There was a large and thriving community of Jews, both religious and secular, in Czechoslovakia before World War II. Many perished during the Holocaust. Today, nearly all of the survivors have inter-married and assimilated into Czech and Slovak society.

Academics and scientists

Engineering

• Itzhak Bentov, inventor

• Daniel Mandl (1891–1944), civil engineer, inventor, victim of the Holocaust

Social science

• Guido Adler (1855–1941), musicologist, composer, writer, born in Ivančice (Eibenschütz), Moravia

• Yehuda Bauer, Czech-born Israeli historian of the Holocaust

• Samuel Bergman, philosopher

• Pavel Bergmann, historian, philosopher and political activist; signatory of charter 77;

• Berthold Bretholz, Moravian historian

• Vilém Flusser (1920–1991), self-taught philosopher

• Ernest Gellner (1925–1995), philosopher and social anthropologist

• Joseph Goldberger, discovered cure for pellagra

• Anna Hájková, (1978-) Holocaust historian and Theresienstadt expert

• Stephan Korner, philosopher

• Julie Moschelesová (1892–1956) A pioneering geographer in Czechoslovakia who emigrated to Australia

• Ernest Nagel, philosopher

• Samuel Steinherz (1857–1942), Czechoslovak mediaevalist

Mathematics

• Nikolai Brashman (1796–1866), mathematician

• David Gans (1541–1613), mathematician

• Joseph Kohn (1932–2023), mathematician

• Ernst Kolman (1892–1972), philosopher of mathematics

• Charles Loewner (1893–1968), mathematician

• Assaf Naor (born 1975), mathematician

• Alfred Tauber (1866–1942), mathematician

• Olga Taussky-Todd (1906–1995), mathematician

Medicine

• Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis; born in Příbor (Freiberg), Moravia

• Carl Koller (1857–1944), ophthalmologist

• Pavol Steiner (1908–1969), Olympic water polo player, swimmer, and cardiac surgeon

• Rudolf Vrba (1924–2006), pharmacologist (born in Slovakia)

Natural science

• Gerty Cori (1896–1957), biochemist

• Martin Fleischmann, chemist

• Eva Smolková‑Keulemansová, (1927-2024) professor of analytical science at Charles University.

• Rudolf Vrba, coauthor of the Vrba–Wetzler report, chemist

Arts/entertainment

• Bedřich Feuerstein (1892–1936), architect, painter and essayist

• Miloš Forman (1932–2018), film director, actor and script writer

• Arnošt Goldflam (born 1946), playwright, writer, director, screenwriter and actor

• Hugo Haas (1901–1968), actor and film director

• Juraj Herz (born 1934), film director, actor, and scenic designer (born in Slovakia)

• Miloš Kopecký (1922–1996), actor

• Hugo Lederer (1871–1940), sculptor

• Francis Lederer (1899–2000), actor

• Herbert Lom (1917–2012), actor

• Peter Lorre, actor

• Robert Maxwell (1923–1991), media mogul

• Emil Orlik (1870–1932), painter

• Alfréd Radok (1917–1976), writer and director in theater and film

• Karel Reisz (1926–2002), film director

• Ivan Reitman (1946-2022), film director (born in Slovakia)

• Emery Roth (1871–1948), architect (born in Sečovce at the present-day territory of Slovakia)

• Jan Saudek (born 1935), art photographer

• Anna Ticho (1894–1980), artist

• Jiří Weiss (1913–2004), film director and screenwriter

• Adrianna Demiany (née Roskovanyi) (born 1942), Slovak-Hungarian-Canadian Journalist (Born in Košice at the present-day territory of Slovakia)

Athletes

• Kurt Epstein (1904–1975), Czechoslovak national water polo team, Olympic competitor, incarcerated by the Nazis in Theresienstadt and Auschwitz

• Arie Gill-Glick (1930–2016), Israeli Olympic runner

• Ladislav Hecht (1909–2004), Czechoslovak-American tennis player, world #6

• Gertrude "Traute" Kleinová (1918–1976), table tennis, three-time world champion, incarcerated by the Nazis in Theresienstadt and Auschwitz

• Pavol Steiner (1908–1969), Olympic water polo player, swimmer, and cardiac surgeon

• Olga Winterberg (1922–2010), Israeli Olympian in the discus throw

Music

• Karel Ančerl (1908–1973), conductor, respected for his performances of contemporary music and particularly cherished for his interpretations of music by Czech composers

• Karel Berman (1919–1995), opera singer and composer

• Ignaz Brüll, composer and pianist

• Arthur Chitz (1882–1944) musicologist, composer, pianist, and conductor

• Alexander Goldscheider (born 1950), composer and producer

• Alfred Grünfeld (1852–1924), pianist and composer

• Pavel Haas (1899–1944), composer

• Eduard Hanslick (1825–1904), music critic

• Gideon Klein (1919–1945), composer of classical music

• Eliška Kleinová (1912–1999), pianist, music educator; sister of Gideon Klein

• Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957), composer

• Hans Krása (1899–1944), composer

• Egon Ledeč (1889–1944), music composer

• Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), music composer and conductor, Czech-born

• Herbert Thomas Mandl (1926–2007), concert violinist, professor at the Janáček Academy of Music in Ostrava, Holocaust survivor who was a contemporary witness to the rich cultural life in the Theresienstadt (Terezín) ghetto

• Ignaz Moscheles (1794–1870), composer and piano virtuoso

• Zuzana Růžičková (1927–2017), contemporary harpsichordist, interpreter of classical and baroque music

• Erwin Schulhoff (1894–1942), composer and pianist

• Julius Schulhoff (1825–1898), pianist and composer

• Walter Susskind (1913–1980), conductor

• Viktor Ullmann (1898–1944), composer, conductor and pianist

• Jaromír Weinberger (1896–1967), composer

Politicians

• Victor Adler (1852–1918), socialist politician, born in Prague

• Madeleine Albright (1937–2022), served as the 64th United States Secretary of State

• Ludwig Czech (1870–1942), leader and several times minister for the German Social Democratic Workers Party in the Czechoslovak Republic

• Jan Fischer (born 1951), prime minister of the Czech Republic (2009)

• Bruno Kafka (1881–1931), German-speaking Jewish Czech politician, leader from 1918 to his death of the Czechoslovak German Democratic Liberal Party, member of the National Assembly

• Ignaz Kuranda, politician

• Artur London (1915–1986), communist politician and co-defendant in the Slánský trial; born in Ostrava, Silesia, Austria-Hungary

• Rudolf Margolius (1913–1952), Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade (1949–1952), a victim of the Slánský trial

• Rudolf Slánský (1901–1952); Communist politician and the party's General Secretary after World War II; fell into disfavour with the regime and was executed after a show trial

• Michael Žantovský, politician and author; appointed to serve as the Ambassador to Israel in July 2003

• Vladimír Železný (born 1945), media businessman and politician, member of the European Parliament, founder of TV NOVA

Religious leaders

• Samuel Abramson, rabbi of Carlsbad

• Tzvi Ashkenazi, better known as Haham Zevi, chief rabbi of Amsterdam, prominent opponent of the Sabbateans

• Nehemiah Brüll, rabbi (born Rousínov, Moravia)

• Israel Bruna, rabbi (born Brno)

• Aaron Chorin, rabbi (born Moravia)

• Joseph H. Hertz (1872–1946), Chief Rabbi of the British Empire

• Isaac ben Jacob ha-Lavan, Bohemian tosafist

• Judah Loew ben Bezalel (1525?–1609), rabbi

• Mordecai Meisel, philanthropist and communal leader at Prague

• Karol Sidon, playwright, chief rabbi of Prague, and Convert to Judaism

• Salomon Weisz, cantor & Bar Mitzvah teacher in Znojmo and Trebic, cantor of Moravia and Bar Mitzvah teacher in Prague from 1946 to 1968.

Writers

• Henri Blowitz, journalist

• Max Brod (1884–1968), author, composer, and journalist

• Petr Brod (b. 1951), journalist

• Avigdor Dagan (1912–2006), writer

• Egon Hostovsky (1908–1973), writer

• Franz Kafka (1883–1924), novelist

• Siegfried Kapper (1821–1879), writer

• Ivan Klíma (1931–2025), novelist, playwright

• Leopold Kompert (1822–1886), author

• Heda Margolius Kovály, author and translator

• František R. Kraus (1903–1967), writer, journalist and reporter; wrote one of the first books ever about his experience in Auschwitz, published in 1945

• Jiří Langer (1894-1943), poet, scholar and essayist, journalist and teacher

• Arnošt Lustig (1926–2011), author of novels, short stories, plays and screenplays whose works have often involved the Holocaust

• Jiří Orten (1919–1941), poet

• Ota Pavel (1930–1973), writer, journalist and sport reporter

• Leopold Perutz (1882–1957), German language novelist and mathematician

• Karel Poláček (1892–1945), writer and journalist

• Tom Stoppard (born 1937), playwright, known for plays such as The Real Thing and Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead, and for the screenplay for Shakespeare in Love

• Hermann Ungar (1893–1929), writer of German language and an officer in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Czechoslovakia

• Jiří Weil (1900–1959), writer, novels Life with a Star (Život s hvězdou) and Mendelssohn is on the Roof

• Franz Werfel (1890–1945), Czech-born writer; married Mahler's widow

• Alfred Wetzler, writer

Other

• Jacob Bassevi (1580–1634), Bohemian Court Jew and financier

• George Brady (1928–2019), brother of Hana Brady

• Hana Brady (1931–1944), Holocaust victim

• Izrael Zachariah Deutsch, deaf memoirist

• Salo Flohr (1908–1983), leading chess master of the early 20th century

• Petr Ginz (1928–1944), boy deported to the Terezín concentration camp during the Holocaust

• Isaak Löw Hofmann, Edler von Hofmannsthal (1759–1849), merchant

• Ignác Kolisch, chess player

• Frank Lowy (born 1930), businessman

• Richard Réti (1889–1929), chess grandmaster

• Yoshua Samuel Rusnak (also "Yehoshua Sh'mu'el Rusnak"; died 1915), diasporan Jew and Zionist based in Kosice, Slovakia; many of his family members were murdered in the Holocaust at Auschwitz

• Wilhelm Steinitz (1836–1900), first World Chess Champion

• Irene Capek (1925–2006), Jewish holocaust survivor, humanitarian and local Australian politician

See also

• History of the Jews in the Czech Republic

• History of the Jews in Slovakia

• List of Austrian Jews

• List of Czechs

• List of East European Jews

• List of Slovaks

References

Footnotes