XIXth century CE

French administrator born September 25, 1843 in Paris and died in the same city September 1, 1897, son of Léopold Javal. Ernest Léopold Javal was a lieutenant in the mobile guards during the…

French politician born in Mulhouse on December 1, 1804 and died in Paris on March 28, 1872, Léopold Javal, son of a wealthy merchant, took part as a second lieutenant in the expedition to Algeria…

Bene Israel born around 1820 in Bombay, Samuel Isaac Jawlikar enlisted in 1840 in the Third Bombay Native Light Infantry and rose through the ranks to the grade of subahdar-major in 1869; he served…

Professor at the Sorbonne from 1936 to 1967, specialist in Hegel and Husserl, he was one of the principal introducers in France of Kierkegaard and Heidegger. Interned at Drancy then refugeed in the…

Jewish German feminist (1852–1899)

Portuguese musician

Rabbi of Byelsk, in the government of Grodno, born in 1820 and died on April 2, 1886, Aryeh Löb Jelin was one of the most consulted Russian rabbis on matters of halakha. Author of the « Qol Aryeh »…

Polish rabbi born in Yanov in 1806 and died in Cracow on 14 July 1876, Abraham Naphtali Hirz Jener, trained by his father and his brother Johanan, settled in Cracow in 1826 to conduct business,…

first woman and first foreign student of the University of Cologne, Holocaust victim (1897–1944)

Hungarian actor

Dutch chief rabbi (1820–1888)

Polish halakhist (1846-1934)

Jerome David Kern (1885-1945), American composer of musical comedies (notably Show Boat), born in New York to a Jewish father who immigrated from Germany, Henry Kern, and an American Jewish mother of…

Obstetrician, pioneer of maternal health; Bene Israel community of Bombay.

American rabbi

Jacob Jewell was the owner of the largest traveling circus in England. He died in September 1884, after having been tenant, under the authority of W. Holland, of the North Woolwich gardens for about…

Abraham Jonah ben Isaïe Jewnin was a Russian Talmudist from Paritz, in the government of Minsk, who died young in Grodno on June 12, 1848. He is the author of novellae on the works of Maimonides,…

Solomon Ballajce Jhiratkar was a Bene Israel soldier, enlisted in 1818 in the 14th regiment of indigenous infantry of Bombay. He was promoted jemidar in 1839, subahdar in 1843 then subahdar-major in…

Jewish Czech poet, translator and writer (1894-1943)

Czech writer of Jewish origin born in Bohemia in 1900. Doctor of Comparative Literature and Slavic Philology (University of Prague, 1928). He escaped deportation by feigning his death and living in…

Austrian rabbi

Czech rabbi

Joseph Joachim, Hungarian violinist, was born in Kittsee, near Bratislava, on June 28, 1831. After studies with Szervaczinski in Budapest, then with Joseph Böhm in Vienna and Ferdinand David in…

Philip J. Joachimsen, jurist and American community leader, was born in Breslau in November 1817 and died in New York on 6 January 1890. Emigrated to New York in 1827, admitted to the bar in 1840, he…

Ferdinand J. Joachimsthal, German mathematician, was born on May 9, 1818 in Goldberg, Silesia, and died on April 5, 1861 in Breslau. Doctor of Berlin University in 1842, he taught there in a…

Georg Joachimsthal, German physician, was born in Stargard, Pomerania, on May 8, 1863. Graduated in medicine from the University of Berlin in 1887, he became in 1890 assistant in orthopedic surgery…

Waldemar Jochelson, Russian explorer and ethnologist, was born in Wilna on January 1, 1856. Engaged in the revolutionary movement, he had to leave Russia in 1880, was arrested upon his return in 1884…

French rabbi

German rabbi

David Joël, German rabbi and author, was born on January 12, 1815 in Inowrazlaw, in the province of Posen, and died on September 7, 1882 in Breslau; he was the brother of Manuel Joël. Ordained rabbi…

Karl Joël, German philosophical writer, was born on March 27, 1864 in Hirschberg, Silesia; he was the son of rabbi H. Joël of that city and the nephew of David and Manuel Joël. Doctor of philosophy…

Lewis Joël, British Consul General to Chile, was born in Dublin in 1824 and died in London on February 28, 1899. Appointed unpaid British vice-consul in Cobija in May 1861, he was interim Consul of…

Electrical engineer and industrialist (light bulb factory in Vienna), close advisor to Theodor Herzl. First president of the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemet, 1902-1907): he is at the origin of…

Born in Königsberg into a Jewish family (son of Nathan Rosenhain and Röschen Joseph), student of Carl Jacobi at Königsberg University. He introduced theta characteristics and the sixteen theta…

American football player

Mayor of Adelaide (1855-58)

Swiss German psychologist, collaborator of C. G. Jung (1890-1973)

Zechariah Isaiah b. Mordekhai Jolles, rabbinic scholar, was born around 1814 in Lemberg and died in Minsk on May 14, 1852. He settled in Minsk in 1834, after his marriage to the daughter of Jacob…

Heymann Jolowicz (Hayyim ben Abraham), German preacher and author, was born on August 23, 1816 in Santomischl, in Posen, and died in Königsberg on January 31, 1875. Trained at the University of…

Yiddish short-story writer, master of psychological prose.

Jonas ben Judah Gershon, rabbi and author, died in Vilna in 1808, where he served as dayan. Judging the text of the Tosefta corrupted, he prepared a critical edition accompanied by commentary,…

Benjamin Franklin Jonas, lawyer, soldier and American statesman, was born on 19 July 1834 in Williamstown, Kentucky. A graduate of the law faculty of the University of Louisiana in 1855, he fought on…

Emil Jonas (Jacob), German writer and publicist, was born on July 14, 1824 in Schwerin, Mecklenburg. Editor-in-chief of the Flensburger Zeitung from 1845, he settled in Copenhagen in 1847; a pamphlet…

Émile Jonas, French musician, was born in Paris on March 5, 1827. Entered the Conservatory in 1841, he obtained there the first prize in harmony in 1847 and the Grand Prix de Rome in 1848, before…

Aaron b. Tsevi Jonathanson, Russian Hebraist and poet, was born around 1815 and died in Kovno on July 27, 1868. Descendant of Jonathan Eybeschütz through his father, settled in Vilna, he exercised…

Alfred T. Jones, editor and community activist, was born in Boston on July 4, 1822 and died in Philadelphia on October 3, 1888. Settled in Philadelphia in 1842, he founded the Jewish Record there in…

Moroccan writer

Polish rabbi

rabbi

Josef Franz Hupka, born in Vienna on February 22, 1875, was professor of law at the University of Vienna from 1915 and dean of the law faculty in 1926-1927. In 1938, he was removed through forced…

Hungarian rabbi

German-Moravian rabbi and translator (1812–1897)

holocaust victim, b. 1866-02-25

Rafael Joseffy, American piano virtuoso, was born in 1852 in Hunfalu, Hungary, and gave his first public concert in Budapest around the age of ten. In 1864, his father took him to study at the…

Israeli painter born in Ukraine, one of the principal promoters of modern art in the Yishuv and the State of Israel. Co-founder of the group « Ofakim Hadashim » (New Horizons), he developed a style…

German rabbi

Co-founder, with his brother Lyman, of the great New York department store Bloomingdale's (1872), a figure of the American Jewish bourgeoisie of German origin.

Joseph b. Jacob Isaac was rabbi in Yampol then in Zamość, in Russia; he died in 1807. He is the author of the Michnat Hakhamim, a work on various subjects including the Madda' of Maimonides (Lemberg,…

Polish rabbi

Born in Kamenets (Ukraine), settled in Erets-Israël in 1906, he was in 1910 one of the founders of the first kvoutza, Degania Alef, cradle of the kibbutz movement. He recounts this founding in a book…

British activist

Judge at the rabbinical court of Tetuan, author of five works (commentaries, homilies, responsa and piyyoutim), among which "Shufreih di-Yosef", printed in Alexandria in 1897.

Dayan of Meknès, author of a lexicon of Hebrew grammatical roots, Ketonet Yosef.

Yiddish worker and anarchist poet of the sweatshops.

Born in Tunis in 1888, died September 26, 1924. Trained at the yeshiva of rabbi Shlomo Dana and at the Alliance israélite universelle, he became a Hebrew teacher, secretary to the Chief Rabbi Moshé…

Coming to Erets-Israël as a child from Ukraine, he was an interpreter in the Turkish army during the First World War, then a Hebrew teacher and explorer of Transjordan and the Negev. From 1938 he…

American rabbi

Romanian Jewish jurist, activist, communal leader (1846 – 1918)

German rabbi

Minister of Finance, Minister of Communications in Egypt

Russian Jewish physician, Hovevei Zion leader in Bialystok, whose personal library became the founding collection of what is now the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem.

Canadian political figure

Born in Mainz, settled in Paris, he was one of the great Jewish Orientalists of the 19th century. Specialist in Saadia Gaon, he undertook a complete edition of his works in Arabic and French, and…

Joseph Ezekiel Rajpurkar (1834–1905), from a Bene Israel family of Bombay, was trained in Hebrew and English by John Wilson. Director of the David Sassoon Benevolent Institution for forty years,…

Russian financier and philanthropist

Listed by the Jewish Virtual Library and the ANU museum among the most prominent Jewish personalities of Baghdad in the 18th–19th centuries (alongside Abdallah Somekh, Ezéchiel b. Reuben Manasseh,…

Polish author (1833–1911)

Entrepreneur and art collector of Ashkenazi Jewish origin, born in Mitau (Latvia), whose donation founded the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington. Name borne under the anglicized…

Born in Sydney, died in Yonkers (New York). A renowned folklorist (English Fairy Tales, Celtic Fairy Tales, Indian Fairy Tales), he was also a historian of English Judaism and statistician. In 1900…

German rabbi

Sage and kabbalist of Essaouira, prolific author for the people in Judeo-Arabic.

American rabbi

Playwright of the early Yiddish theatre, pillar of popular repertoire in New York.

French rabbi

German archaeologist and historian

American judge (1877–1971)

Hungarian rabbi

Owner of a Fleet Street printing house, he became in 1855 owner of the Daily Telegraph & Courier, which he transformed into London's first daily newspaper at a penny — pioneer of British popular…

Sephardic Ottoman Jew born in Adrianople. General director of the Mikvé Israël agricultural school (Alliance Israélite Universelle) for more than fifteen years; adviser to the JCA in Palestine…

German rabbi

Banker of Rhodes without children, he devoted his fortune to the poor of the community, particularly to needy children. The Joseph Notrica Foundation funded in the 1920s the « Notrica Foundation…

Polish-born Yiddish writer (1886 – 1954)

rabbi and author

German rabbi

Russian-British engineer

American journalist of Hungarian origin

Collaborator of Gambetta and then a Dreyfusard figure, he devoted a reference history in seven volumes to the Affair. He was also the principal architect of a French translation of the works of…

Yiddish poet, celebrated precursor of the Di Yunge group.

Austrian politician

Polish rabbi

Jewish geographer

American rabbi

Egyptian businessman

French aeronautical engineer

Joseph Tilche was, around 1900, president of the Menasce synagogue and director of the school attached to it in Alexandria; he managed the funds of the synagogue's offerings and, with Moses Aziz,…

Austrian lawyer, writer and politician

Canadian rabbi

first Chief Rabbi of Geneva, professor of comparative philology, native of Alsace

rabbi, Old Testament commentator and Hebrew linguist (1842–1910)

German rabbi (1867–1942)

German Jewish bibliographer. From 1845 he was librarian of the Hebrew department of the British Museum in London until 1869. There he catalogued in particular the Heimann J. Michael collection of…

David Joseph, German architect, was born on July 4, 1863 in Königsberg. Qualified as an architect in 1888, he settled in Berlin that same year, obtained a doctorate in philosophy at Heidelberg in…

Henry Samuel Joseph, English Jew converted to Christianity, was born in 1801 and died in Strasbourg on January 28, 1864. First preacher at the synagogue in Bedford, he converted, was ordained in 1839…

Morris Joseph, English rabbi, was born in London on May 28, 1848. Appointed rabbi of the North London synagogue in 1868, he joined in 1874 the Hebrew congregation of Liverpool, where he served as…

Samuel A. Joseph, pioneer and Australian politician, was born in London in 1824 and died in Sydney on September 25, 1898. Emigrated to New Zealand at eighteen, he acquired such mastery of the Māori…

American essayist, book critic, transcendentalist, and Zionist

Austrian-Swedish sculptor and painter (1886–1981)

Pedagogue and English community worker, born in London on November 22, 1804 and died on January 24, 1893. He was closely associated with the direction of several Jewish institutions, including the…

United States Navy chaplain

Lithuanian writer

Rabbi (c.1803–1878)

Polish rabbi and linguist

Hungarian politician

Hungarian publisher

Talmudic scholar and rabbinic judge in Tunis, member of the Tunisian rabbinate, nephew of Juda Cohen Tanugi. Prolific author of commentaries (Mekhilta, Sifre, SeMaG, minor treatises, hermeneutical…

American politician and jurist

South African rabbi

Reform rabbi (1877-1948)

Australian political figure

Storyteller of Bessarabia, Hebrew fables and tales for children and adults.

Industrialist, consul general, and American chess player, born December 27, 1851, in Cracow, emigrated to the United States at eleven years of age and naturalized by an act of Congress that…

Madame Judith, born Julie Bernat, is a French actress born in Paris on January 30, 1827. She made her debut at the Théâtre des Folies-Dramatiques in 1842, where her melodious voice earned her the…

French rabbi

French political figure

Polish poet

German Jewish fashion journalist and art collector (1866-1943)

Born in Paris into a wealthy and assimilated Jewish family, educated at the lycée Louis-le-Grand and the Sorbonne, he is best known for « La Trahison des clercs » (1927), in which he denounces…

French rabbi

Jewish publisher of Mannheim, member of the synagogue council and local politician. With his brothers Sigmund and Albert, he directed the publishing house Bensheimer, which became a reference…

Hungarian rabbi (1832-1883)

Polish-American anthologist, diarist, encyclopedist, Jewish scholar, historian and philanthropist (1854–1956)

German art historian

German rabbi and theologian (1880-1950)

German ophthalmologist, university lecturer and medical historian (1843-1925)

personnalité politique américaine

German rabbi

Born in Constantinople in 1873 into an assimilated and prosperous Russian Jewish family, grandson of Alexandre Zederbaum. Social-democrat theorist, he became the principal leader of the Menshevik…

Austro-Hungarian chemist

Czech Jewish entrepreneur (1856-1932)

American businessman, philanthropist and NAACP member

Austrian pianist

New Zealand politician, writer and journalist (1835-1899)

Dutch rabbi

Convert to Christianity and anti-Jewish polemicist, born in Costinasti, in Romania, around 1860 under the name Aaron Briman. After studying rabbinics at the rabbinical seminary of Berlin while…

Galician scholar established in Brody in the first half of the 19th century. He translated from German into Hebrew Hufeland's "Macrobiotik," a treatise on the art of prolonging human life, under the…

Hungarian journalist and writer, born December 2, 1864 in Nagy-Károly. Destined for teaching, he turned to journalism, becoming parliamentary columnist and serial writer for « Pesti Napló », then…

Teacher in Rechnitz, Hungary, in the first half of the 19th century. Weakened by illness after many years of teaching, he gathered his pedagogical experience in the « Otsar ha-Ḥayyim » (Prague,…

Yiddish poetess and writer, major figure of twentieth-century women's poetry.

Rabbi and Austrian orientalist, born in Lissa, in Posania, on May 6, 1818, and died in Prague on October 16, 1892. Trained in Berlin and then in Posen under Akiba Eger, he studied at the University…

Russian Hebrew scholar, born December 19, 1874 in Skomorochy, near Jitomir. He wrote or edited numerous works between 1896 and 1904—including a Hebrew biography of Moses Ḥayyim Louzzatto (Warsaw,…

Jacob ben Abraham Kahana is a rabbinic author who died in Wilna in 1826, son of the rabbi of Brestowitz, government of Grodno, and son-in-law of R. Issachar of Wilna, brother of Elias of Wilna.…

Belgian pedagogue and writer, born on September 9, 1827 in Breisach, Baden, educated at the Progymnasium of his native city then at the polytechnic school and pedagogical seminary of Carlsruhe. After…

German composer and pianist, born in Mannheim on 21 July 1865, student of Ernst Frank and Vincenz Lachner in Mannheim, Friedrich Kiel in Berlin and Joseph Rheinberger in Munich. After stays in Vienna…

Hazan and composer, born November 10, 1840 in Szobotist, Hungary, trained in Vienna where, from age ten, he sang in Salomon Sulzer's choir. Assistant cantor at Fünfhaus from 1859, then cantor of the…

Austrian actress, born in Lemberg, where she made her debut in 1893 at the Scarbeck theater in a small role of « Mignon », in Polish, before being engaged at the Jewish theater of the city and then,…

German playwright and humorist, born in Breslau on February 23, 1820 and died in Berlin on August 21, 1872. Orphaned of his father at seven years old, forced to work early in commerce, he became…

Rabbi and American author, born November 15, 1816 in Krotoschin and died May 11, 1886 in Newark, New Jersey; trained at the universities of Berlin, Breslau and Prague, he was forced to leave Germany…

German novelist, born on September 7, 1814 in Lissa and died on March 3, 1882 in Paris. Left home at age twelve, successively peddler, merchant then tutor, he saved enough to study medicine then…

Hebrew scholar and biblical commentator, born in Treptow, Pomerania, on May 16, 1828, and died in Derbyshire, England, on August 24, 1885. Trained in Berlin, where he obtained his degrees in 1848, he…

German singer, born in Berlin on November 6, 1855, son of David Kalisch, founder of « Kladderadatsch ». Destined for architecture, he was drawn toward singing after impressing Pollini and Adelina…

German Talmudist, died on April 18, 1822 in Lissa, where he was a dayan and had directed the yeshiva for more than fifty years, training a large number of students. He is the author of "Ha-Yad…

German composer, pianist and physicist, born October 8, 1845 in Thorn, in western Prussia, trained at the Jewish theological seminary in Breslau and at the universities of Breslau and Berlin, where…

Danish convert to Protestantism, born November 27, 1802 in Stockholm and died in Gladsaxe, near Copenhagen, on February 3, 1886. Son of a rabbi who gave him his first instruction, he began legal…

Hungarian rabbi and author, died in Kolín, Bohemia, in 1805, grandson of Meïr Eisenstadt, author of the "Panim Me'irot". Rabbi of Rechnitz then of Kolín, he wrote the "Or Ḥadash" in three parts — a…

Historian of Yiddish literature and journalist.

Russian historian

Born in Sarajevo to "one of the oldest Sephardic families of Bosnia-Herzegovina." Ph.D. from the University of Vienna, specialist in Judeo-Spanish (Ladino) and Hispanic literature. He collected and…

Russo-Jewish philanthropist (1824–1904)

Russian physician, poet and Hebraist satirist, born in Levkiev, near Jitomir, in 1834, and died in Bern on March 30, 1901. Married at sixteen after a strictly religious education, he subsequently…

Russian scholar, born in Berditchev on May 5, 1866, trained at Israel Hildesheimer's rabbinical seminary in Berlin, then in Hamburg, Riga, at the University of Berlin, at the Hochschule für die…

Hungarian botanist, born on April 25, 1843 in Lugos and died on July 12, 1896 in Klausenburg. A student in Vienna, he published from 1863 onwards a history of botany in Hungary, followed by other…

Hungarian archaeologist and ethnographer, born in Budapest on August 2, 1829 and died in Vienna on January 8, 1904. Entered the University of Vienna at seventeen to study art, he traveled after 1850…

French musician, born in Paris on February 28, 1857, student of Massenet and Duvernoy. He produced in 1895, in Lyon, the oratorio « Ruth », followed by the two-act opera « Gaitanne » (1898) and the…

Russian journalist, born in Vilna in 1849, state rabbi of Libau, in Courland. Trained at the rabbinical schools of Vilna then Zhytomyr, he also studied medicine in Berlin without ever practicing it,…

Russian Hebraist writer, born in Wilke on July 25, 1839 and died in Vienna on February 2, 1897, where he settled as a publicist after making a name for himself as a Hebrew author. He translated into…

Russian painter and draftsman, born in Sebastopol on July 19, 1872. Left for Paris, he entered in 1885 the School of Decorative Arts then, three years later, the École des beaux-arts, where he was a…

Russian teacher and Hebrew poet, born in Trishki, in the Kovno governorate, in 1826, and died in Riga on June 14, 1888, student of M. A. Guinzbourg. Recognized pedagogue — his school in Riga became a…

Austrian dermatologist, born in Kaposvár, Hungary, on October 23, 1837, and died on March 6, 1902. Doctor of Medicine from Vienna in 1861, he became a lecturer there in 1866, associate professor in…

Austrian poet and physician, born in Smíchov, near Prague, on March 21, 1821, and died in Pisa on June 7, 1879; trained at the universities of Prague and Vienna, where he obtained his doctorate in…

Electrician and Austrian deputy, born in Semic, Bohemia, on February 14, 1837, trained at the technical institute in Prague. In state service from 1858 to 1896 — first in topographical surveys in…

Rabbi of Bohemia, who exercised successively in Gawartschew, Lask, Dasparschi, and Widowa before being called in 1801 to Náchod, where he remained until 1806. He is the author of « She'eltot ABiYaH…

German soldier, born in Beuthen, Silesia, on February 21, 1848, and fell in battle at Le Bourget on October 30, 1870. Volunteer enlisted in 1866, he fought the Seven Weeks' War, then distinguished…