Presented below are lists of famous or notable Ukrainian people of Jewish descent and other Jews born in the territory of present-day Ukraine, before 20 century borderland region in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (later in Russian Partition and Austrian Partition).
Athletes
Oksana Baiul, figure skater, Olympic gold Alexei Beletski, Ukrainian-born Israeli, ice dancer, Olympian Oleksii Bychenko, Ukrainian-born Israeli, figure skater, 2016 European silver medallist, Olympian Artem Dolgopyat, Ukrainian-born Israeli, Olympic gold (artistic gymnast - floor) for Israel"DOLGOPYAT Artem" November 27, 2010. Olena Dvornichenko, Israel/Ukraine, rhythmic gymnastics Grigoriy Gamarnik, Ukrainian-born Soviet, world wrestling champion (Greco-Roman lightweight), world championship gold and silver Samuel Gerson, Ukrainian-born US, Olympic silver wrestling (freestyle featherweight) Natalia Gudina, Ukrainian-born Israeli, figure skater, Olympian Vadym Gutzeit (born 1971), saber fencer, Olympic champion, Youth and Sport Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Ishchenko ("Wild Man"), Ukraine/Israel, bantamweight & lightweight boxer, 2x European Amateur Boxing Championships medalist, and European Games medalist Moisei Kas’ianik, Ukrainian-born USSR, world weightlifting champion Marina Kravchenko, Ukrainian-born Israeli, Soviet and Israel national table tennis teams Lenny Krayzelburg, Ukrainian-born US swimmer, 4x Olympic champion (100 m backstroke, 200-m backstroke, twice 4x100-m medley relay); 3x world champion (100 m and 200-m backstroke, 4×100-m medley) and 2x silver (4×100-m medley, 50-m backstroke); 3 world records (50-, 100-, and 200-m backstroke) Grigory Kriss (born 1940), Ukrainian Soviet Olympic épée fencer who won four Olympic medals, including a gold medal Tatiana Lysenko, USSR/Ukraine gymnast, 2x Olympic champion (balance beam, team combined exercises), bronze (horse vault) Valeria Maksyuta, Ukraine/Israel gymnast, multiple World Cup medalist, Israeli Olympian, Maccabiah Games champion Valentyn Mankin, Soviet/Ukraine, only sailor in Olympic history to win gold medals in three different classes (yachting: finn class, tempest class, and star class), silver (yachting, tempest class) Faina Melnik, Ukrainian-born USSR, 11 world records; Olympic discus throw champion Andriy Oberemko, soccer/football midfielder (Mariupol & U21 national team) Igor Olshansky, NFL American football defensive end Zhanna Pintusevich-Block, Ukraine, sprinter, world 100-m & 200-m champion Katerina Pisetsky, Israel/Ukraine, rhythmic gymnast Maxim Podoprigora, Ukrainian-born Austrian swimmer Ian Rubin, Ukraine/Australia, Russia national rugby league team Igor Rybak, Ukrainian-born USSR, Olympic weightlifting champion (lightweight) David Tyshler (1927–2014), Ukraine-born Soviet sabre fencer, Olympic bronze medalist Yulen Uralov (1924–2026), Ukrainian Soviet Olympic foil fencer, and USSR champion Iosif Vitebskiy (born 1938), Soviet Ukrainian Olympic medalist and world champion épée fencer, and current US fencing coach Alexei Zhitnik, Ukraine-born Russia, hockey defenseman (NHL) Aleksandr Kolchinsky, heavyweight Greco-Roman wrestler, Olympic gold.
Politicians
Mykhailo Dobkin, former governor of Kharkiv Oblast 2010-2014 Volodymyr Groysman, former Prime Minister of Ukraine (2016–2019) Hennadiy Kernes, Mayor of Kharkiv 2010–2020 Ihor Kolomoyskyi, former Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast 2014-2015 Pinhas Krasny, Ukrainian minister of Jewish Affairs for the Directorate of UkraineEncyclopedia of Ukraine Serhii Mazlakh, pioneer of National Communism Vadim Rabinovich, 2014 presidential candidate Moisei Rafes, deputy secretary of National Affairs (Jewish Affairs) for the General Secretariat Abraham Revutsky, Ukrainian minister of Jewish Affairs for the Directorate of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President of Ukraine (2019–present) Moishe Zilberfarb, deputy secretary of National Affairs (Jewish Affairs) for the General Secretariat Alexander Zolotarev, state controller for the General Secretariat Yukhym Zvyahilsky, former Prime Minister of Ukraine 1993-1994 and entrepreneur Oleksandr Feldman, People's Deputy of Ukraine (2002–present) Oleksii Reznikov, 17th Minister of Defence (2021-2023) Andriy Yermak, former Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine (2020–2025)
Russian/Soviet politicians Karl Radek, Soviet politicianRussian Jewish Encyclopedia Grigory Sokolnikov, Bolshevik politicianRussian Jewish Encyclopedia Abram Slutsky, headed the Soviet foreign intelligence service (INO), then part of the NKVD Leon Trotsky, Soviet politician, the founder of the Red Army,Russian Jewish EncyclopediaFJC News A Jewish Renaissance in Russia"Trotsky was born of Jewish parents in the S Ukraine." "Trotsky, Leon" , The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-05."His father was a prosperous Jewish farmer. After attending a Jewish primary school, Trotsky became a student at a state school in the city of Odesa (Odessa) in 1888..." "Leon Trotsky" , Encarta, 2007. Archived 2009-11-01. commissar (Soviet minister) of Foreign Affairs Lazar Kaganovich, Stalinist politician and one of the organizers of the Ukrainian Holodomor and Stalinist Great Purge Moisei Uritsky, Soviet politician,Russian Jewish Encyclopedia chekist Grigory Yavlinsky, Russian politician, head of a liberal "Yabloko" partyRussian Jewish Encyclopedia (half Jewish) Grigory Zinoviev, Soviet politicianEncyclopædia Britannica: Zinovyev was born to lower middle-class Jewish parents" Lev Mekhlis - Soviet politician and a prominent officer in the Red Army from 1937 to 1942 V. Volodarsky - Marxist revolutionary and Soviet politician
Israeli politicians Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, second President of Israel (1952–63)Russian Jewish EncyclopediaMenachem BeginYitzhak BenZvi Bezalel Smotrich, Israeli Minister of Finance Shmuel Dayan, Zionist activist, Israeli politicianShemuel Dayan Levi Eshkol, Israeli Prime Minister (1963–69)Russian Jewish EncyclopediaLevi Eshkol Ephraim Katzir, fourth President of Israel (1973–78)Russian Jewish EncyclopediaOffice of the President Golda Meir, Israeli Prime Minister (1969–74)Russian Jewish EncyclopediaGolda Meir Natan Sharansky, Israeli politicianOnline NewsHour: Natan Sharansky - July 22, 1997 Moshe Sharett, Israeli Prime Minister (1954–55)Moshe Sharett
United States politicians Kirill Reznik, US Politician, Member, Maryland House of Delegates (2007–Present)
Israeli military persons Yaakov Dori, first Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) (1948–1949); President of Technion.The Pintov/ Dori Family Tzvi Tzur, sixth Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Forces (1961–1964)Knesset Member, Zvi Tsur
Soldiers and revolutionaries Pavel Axelrod, Menshevik, Marxist revolutionaryGoogle it Yakov Blumkin, Soviet spyRussian Jewish Encyclopedia Naftali Botwin, revolutionary terrorist Morris Childs (born Moishe Chilovsky), 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, revolutionaryRussian Jewish Encyclopedia Ze'ev Jabotinsky, founder of British Jewish Legion Russian Jewish EncyclopediaZe'ev (Vladimir) Jabotinsky Jacob Golos, Soviet spy Olga Kameneva, Russian Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet politician (sister of Leon Trotsky) Microsoft Word - 041cover.doc Walter Krivitsky (born Samuel Ginsberg), Soviet spy Alexander Parvus, revolutionary, major investor and financial supporter of the October Revolution Sidney Reilly (born Shlomo Rosenblum), a Ukrainian-born adventurer and Secret Intelligence Service agent Andrew Cook, M: Mi5's First Spymaster (Revealing History), 2004, Tempus Publishing, . Pinhas Rutenberg, Zionist, Social revolutionaryRussian Jewish Encyclopedia Grigori Shtern (Grigory Stern), Red Army commander (Colonel General) Naum Sorkin, Red Army military intelligence chief in the Far East (Major-General)Lurye, V. M. & V. Ya. Kochik (2002). GRU: Dela i Lyudi. Moscow: OLMA. p. 184. . V. Volodarsky (born Moisei Goldstein), communist revolutionaryRussian Jewish Encyclopedia 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 IIRussian Jewish Encyclopedia Mishka Yaponchik, gangster, leader of the Odesa Jewish Resistance group in 1917-1921
Other historical figures Michael Dorfman, Russian-Israeli essayist and human rights activist Yisroel ben Eliezer (The Baal Shem Tov), 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, Holocaust survivor, Nazi hunter, writer Semion Mogilevich, "boss of all bosses" of the worldwide Russian Mafia, former member of the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
Business figures Jan Koum, co-founder of WhatsApp Leon Bagrit, pioneer of automationTime Magazine Zino Davidoff Bernard Delfont, impresario Lew Grade, founder of ATV Ihor Kolomoyskyi, a major Ukrainian business oligarch Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPalMax Levchin likes the edge / Starting another company was the natural thing to do for PayPal co-founder 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 Kryvyi RihBoard of Trustees of the Jewish community of Dnipro Boris Lohzkin, President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine Michael Kogan, entrepreneur, founder of Taito
Natural scientists Aleksander Akhiezer, physicist Matvei Petrovich Bronstein Mikhail Gurevich Waldemar Haffkine, biologist, developed vaccine against cholera and plague Boris Hessen, physicistCJO - Abstract - The dilemmas of seditious men: the Crowther–Hessen correspondence in the 1930s Abram Ioffe, nuclear scientist Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov Veniamin Levich, electrochemistLevich Boris Podolsky Isaak Pomeranchuk Jacob Rabinow Anatol Rapoport Grigory Shajn Iosif Shklovsky Vladimir Veksler Alexander Vilenkin, cosmologist
Selman Waksman, biochemist, Nobel Prize (1952)
Mathematicians Naum Akhiezer Vladimir Arnoldhttp://www.hightech-mag.com/index.php/people/science-technology-nobels/jewish-turing-mathematics-prizes-fields-medal-and-others/ : "Following is a list of Jewish or Israeli recipients of Turing Prize, Fields Medal and other Mathematical Prizes to date:" Accessed 8 Apr 2007 Sergey Bernstein Chudnovsky brothers Vladimir Drinfeld Felix Gantmacher Israel Gelfand Alexander Goncharov Marc Kac Naum Krasner Mark Krasnoselsky Mark Krein Evgenii Landis Boris Levin Leonid Levin Boris Levitan Jacob Levitzki David Milman Pierre Milman Vitali Milman Mark Naimark Moses Schönfinkel Samuil Shatunovsky Pavel Urysohn Oscar Zariski
Social scientists Solomon Buber, HebraistJewishEncyclopedia.com - BUBER, SOLOMON: Ariel Durant, historian, Boris Eichenbaum, historian Mikhail Epstein, literary theorist Moshe Feldenkrais, inventor of the Feldenkrais method Alexander Gerschenkron, economic historian Jean Gottmann, geographerOxford Dictionary of National Biography: "born in Kharkov, Ukraine ... the only child of prosperous Jewish parents" Zellig Harris Jacob Marschak, economistJewish Economists Elye Spivak
Musicians Sophia Agranovich, pianist Simon Barere, pianist Sidor Belarsky,Brigham Young University Special Collections - Biography of Sidor Belarsky on lib.byu operatic basso and music educator Felix Blumenfeld, pianist Shura Cherkassky, pianist Michael Ben David, singer Isaak Dunayevsky, composer