Personalities

Profiles of significant figures in Jewish thought, history, and culture

Biblical Figures

• Abraham
• Sarah
• Jacob
• Moses
• Korah
• Balaam
• Deborah
• Isaiah ben Amoz
• Jeremiah
• Ezekiel
• Joel
• Jonah
• Micah
• Ruth
• Esther
• Daniel

Rabbis, Thinkers, & Scholars

Ancient

• Josephus Flavius, historian
• Philo Judaeus, philosopher
• Hillel, Talmudic sage

Medieval

• Saadiah Gaon, Talmudist, philosopher, exegete
• Rashi, author of Bible and Talmud commentaries
• Rabbenu Tam, Talmudic commentator
• Judah Halevi, poet and philosopher
• Abraham Ibn Ezra, poet and biblical commentator
• Maimonides, thinker, codifier, Talmudist, doctor
• Hasdai Crescas, philosopher and communal leader
• Joseph Albo, philosopher
• Joseph Caro, author of the Shulhan Arukh code of Jewish law
• Shneur Zalman of Liady, founder of Chabad
• Nahman of Bratslav, Hasidic master
• Moses Mendelssohn, philosopher

Modern

• Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism
• Baruch Spinoza, philosopher, heretic
• Moses Sofer, fought the rise of Reform Judaism

• Hafetz Hayyim, 20th-century rabbinic luminary
• Heinrich Graetz, Historian
• Solomon Schechter, leader of Conservative Judaism
• Leopold Zunz, pioneer of academic Jewish Studies
• Nachman Krochmal, proponent of historical-critical Jewish studies
• Gershom Scholem, scholar of mysticism
• Samson Raphael Hirsch, the Father of Neo-Orthodoxy
• Emmanuel Levinas, 20th century philosopher
• Franz Rosenzweig, existential thinker and educator
• Hannah Arendt, teacher, writer, political theorist
• Walter Benjamin, 20th century intellectual
• Leo Baeck, theologian, teacher and rabbi
• Martin Buber, Existentialist
• Abraham Joshua Heschel, theologian, writer, mystic, social activist
• Mordecai Kaplan, founder of Reconstructionist Judaism
• Louis Jacobs, British rabbi and scholar
• Ray Frank, female preacher
• Joseph Soloveitchik, teacher, writer and community leader

Cultural Figures

Authors

• S.Y. Agnon
• Sholem Aleichem
• Yehuda Amichai
• Saul Bellow
• Abraham Cahan
• Leonard Cohen
• Allen Ginsberg
• Esther Kreitman
• Emma Lazarus
• Bernard Malamud
• Arthur Miller
• Cynthia Ozick
• Grace Paley
• I.L. Peretz
• Philip Roth
• Mendele Mokher Seforim
• I.B. Singer
• Art Spiegelman
• Elie Wiesel
• Anzia Yezierska
• Anne Frank

Artists

• Yaacov Agam
• Marc Chagall
• Chaim Soutine
• Jules Olitski

Filmmakers & Actors

• Woody Allen
• Mel Brooks
• Molly Picon
• Sarah Silverman
• Steven Spielberg

Musicians

• Salamone Rossi
• Yossele Rosenblatt
• Leonard Bernstein
• Bob Dylan
• Chava Alberstein
• Shlomo Carlebach
• Debbie Friedman

Athletes

• Hank Greenberg

National, Political, & Communal Figures

Business & Commerce

• Christopher Columbus: Was he Jewish?
• Glueckel of Hameln, German-Jewish merchant
• Lynn Schusterman, philanthropist

Zionism & Israel

• Theodor Herzl
• Ahad Ha-am
• A.D. Gordon
• Henrietta Szold
• Chaim Weizmann
• Yitzhak Rabin
• Ariel Sharon
• Shimon Peres
• Ehud Olmert
• Ze'ev Jabotinsky

Activism

• Simon Wiesenthal
• Betty Friedan
• Bella Abzug
• Lillian Wald

American Judaism

• Emma Goldman
• Rebecca Gratz
• Hannah Solomon

Photos, from left: The Baal Shem Tov, Art Spiegelman, Cynthia Ozick (by Julius Ozick), Theodor Herzl