QC and strong supporter of civil liberties
• Robin Philip Cranko, Lawyer, anti-apartheid activist

Other Jewish ANC activists included Ruth First, Albie Sachs and five of the six whites arrested in the Rivonia Trial: Denis Goldberg, Lionel Bernstein, Arthur Goldreich, James Kantor, Harold Wolpe and Gaby Shapiro.

Academics

• Abraham Manie Adelstein, UK Chief Medical Statistician^[1]
• Selig Percy Amoils, Inventor & Surgeon^[2]
• Moses Blackman, crystallographer
• Sydney Brenner, biologist, Nobel Prize (2002)
• Leo Camron, educationalist
• Sydney Cohen, pathologist (Jewish Year Book, 2005, p214, 230)
• Meyer Fortes, anthropologist
• Max Gluckman, anthropologist
• Frank Herbstein, crystallographer, 1926-2011^[3]
• Aaron Klug, chemist, Nobel Prize (1982)
• Ludwig Lachmann, economist^[4]
• Arnold Lazarus, psychologist
• Roland Levinsky,^[5] biologist
• Stanley Mandelstam, physicist (Jewish Year Book 2005 p214)
• Shula Marks, historian (Jewish Year Book 2005 p215)
• Frank Nabarro, physicist (Jewish Year Book 2005 p214)
• Seymour Papert, Artificial Intelligence pioneer
• Peter Sarnak, mathematician
• Isaac Schapera, anthropologist (Jewish Year Book 2005 p215)
• Anthony Segal, biochemist (Jewish Year Book 2005 p214)
• Phillip V. Tobias, palaeoanthropologist
• Joseph Wolpe, psychotherapist
• Lewis Wolpert, developmental biologist
• Basil Yamey, economist (Jewish Year Book 2005 p215,315)
• Solly Zuckerman, UK zoologist

Cultural figures

• Lionel Abrahams, poet
• Jillian Becker, writer
• Dani Behr, TV presenter
• Harry Bloom, writer and lecturer
• Lisa Chait, radio presenter
• Johnny Clegg, World Beat musician
• John Cranko, choreographer
• Graeme Friedman, writer
• David Goldblatt, photographer
• Nadine Gordimer, writer, Nobel Prize (1991)
• Laurence Harvey, actor
• Ronald Harwood, playwright
• Manu Herbstein, writer
• Dan Jacobson, writer
• Sid James, comic actor
• Danny K, pop singer
• William Kentridge, artist
• Lennie Lee, artist
• Laurence Lerner, poet
• Manfred Mann (Manfred Lubowitz), R&B keyboardist
• Sarah Millin, writer
• Trevor Rabin, guitarist & film composer
• Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro), political cartoonist
• Antony Sher, stage actor
• Janet Suzman, stage actress

Business and professional figures

• Raymond Ackerman, supermarket tycoon
• Alfred Beit, diamond magnate
• Donald Gordon, founder of insurance company Liberty Life, shopping centre owner & philanthropist
• Sydney Jacobson, newspaper editor^[6]
• Solomon Joel, financier^[7]
• Sol Kerzner, hotel & casino owner
• Sammy Marks, early entrepreneur from Pretoria
• Ernest & Harry Oppenheimer, diamond tycoons & philanthropists (Harry converted to Christianity)
• Percy Yutar, South Africa's first Jewish attorney general and prosecutor of Nelson Mandela in the 1963 Rivonia Treason Trial.^[8]

Sports figures

• Ali & Adam Bacher, cricketers
• Leo Camron, rugby union player and cricketer.
• Okey Geffin, rugby union player
• Ilana Kloss, tennis player
• Peter Lindenberg, powerboat racer (uconfirmed)
• Sarah Poewe, swimmer
• Philip Rabinowitz (runner), 100-year-old sprinter
• Jody Scheckter, Formula 1 driver
• Shaun Tomson, surfer
• Mandy Yachad, cricketer

Rugby union

• Max Baise, South African rugby union referee.^[9]
• Louis Babrow
• Leo Camron, South African who helped introduce rugby to Israel.,^[10] also a cricketer
• Okey Geffin, South African Rugby Union player^[11]
• Joe Kaminer
• Jonathan Kaplan, South African who holds the world record for refereeing the highest number of international rugby union test matches.^[9]
• Alan Menter, South African Rugby Union Player
• Cecil Moss, South African rugby union player and coach
• Sydney Nomis, South African Rugby Union player
• Wilf Rosenberg, rugby union player
• Fred Smollan
• Joel Stransky, South African rugby union player
• Morris Zimmerman

Zambia

• Denise Scott Brown, architect
• Stanley Fischer, IMF economist

Zimbabwe

• Norman Geras , professor of Government
• Anthony Gubbay, former chief justice
• Alexander Pines, chemist
• Roy Welensky, prime minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland

See also

• African Jews
• List of Jews
• List of South Africans

References