List of Jews from Sub-Saharan Africa

Last updated June 23, 2025

This is a list of Jews from Sub-Saharan Africa . It is arranged by country of origin. The vast majority of African Jews inhabiting areas below the Sahara live in South Africa, and are mainly of Ashkenazi (largely Lithuanian) origin. A number of Beta Israel also reside in Ethiopia. Additionally, small post-colonial communities exist elsewhere.

Cameroon

Yaphet Kotto, actor (Cameroonian father)

DR Congo

Léon Kengo wa Dondo, Prime Minister of Zaire (Polish-Jewish father)^[1]
Moïse Katumbi, businessman and politician (Greek-Jewish father)^[2]
Olivier Strelli, fashion designer

Ethiopia and Eritrea

Ephraim Isaac, Phd Princeton Scholar
Adisu Massala, politician
Esti Mamo, Ethiopian-Israeli model
Meskie Shibru-Sivan, actress and singer

Kenya

Israel Somen, businessman and diplomat
Jonathan Somen, entrepreneur
Erica Mann, architect, town planner, NGO leader, women's cooperatives developer
Igor Mann, veterinarian, senior civil service professional

Mozambique

Albie Sachs, ANC activist (lived in Mozambique during exile from South Africa)
Ruth First, ANC activist (lived in Mozambique during exile from South Africa)

Namibia

Harold Pupkewitz, entrepreneur ( Lithuanian born)

South Africa

Politicians and activists

Morris Alexander (1877–1946), pre-apartheid MP^[3]
Hilda Bernstein, anti-apartheid activist
Lionel Bernstein, anti-apartheid activist
Harry Bloom, anti-apartheid activist
Jules Browde, barrister, jurist and anti-apartheid activist. Law school classmate of Nelson Mandela.
Arthur Chaskalson, chief justice
Abba Eban, Israeli diplomat (South African-born)
Andrew Feinstein, former ANC MP, author & anti-arms trade activist
Bram Fischer, anti-apartheid activist
Bernard Friedman, anti-apartheid MP
Richard Goldstone, judge and international war crimes prosecutor
Joel Joffe, human rights activist
Ronnie Kasrils, former South African Intelligence Minister
Tony Leon, former opposition leader
Joe Slovo, ANC activist and leader of the South African Communist Party
Harry Schwarz, anti-apartheid politician, lawyer and diplomat
Helen Suzman, anti-apartheid MP
Harold Hanson, QC and strong supporter of civil liberties

Other Jewish ANC activists included Ruth First, Albie Sachs and five of the six whites arrested in the Rivonia Trial: Denis Goldberg, Lionel Bernstein, Arthur Goldreich, James Kantor, Harold Wolpe and Gaby Shapiro.

Academics

Abraham Manie Adelstein, UK Chief Medical Statistician^[4]
Selig Percy Amoils, Inventor & Surgeon^[5]
Moses Blackman, crystallographer
Sydney Brenner, biologist, Nobel Prize (2002)
Leo Camron, educationalist
Sydney Cohen, pathologist (Jewish Year Book, 2005, p214, 230)
Meyer Fortes, anthropologist
Max Gluckman, anthropologist
Frank Herbstein, crystallographer, 1926-2011^[6]
Aaron Klug, chemist, Nobel Prize (1982)
Ludwig Lachmann, economist^[7]
Arnold Lazarus, psychologist
Roland Levinsky,^[8] biologist
Stanley Mandelstam, physicist (Jewish Year Book 2005 p214)
Shula Marks, historian (Jewish Year Book 2005 p215)
Frank Nabarro, physicist (Jewish Year Book 2005 p214)
Seymour Papert, Artificial Intelligence pioneer
Peter Sarnak, mathematician
Isaac Schapera, anthropologist (Jewish Year Book 2005 p215)
Anthony Segal, biochemist (Jewish Year Book 2005 p214)
Joseph Sonnabend, HIV/AIDS researcher
Phillip V. Tobias, palaeoanthropologist
Joseph Wolpe, psychotherapist
Lewis Wolpert, developmental biologist
Basil Yamey, economist (Jewish Year Book 2005 p215,315)
Solly Zuckerman, UK zoologist
Max Price, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town

Cultural figures

Lionel Abrahams, poet
Jillian Becker, writer
Dani Behr, TV presenter
Harry Bloom, writer and lecturer
Johnny Clegg, World Beat musician
John Cranko, choreographer
Adam Friedland, comedian and podcaster
Graeme Friedman, writer
David Goldblatt, photographer
Nadine Gordimer, writer, Nobel Prize (1991)
Laurence Harvey, actor
Ronald Harwood, playwright
Manu Herbstein, writer
Dan Jacobson, writer
Sid James, comic actor
Danny K, pop singer
William Kentridge, artist
Lennie Lee, artist
Manfred Mann (Manfred Lubowitz), R&B keyboardist
Sarah Millin, writer
Trevor Rabin, guitarist & film composer
Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro), political cartoonist
Antony Sher, stage actor
Janet Suzman, stage actress

Business and professional figures

Raymond Ackerman, supermarket tycoon
Alfred Beit, diamond magnate
Donald Gordon, founder of insurance company Liberty Life, shopping centre owner & philanthropist
Sydney Jacobson, newspaper editor^[9]
Solomon Joel, financier^[10]
Sol Kerzner, hotel & casino owner
Sammy Marks, early entrepreneur from Pretoria
Ernest & Harry Oppenheimer, diamond tycoons & philanthropists (Harry converted to Christianity)
Percy Yutar, South Africa's first Jewish attorney general and prosecutor of Nelson Mandela in the 1963 Rivonia Treason Trial.^[11]
Walter Matulis JR. Co owner of a driver training business. Walter was raised as Roman Catholic only to find out in the 6th decade of his life that his ancestors were Lithuanian Jews. Walter remains a Christian while identifying himself as being of Jewish blood.

Sports figures

Ali & Adam Bacher, cricketers
Leo Camron, rugby union player and cricketer.
Okey Geffin, rugby union player
Harry Isaacs, Olympic boxing medalist^[12]
Ilana Kloss, tennis player
Sarah Poewe, swimmer
Philip Rabinowitz (runner), 100-year-old sprinter
Jeremy Reingold, World Champion Swimmer, Rugby Player
Jody Scheckter, Formula 1 driver
Shaun Tomson, surfer
Mandy Yachad, cricketer

Rugby union

Max Baise, South African rugby union referee.^[13]
Louis Babrow
Leo Camron, South African who helped introduce rugby to Israel.,^[14] also a cricketer
Okey Geffin, South African Rugby Union player^[15]
Joe Kaminer
Jonathan Kaplan, South African who holds the world record for refereeing the highest number of international rugby union test matches.^[13]
Alan Menter, South African Rugby Union Player
Cecil Moss, South African rugby union player and coach
Sydney Nomis, South African Rugby Union player
Wilf Rosenberg, rugby union player
Fred Smollan
Joel Stransky, South African rugby union player

Uganda

Gershom Sizomu, rabbi and Member of Parliament

Zambia

Denise Scott Brown, architect
Stanley Fischer, IMF economist

Zimbabwe

Norman Geras, professor of Government^[16]
Anthony Gubbay, former chief justice
Laurence Levy, pioneering neurosurgeon
Alexander Pines, chemist
Roy Welensky, prime minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland

References

↑ Gérard Prunier, The Rwanda crisis: history of a genocide, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, London, 1995, p. 319 n16 ISBN 978-1-85065-372-1
↑ Collete Braeckman (6 May 2009). "Moses Katumbi. Katanga Champion". Courrier International . Retrieved 4 February 2016.
↑ Abrahams, Israel (1968). "Alexander, Morris". In De Kock, W. J. (ed.). Dictionary of South African Biography. Vol. 1 (1st ed.). p. 10. OCLC 85921202.
↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
↑ American Jewish Year Book, 1983, p.271 Accessed 16 Nov 2006
↑ Kaftory, Menahem (2011). "Frank H. Herbstein (1926-2011)". Acta Crystallogr B. 67 (3): 266–267. doi: 10.1107/S0108768111017599 . Retrieved 1 May 2013.
↑ Hayek's Challenge: An Intellectual Biography of F. A. Hayek - Pg 145
↑ "Driving force of city university's growth": Western Daily Press 19 July 2006: "the family is Jewish".
↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "the only son and elder child of Samuel and Anna Jacobson, a Jewish couple"
↑ Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "a devout Jew"
↑ "Percy Yutar". Edinburgh: The Scotsman. 23 July 2002. Archived from the original on December 10, 2006.
↑ "Jews in Sports: Jewish Olympic Medalists (1896 - Present)". Jewish Virtual Library.
1 2 "Letter from Cape Town | the Jewish Chronicle". Archived from the original on 2009-12-08. Retrieved 2010-06-26.
↑ Bath, Richard (ed.) The Complete Book of Rugby (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ISBN 1-86200-013-1) p68
↑ Encyclopaedia Judaica , Second Edition, volume 19, p146
↑ "Marxism, the Holocaust and September 11: An Interview with Norman Geras". eis.bris.ac.uk. 2002.

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[1] Gérard Prunier, The Rwanda crisis: history of a genocide, C. Hurst & Co. Publishers, London, 1995, p. 319 n16 ISBN 978-1-85065-372-1

[2] Collete Braeckman (6 May 2009). "Moses Katumbi. Katanga Champion". Courrier International . Retrieved 4 February 2016.

[3] Abrahams, Israel (1968). "Alexander, Morris". In De Kock, W. J. (ed.). Dictionary of South African Biography. Vol. 1 (1st ed.). p. 10. OCLC 85921202.

[ReferenceA-4] Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

[5] American Jewish Year Book, 1983, p.271 Accessed 16 Nov 2006

[6] Kaftory, Menahem (2011). "Frank H. Herbstein (1926-2011)". Acta Crystallogr B. 67 (3): 266–267. doi: 10.1107/S0108768111017599 . Retrieved 1 May 2013.

[7] Hayek's Challenge: An Intellectual Biography of F. A. Hayek - Pg 145

[8] "Driving force of city university's growth": Western Daily Press 19 July 2006: "the family is Jewish".

[9] Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "the only son and elder child of Samuel and Anna Jacobson, a Jewish couple"

[10] Oxford Dictionary of National Biography: "a devout Jew"

[11] "Percy Yutar". Edinburgh: The Scotsman. 23 July 2002. Archived from the original on December 10, 2006.

[12] "Jews in Sports: Jewish Olympic Medalists (1896 - Present)". Jewish Virtual Library.

[thejc.com-13] 1 2 "Letter from Cape Town | the Jewish Chronicle". Archived from the original on 2009-12-08. Retrieved 2010-06-26.

[Completerugby-14] Bath, Richard (ed.) The Complete Book of Rugby (Seven Oaks Ltd, 1997 ISBN 1-86200-013-1) p68

[JudRugby-15] Encyclopaedia Judaica , Second Edition, volume 19, p146

[16] "Marxism, the Holocaust and September 11: An Interview with Norman Geras". eis.bris.ac.uk. 2002.

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