List of Ukrainian Jews
Presented below are lists of famous or notable Ukrainian people of Jewish descent and other Jews born in the territory of present-day Ukraine.
Politicians
- Pinhas Krasny, Ukrainian minister of Jewish Affairs for the Directorate of Ukraine
- Moisei Rafes, deputy secretary of National Affairs for the General Secretariat
- Abraham Revutsky, Ukrainian minister of Jewish Affairs for the Directorate of Ukraine
- Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine
- Moishe Zilberfarb, deputy secretary of National Affairs for the General Secretariat
- Alexander Zolotarev, state controller for the General Secretariat
- Yukhym Zvyahilsky, former Prime Minister of Ukraine 1993-1994 and entrepreneur
- Volodymyr Groysman, current Prime Minister of Ukraine 2016-since
- Mykhailo Dobkin, former governor of Kharkiv Oblast 2010-2014
- Vadim Rabinovich, 2014 presidential candidate
- Hennadiy Kernes, Mayor of Kharkiv since 2010.
- Ihor Kolomoyskyi, former Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast 2014-2015
Russian/Soviet politicians
- Karl Radek, Soviet politician
- Grigory Sokolnikov, Bolshevik politician
- Abram Slutsky, headed the Soviet foreign intelligence service, then part of the NKVD
- Leon Trotsky, Soviet politician, the founder of the Red Army, commissar of Foreign Affairs
- Moisei Uritsky, Soviet politician, chekist
- Grigory Yavlinsky, Russian politician, head of a liberal "Yabloko" party
- Grigory Zinoviev, Soviet politician
Israeli politicians
- Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, second President of Israel
- Shmuel Dayan, Zionist activist, Israeli politician
- Levi Eshkol, Israeli Prime Minister
- Ephraim Katzir, fourth President of Israel
- Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister
- Natan Sharansky, Israeli politician
- Moshe Sharett, Israeli Prime Minister
Israeli military persons
- Yaakov Dori, first Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces ; President of Technion.
- Tzvi Tzur, sixth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces
Soldiers and Revolutionaries
- Pavel Axelrod, Menshevik, Marxist revolutionary
- Yakov Blumkin, Soviet spy
- Naftali Botwin, revolutionary terrorist
- Morris Childs, American communist and spy
- Leo Deutsch, revolutionary
- Raya Dunayevskaya, founder of Marxist humanism in the U.S.
- Israel Fisanovich, World War II submarine commander and Hero of the Soviet Union
- Grigory Goldenberg, revolutionary
- Ze'ev Jabotinsky, founder of British Jewish Legion
- Jacob Golos, Soviet spy
- Olga Kameneva, Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician
- Walter Krivitsky, Soviet spy
- Alexander Parvus, revolutionary, major investor and financial supporter of the October Revolution
- Sidney Reilly, a Ukrainian-born adventurer and Secret Intelligence Service agent
- Pinhas Rutenberg, Zionist, Social revolutionary
- Grigori Shtern, Red Army commander
- Naum Sorkin, Red Army military intelligence chief in the Far East
- V. Volodarsky, communist revolutionary
- Mark Zborowski, Soviet spy
- Iona Yakir, Red Army commander and one of the world's major military reformers between World War I and World War II
- Mishka Yaponchik, gangster, leader of the Odessa Jewish Resistance group in 1917-1921
Other Historical figures
- Michael Dorfman, Russian-Israeli essayist and human rights activist
- Yisroel ben Eliezer, Rabbi, founder of Hasidic Judaism
- Shlomo Ganzfried, Rabbi
- Fanny Kaplan, would-be assassin of Lenin
- Menachem Mendel Schneerson, Rebbe of the Chabad-Lubavitch branch of Hasidic Judaism
- Isroel Shmulson, architect
- Simon Wiesenthal, a Nazi hunter
- Sasha Zlobina, community builder
Business figures
- Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp
- Leon Bagrit, pioneer of automation
- Zino Davidoff
- Bernard Delfont, impresario
- Lew Grade, founder of ATV
- Ihor Kolomoyskyi, a major Ukrainian business oligarch
- Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal
- Hryhoriy Surkis, head of public organization Football Federation of Ukraine, Ukrainian parliamentary
- Viktor Vekselberg, billionaire, steelmaker
- Gennadiy Korban, Ukrainian businessman, Member of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish community of Dnipro, Patron of the Jewish community of Krivoy Rog
- Boris Lohzkin, President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine
Natural scientists
- Aleksander Akhiezer, physicist
- Matvei Petrovich Bronstein
- Mikhail Gurevich
- Waldemar Haffkine, biologist, developed vaccine against cholera and plague
- Boris Hessen, physicist
- Abram Ioffe, nuclear scientist
- Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov
- Veniamin Levich, electrochemist
- Boris Podolsky
- Isaak Pomeranchuk
- Jacob Rabinow
- Anatol Rapoport
- Grigory Shajn
- Iosif Shklovsky
- Vladimir Veksler
- Alexander Vilenkin, cosmologist
- Selman Waksman, biochemist, Nobel Prize
Mathematicians
- Naum Akhiezer, mathematician
- Vladimir Arnold, mathematician
- Chudnovsky brothers
- Vladimir Drinfeld
- Felix Gantmacher
- Israel Gelfand
- Alexander Goncharov
- Marc Kac, mathematician
- Naum Krasner
- Mark Krasnosel'skii
- Mark Krein
- Evgenii Landis
- Boris Levin
- Leonid Levin
- Boris Levitan
- Jacob Levitzki
- David Milman
- Vitali Milman
- Pierre Milman
- Mark Naimark
- Moses Schönfinkel
- Samuil Shatunovsky
- Pavel Urysohn
Social scientists
- Solomon Buber, Hebraist
- Ariel Durant, historian,
- Boris Eichenbaum, historian
- Mikhail Epstein, literary theorist
- Moshe Feldenkrais, inventor of the Feldenkrais method
- Alexander Gerschenkron, economic historian
- Jean Gottmann, geographer
- Zellig Harris
- Jacob Marschak, economist
- Elye Spivak
Musicians
- Simon Barere, pianist
- Felix Blumenfeld, pianist
- Shura Cherkassky, pianist
- Mark Donskoy, Soviet film director
- Isaak Dunayevsky, composer
- Mischa Elman, violinist
- Anthony Fedorov, singer, American Idol finalist
- Samuil Feinberg, composer
- Emil Gilels, pianist
- Maria Grinberg, pianist
- Mordechai Hershman, cantor and singer
- Jascha Horenstein, conductor
- Vladimir Horowitz, pianist
- Tina Karol, singer
- Leonid Kogan, violinist
- Mikhail Kopelman, violinist
- Oleg Maisenberg, pianist
- Samuel Maykapar, composer/pianist
- Nathan Milstein, violinist
- Benno Moiseiwitsch, pianist
- David Oistrakh, violinist
- Igor Oistrakh, violinist
- Leo Ornstein, composer
- Gregor Piatigorsky, cellist
- Pokrass brothers, composers
- Yossele Rosenblatt, cantor and composer
- Heinrich Schenker, music theorist
- Joseph Schillinger, composer, music theorist, and composition teacher
- Leo Sirota, pianist
- Isaac Stern, violinist
- Roman Turovsky-Savchuk, lutenist-composer
- Lyubov Uspenskaya, singer
- Yakov Zak, pianist
Fine artists
- Michael Matusevitch, painter
- Nathan Altman, painter and stage designer
- Boris Aronson, painter & designer
- Nudie Cohn, fashion designer
- Sonia Delaunay, painter
- Maya Deren, filmmaker
- Boris Efimov, cartoonist
- Naum Gabo, sculptor
- Boris Iofan, architect
- Ilya Kabakov, conceptualist artist
- Yevgeny Khaldei, photographer
- Jacob Kramer, painter
- Morris Lapidus, architect
- Louise Nevelson, sculptor
- Solomon Nikritin
- Jules Olitski, painter
- Leonid Pasternak, painter
- Antoine Pevsner, sculptor
- Olga Rapay-Markish, ceramicist
- Mikhail Turovsky, painter
- Roman Turovsky, painter
Performing artists
- Jacob Adler, actor
- Yosl Cutler. puppeteer
- Abraham Goldfaden, playwright and theatre director
- Alexander Granach, actor in theater and film
- Aleksei Kapler, film artist
- Mila Kunis, actress
- Anatole Litvak, director
- Alla Nazimova, actress
- Elena Ralph, model
- Yakov Smirnoff, American comedian
- Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukrainian screenwriter, actor, comedian, and director, who was elected the President of Ukraine in the 2019 Ukrainian presidential election.
Writers and poets
- Sholom Aleichem, Yiddish-language writer
- Eli Schechtman, Yiddish writer
- Isaac Babel, writer
- Eduard Bagritsky, poet
- Hayyim Nahman Bialik, poet
- Yosef Haim Brenner, Hebrew-language writer
- Sasha Cherny, poet
- Michael Dorfman, journalist and essayist
- Moysey Fishbein, poet
- Ilya Ehrenburg, writer
- Alexander Galich, playwright poet
- Asher Hirsch Ginsberg, Hebrew-language writer
- Lydia Ginzburg, writer
- Jacob Gordin, American playwright
- Erol Güney, journalist and translator
- Vasily Grossman, writer
- Ilya Ilf, writer
- Vera Inber, poet
- Alejandro Jodorowsky, Spanish-language writer and filmmaker
- A.M. Klein, poet
- Pavel Kogan, poet
- Lev Kopelev, author and dissident
- Clarice Lispector, writer from Brazil
- Benedikt Livshits, writer
- Nadezhda Mandelstam, writer
- Yunna Morits, poet
- Anatoli Rybakov, writer
- Boris Slutsky, war-time poet
- Shaul Tchernichovsky, poet and translator
Chess players
- Alexander Beliavsky
- Ossip Bernstein
- Isaac Boleslavsky
- David Bronstein, World Championship challenger
- Iossif Dorfman
- Louis Eisenberg
- Alexander Evensohn
- Efim Geller
- Eduard Gufeld
- Ilya Gurevich
- Mikhail Gurevich
- Nicolai Jasnogrodsky
- Gregory Kaidanov
- Alexander Konstantinopolsky
- Konstantin Lerner
- Moishe Lowtzky
- Vladimir Malaniuk
- Sam Palatnik
- Ernest Pogosyants
- Iosif Pogrebyssky
- Leonid Stein
- Mark Taimanov
- Boris Verlinsky
- Yakov Vilner