Castellano Italiano


Israel and the Arab World
Their Contribution to Mankind

Comparison Charts



Part II: The Jewish People and the Arabs
Considered within an International context,
Jews outside present-day Israel, Arabs in the Worldwide scene

Jewish & Arab Personalities in History
Jewish & Arab Personalities in Modern Times
Jewish & Arab Achievements
Nobel Prizes
Miscellaneous

 

 

Jewish and Arab Personalities in History

In this chapter we consider Jews and Arabs in contemporary periods, that is, since the historic point in which both peoples, and not only one of them, are recognized in the worldwide scene. This means that we will not take account of the two and half millennia in which the People of Israel was playing a role in the international stage while Arabs were either completely unknown or, in a later period, remotely known mainly through the accounts of travellers who visited Arabia. It was only around the first century BCE that the name “Arabia” appeared the first time in history, defined by Diodorus of Sicily in his Bibliotheca Historica and by Strabo in his Geography, and was applied to the peninsula as a geographic definition, not in reference to the ethnicity of the inhabitants, whom they declared to be of several kinds and called them by their own tribal names. On the contrary, the Israelites were known since ancient times, as recorded by Egyptian, Assyrian and Babylonian chronicles, and the more specific term Judahite, Judean or Jewish is found in Persian, Greek and Roman accounts – it was precisely against the Roman Empire that Jews engaged three wars for independence which brought as result the destruction of the Jewish capital Jerusalem, and the Diaspora, that led most of Jews to be spread throughout the Mediterranean Basin and all Europe. Arabic was formed as a language during the later Roman period, however, it was only by the end of the 7th Century CE that Arabs became known in world history; and it is since this period that our research begins, in order to present our comparison charts according to equal terms, as it would not be fair to consider the Jewish personalities during the many centuries in which Arabs did not exist as a people.

When Arabs appeared in the world history, it was the period of Europe's Dark Ages: All science and arts were conditioned by religious-superstitious conceptions, much like the present-day Arab world. By that time, Jews in Europe were banished from any social activity, and were confined to their own closed circles, studying in the Synagogues, since schools were then exclusively reserved to the Roman Catholic nobility and clergy. That is why during the Middle Ages there are not many known Jewish scientists or other personalities, because they were not allowed to participate in public life. By an irony of history, in those times Jews enjoyed much more freedom within the growing Arab world, and also most of Jewish scholars and scientists of that era belonged to the lands occupied by the Arabs.
On the other side, Arabs conquered many countries in few decades, and acquired the cultural heritage of the peoples they surrendered, mainly from Persians, as well as they learnt from Indian literature and science and were interested in translations into Arabic from ancient Greek treatises – while the Classic Greek culture, the seed of European civilization, was banned in Europe because it was heathen, the same reason by which progress is banned today in the Arab world.
Nevertheless, the outstanding Arab writers, mathematicians, astronomers and scientists did not come out of Arabia, but mainly from the conquered Mesopotamia, Syria, Persia, Egypt, and most of all, from Spain, that became the cultural centre of the whole Arab world in the Middle Ages. In fact, it is important to distinguish between “Arabic” and “Arab”, since the large majority of those personalities were actually not Arabs, but wrote their studies and research works in Arabic language and by this reason they are usually considered as Arabs. In the particular case of Spain, most of Arabs were indeed Moors, namely, Amazigh peoples -North African- that were Arabicized.

Mathematics and Medicine are two disciplines whose present development is commonly regarded as a legacy from the Arabs. For instance, the numbering system used worldwide, consisting in the ten characters (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9) that represent numbers in all European languages and by extension the conventional international numbering system, are usually known as “Arabic numerals”. The reason for such denomination is given by the fact that they were introduced in Europe by the Arabs. Notwithstanding, they are not Arabic in origin, but have been taken by Arabs from the Indians. It was in India where numbers from which the present-day European ones evolved were used since old, at least contemporary to Roman times. Only in the 9th century CE they became known in the Middle East, and brought into Europe in the 10th century CE. As a matter of fact, the so-called Arabic numerals are not used with Arabic writing except in North Africa, and those which belong to Classic Arabic and Persian script systems are called "Hindi numerals" by the Arabs themselves. Therefore, it is more accurate to call our current number system "Indian numerals" instead of Arabic.
Concerning medicine, it was the result of a process that began with Greek physicians who were taken as prisoners of the Achaemenid Persians. It is the Greek method of observation of symptoms, treatment and results on which modern medicine is based. Then, Alexander the Great conquered the Persian Empire and the Greek knowledge was taught throughout the Middle East up to India. Centuries later, the most significant contribution of Greek medicine in the region was produced by the Nestorian Christians from Edessa, whose university was closed by order of the Byzantine emperor and they took refuge in the Persian Sassanid Empire. Later, the Empire was conquered by the Arabs, thus inheriting the scientific knowledge already developed in that realm, from Greek, Indian and Persian heritage.
Actually, many of the most famous Arab scientists, philosophers, mathematicians, astronomers and physicians of the Middle Ages were not Arabs, as shown in the first list below. They wrote in Arabic because it was the language of the empire, in the same way as today every important scientific study is written in English because it is the international language, even if the authors are not British, American, or native English speakers. A significant fact is that, except Imru’ul-Qays al-Kindī, who was a pre-islamic poet, not even one of the Arab personalities that contributed to the cultural richess of mankind was from Arabia, but all of them from the conquered lands. However, we can find some names of Arabian Jews in the second list.

Arab Personalities
(Including non-Arabs born in Arab-ruled lands)

B/D Place / Year

Name

Origin

Profession / Work

Kindah, Yemen,
501-545

Imru’ul-Qays ibn-Hudjr al-Kindī

Himyarite Arab

writer, poet, diplomat

535-604

Al-Nabigha ad-Dhubyani,
Ziyad ibn-Muawiyah

Christian Arab

poet, writer

640-710

Ghiyath ibn-Ghawth at-Taghlibi al-Akhtal
(Akhtal)

Christian Arab

poet, writer

8th century CE

Abū Abdallāh ibn-Ibrāhīm ibn-Habīb
al-Fazārī

Persian or Arab

philosopher, translator, mathematician, astronomer / astrolabe

8th century CE

Yaqūb ibn-Tāriq

Persian

translated the astronomy Brahmasphutasiddhanta into Arabic as Az-Zij 'ala Sini al-'Arab, or Sindhind

ca. 721-815

Abū Mūsā Jābir ibn-Hayyān (Geber)

Persian or Arab

chemist/alchemist, astronomer, engineer, philosopher, pharmacist, physician, physicist

Khwarizm, 780-850

Mūsā al-Khwārizmī

Persian

mathematician, astronomer, geographer

Mesopotamia, 789 - Córdoba, Spain, 857

Ziryab Abū l-Hassan 'Alī ben-Nāfi'

Persian

poet, musician

Kufa, 801-873?

Abū-Yūsuf Ya'qūb ibn-Ishāq ibn-as-Sabbāh ibn-'Omrān ibn-Isma'īl al-Kindī

Yemenite

philosopher, scientist, perfumist, mathematician, astronomer, meteorologist, chemist, physician, poet, music theory expert and innovator / Kitab Kimiya' al-'Itr

Baghdad,
ca.802-ca.872

  Jafar ibn-Mūsā ibn-Shākir
Banū Mūsā   Ahmad ibn-Mūsā ibn-Shākir
  Al-Hassan ibn-Mūsā ibn-Shākir

Persian

three brothers, specialized in physics, engineering, astronomy

Ronda, Spain, 810-887

'Abbās Qāsim ibn-Firnās (Armen Firman)

Berber

poet, musician, chemist, physician, inventor

Harran, 836 - Baghdad, 901

As-Sābi’ Thābit ibn-Qurra al-Harrānī

Syrian

mathematician, astronomer, physician

Harran, 858 -
Qasr al-Jiss, 929

Abū Abdallāh ibn-Jābir ibn-Sinān ar-Raqqī al-Harrānī as-Sābi’ al-Battānī (Albategnius)

Syrian

mathematician, astronomer

Rayy, Persia, 865-925

Zakariā ye Rāzi
Abū-Bakr ibn-Zakariyya ar-Razi (Rhazes)

Persian

philosopher, chemist/alchemist, physician, author of Hawi, medical encyclopaedia

Baghdad, 896 - Cairo,956

Abū'l-Hassan 'Alī ibn-al-Husayn ibn-'Alī al-Mas'ūdī

Arab

traveller, historian, geographer

Qayrawan, (present Tunisia), 898 -980

Abū Ja'far Ahmad bin-Abi Khalid ibn-al-Jazzar al-Qayrawāni (Algizar)

Arab (Moorish)

physician

903-986

'Abd ar-Rahman as-Sufi (Azophi)

Persian

astronomer, translator of the Greek astronomy into Arabic

Damascus,
10th century CE

Abū'l-Hassan Ahmad ibn-Ibrāhīm al-Uqlidisi

Arab (Syrian)

mathematician

Medina Azahara,
Spain, 936-1013

Abū al-Qāsim Khalaf ibn-al-'Abbās
Az-Zahrāwī (Abulcasis)

Ansar Arab

chemist, physician, surgeon, author of Kitab at-Tasrif, encyclopedia of medicine

Buzghan, 940-998

Abū al-Wafā' al-Būzjānī

Persian

mathematician, astronomer

Baghdad, 940-1000

Abū Sa'ad al-'Ala' ibn-Sahl

Arab

physicist, mathematician, optics engineer

Sijistan, 945-1020

Abū Sa'id Ahmad ibn-Abd-al-Jalil as-Sijistani
(As-Sijzi)

Persian

astronomer, mathematician

Jerusalem, 945-ca.1000

Ibn-Ahmad Shams ad-Din Al-Muqaddasi
(Al-Maqdisi)

Arab (Syrian)

geographer

Egypt, 950-ca.1009

Abūl-Hassan 'Alnī abi-Sa'id 'Abd-ar-Rahman ibn-Ahmad ibn-Yunus as-Sadafi al-Misri

Arab

astronomer, mathematician

Basrah, 965-1039

Abū 'Alnī al-Hassan ibn-al-Hassan
ibn-al-Haytham al-Basrī (Alhazen)

Arab or Persian

astronomer, mathematician, physician, ophthalmologist - visual perception, scientific method

Bukhara, 980-1037

Abū 'Alī al-Husayn ibn-'Abdallāh ibn-Sīnā (Avicenna)

Persian

poet, philosopher, mathematician, astronomer, chemist, physician, physicist, statesman

Toledo, Spain,
1028-1087

Abū Ishāq Ibrāhīm ibn-Yahyā an-Naqqāsh
az-Zarqālī (Arzachel)

Arab (Moorish)

physician, astronomer,scientist, philosopher, musician, poet

1058-1113

Abū Fadl ben-Tahīr ibn-'Alnī ibn-Ahmad al-Maqdisi ash-Shaybani ibn-al-Kaysarani

Arab

engineer

Zaragoza, Spain,
1085 -
Fez, Morocco, 1138

Abū-Bakr ibn-Yahyā ibn-as-Sā'igh ibn-Tujībī ibn-Bājjah (Avempace)

Arab (Moorish)

mathematician, astronomer

Sevilla, Spain,
1091-1161

Abū Merwān 'Abd-al-Malik ibn-Zuhr (Avenzoar, Abumeron)

Arab (Moorish)

physicist, pharmacist

Sevilla, Spain,
1100-1150

Abū-Jābir ibn-Aflah (Geber)

Arab (Moorish)

mathematician, astronomer

Ceuta, Spain, 1100 -
Sicily, 1165

Abū 'Abdallah al-Idrīsī al-Qurtubi a-Hassani as-Sabti

Arab (Moorish)

traveller, geographer

Guadix, Spain,
1105-1185

Abū-Bakr ibn-'Abd-al-Malik ibn-Tufayl al-Qaysi al-Andalusi (Abentofail)

Arab (Moorish)

physician, philosopher, writer

Córdoba, Spain, 1126 - Marrakesh, 1198

Abū'l-Walīd ibn-Ahmad ibn-Rushd (Averroes)

Arab (Moorish)

philosopher inspired in Aristotle, physician - much of his work has been censored by the Arab leadership and was kept in the Hebrew translation

Al-Jazirah (Upper Mesopotamia)
1136-1206

Abū al-'Iz ibn-Ismā'īl ibn-ar-Razāz al-Jazarī

Arab (Syrian)

engineer, artist, inventor, astronomer

Morocco, ? -
Sevilla, Spain, 1204

Nūr ad-Din ibn-Ishāq al-Bitruji (Alpetragius)

Arab (Moorish)

philosopher, astronomer

Málaga, ? - 1204

Abū 'Abdallah ibn-Ahmad ibn-al-Baytar Dhiyya ad-Din al-Malaqi

Arab (Moorish)

physician, pharmacist, scientist, botanist

Damascus, 1136-1206

Ala ad-Din Abū'l-Hassan 'Alnī ibn-Abi-Hazm al-Qarshi ad-Dimashqi (Ibn-an-Nafis)

Arab (Syrian)

scientist, astronomer, physician, ophtalmologist, philosopher, writer, historian, linguist

Marrakesh, 1256 - 1321

Ibn-al-Banna al-Marrakushi al-Azdi

Arab (Moorish)

astronomer, mathematician

Damascus, 1304-1375

Ala ad-Din Abū'l-Hassan 'Alnī ibn-Ibrāhīm ibn-ash-Shatir

Arab (Syrian)

mathematician, astronomer, engineer

Tunisi, 1332 -
Cairo, 1406

Abū Zayd 'Abdu-ar-Rahman ibn-Khaldūn Al-Hadrami (Ibn Khaldun)

Arab (Yemeni-Andalusi)

historian, statesman, lawyer, philosopher, sociologist, doctor, astronomer, mathematician

Baza, Spain, 1412 -
Béja, Tunisia, 1486

Ala Abū al-Hassan ibn-'Alī al-Qalasādī

Arab (Moorish)

mathematician

Damascus, 1526-1585

Taqi ad-Din ibn-Ma'ruf al-Shami al-Asadi (Takiyuddin)

Arab? Syrian? Turk?

scientist, astronomer, mathematician, engineer, inventor, botanist, zoologist, physician, pharmacist, philosopher

Strictly speaking, very few of the great scientists and personalities of the Arab Golden Age were actually Arabs, as the table above shows. Indeed, we cannot list some great names like Abū Rayhān ibn-Ahmad al-Bīrūnī (Kath, Khwarezm, 973 – Ghazni, 1048) or Omar Khayyam (Ghiyāth ad-Dīn Abū'l-Fath 'Umar ibn-Ibrāhīm al-Nīsābūrī al-Khayyāmī – Nishapur, Khorassan, 1048-1131), since they were Persian and were not linked with the Arab world, but with Central Asia. We cannot include either 'Abū Zayd Hunayn ibn-Ishāq al-'Ibādī; known in the West as Johannitius (Al-Hira, Mesopotamia, 809-873), because he was not Arab but Assyrian. While in the Middle East the cultural domain was overwhelmingly Persian, the major development of the Arab culture took place in Spain, the westernmost land of the empire and, by coincidence, also the main Jewish settlement of that period.

Jewish Personalities

B/D Place / Year

Name

Profession / Work

Arabia, 6th century CE

As-Samaw'al ibn-'Adiya, Shmuel ben-'Adiya

poet, warrior

Yathrib (Medina), Arabia, 7th century CE

Ar-Rabī' bin-Abī'l-Huqayq

poet, writer

Arabia, 7th century CE

Abu 'Afak

poet, writer, politician

Basrah?, 740-815

Yithro Menasheh Masha'allah ibn Atharī
(Messala)

astronomer, mathematician

Tabaristan, 786-845

Sahl ibn-Bishr al-Isra'ili (Zahel)

astronomer, mathematician, translator

Egypt, 832 - Kairouan, 932

Yitzhaq ben-Shlomo Ha-Yisra'eli
(Ya'qub Ishaq ibn-Suleiman al-Isra'ili)

physician, philosopher, historian, mathematician, astronomer, scientist, author of many books on medicine and philosophy in Arabic and Hebrew

Merv, 838 - Baghdad, 870

Ali ibn-Sahl Rabban at-Tabari

physician, author of the first encylopaedia of medicine "Firdous al-Hikmah"- he was the teacher of Persian scholar Rhazes

Fayyum, Egypt, 882-942

Rabbi Sa'adiah ben-Yosef Gaon

(Saīd bin Yūsuf al-Fayyūmi)

philosopher, linguist, translator

North Africa,
10th century CE

Dunash ibn-Tamim (Adonim)
(Abū-Sahl ash-Shafalgi)

scholar, scientist, writer

Jaén, Spain, 915 -
Córdoba, Spain, 980

Hasdai Abū Yusuf ben-Yitzhak ben-Ezra
ibn-Shaprut

physician, scientist, diplomat

Fez, Morocco, 920-990

Dunash Ha-Levi ben-Labrat

poet, writer, journalist, grammarian

Tortosa, Spain, 920-970

Menahem ben-Yakov ibn-Saruq

poet, philologist, author of dictionary of the Hebrew language

Tortosa, Spain,
10th century CE

Abraham ben-Yakov at-Tartushi

adventurer, writer, chronicler - described the Scandinavian life and was the first person that mentioned Prague in a written work

Mérida, Spain 993-1056

Sh'muel Ha-Levi ben-Yosef ha-Nagid

(Abū Ishaq Isma'il bin-Naghrillah)

scholar, grammarian, poet, philologist, warrior, statesman, vizier

Zaragoza, Spain

Bahya ben-Yosef ibn-Paquda

philosopher, writer, linguist, judge, scientist

Oria, Italy

Hananiel ben-Amittai

writer, poet

Oria, Italy

Amittai ben-Shephatiah

writer, poet

Capua, Italy, 1017 -
Oria, Italy, ca. 1060

Ahimaaz ben-Paltiel

writer, poet, chronicler

Málaga, Spain, 1021 -
Valencia, Spain, 1058

Shlomo ben-Yehudah ibn-Gabirol
(Abū Ayyub Suleiman ibn-Yahya ibn-Jabirul)

poet, philosopher

Huesca, Spain, 1062-1110

Moshe Sefaradi (Petrus Alphonsi)

writer, astronomer, physician, scientist

Barcelona, Spain, 1070 -
Provence, France, 1136

Abraham bar-Hiyya Ha-Nassi (Sâhib ash-Shurta)

mathematician, astronomer, geographer, philosopher, scientist

Tudela, Spain, 1075-1141

Yehudah ben-Shmuel Ha-Levi

poet, philosopher, the first writer who wrote in Castilian

Baghdad, 1080-1165

Nathaniel Hibat Abū'l Barakat al-Baghdadi

philosopher, scientist, physicist

Tudela, Spain, 1093 -
France, 1167

Abraham ben-Meir ibn-Ezra (Abenezra)

poet, linguist, exeget, philosopher, astronomer, physician, traveller

Toledo, Spain, 1110-1180

Abraham ben-David Ha-Levi (Ravad I)

philosopher, historian, astronomer, traveller

Tudela, Spain,
12th century CE

Benjamin of Tudela

geographer, linguist, explorer, historian

Granada, Spain, 1120 - Marseille, France, 1190

Yehudah ben-Sha'ul ibn-Tibbon

doctor , translator

Baghdad, 1130 -
Maragha, Persia, 1180

Samaw'al ibn-Yahya al-Maghrebi

mathematician, astronomer

Calatayud, Spain,
12th century CE

Shlomo ben-Abraham ibn-Parhon

philologist, writer

Regensburg, Germany
12th-13th century CE

Moshe Petahiah ben-Yakov (Petachiah of Ratisbon)

adventurer, chronicler, historian

France, England ?
12th-13th century CE

Berachyah ben-Natronai HaNakdan

poet, writer, philosopher

Córdoba, Spain, 1138 -
Fostat, Egypt, 1204

Moshe ben-Maimon Abū Imran ibn-Abdallah
al-Qurtubi al-Israili (Maimonides, Rambam)

physician, philosopher, lawyer - considered one of the greatest philosophers in history, by Jews and non-Jews

Lunel, France, 1150 - Marseille, France, 1230

Shmuel ben-Yehudah ibn-Tibbon

philosopher, doctor

Ceuta, Maghreb (Spain),
ca.1160-1230

Yosef ben-Yehudah

physician, writer, poet

Toledo, Spain, 1165 - Aleppo, Syria, 1225

Yehudah ben-Shlomo al-Harizi
(Yahya ibn-Sulayman ibn-Sha'ul Abū-Zakaria al-Harizi al-Yahudi)

writer, philosopher, translator, traveller

Marseille, France, 1194-1256

Jakob ben-Abba Mari ben-Shimshon Anatoli

translator, made Arabic language more easy to learn for Europeans

Girona, Spain, 1194 -
Mount Carmel, Israel, 1270

Moshe ben-Nahman Gerondi (Nahmanides, Ramban, Bonastruc ça Porta)

physician, philosopher, kabbalist

Marseille, France,
1200?-1283

Moshe ben-Shmuel ibn-Tibbon

physician, writer, translator

Spain,
1225-1290

Shem-Tov ben-Yosef ibn-Falaquera

philosopher, writer, poet

Arles-Perpignan, France,
13th century CE

Gerson ben-Shlomo Catalan

writer, encyclopaedist, philosopher, physicist

Mesopotamia ?-1284

'Izz ad-Dawla Sa'id ibn-Mansūr ibn-Kammuna

physician, ophthalmologist, philosopher

Marseille, France, 1236 - Montpellier, France, 1304

Jakob ben-Machir ibn-Tibbon (Don Profiat Tibbon)

astronomer, scientist

Spain, France ?
13th century CE

Isaac Albalag

philosopher, scholar

Zaragoza, Spain, 1240 -
Comino, Malta, 1292

Abraham ben-Shmuel Abulafia

physician, philosopher

Toledo, Spain,
13th century CE

Isaac ben-Sid

astronomer, mathematician

Sulchat, Crimea, 1260-1320

Aaron ben-Yosef of Constantinople

philosopher, physician, scholar

Rome, Italy, 1261 -
Fermo, Italy, 1328

Immanuel ben-Shlomo ben-Jekuthiel
(Immanuel Romano, Manoello Giudeo)

scholar, orator, poet, writer

Largentičre, France, 1279 -
Tarascon, France, 1340

Yosef ben-Abba Mari ben-Yosef ben-Jacob Caspi
(Don Bonafous de Largentera)

philologer, grammarian, philosopher

France, 1280 -
Bet-She'an, Israel, 1356

Yitzchak ben-Moshe Ishtori Haparchi

physician, geographer, historian

Arles, France, 1286 - ca.1330

Kalonymus ben-Kalonymus ben-Meďr

philosopher, translator, writer

Bagnols, France, 1288 - Perpignan, France, 1344

Levi ben-Gershom (Gersonides, Ralbag)

philosopher, mathematician, astronomer

Italy, 14th century CE

Moshe ben-Yehuda Ha-Nagari

philosopher, writer

Spain, 14th century CE

Isaac ben-Yosef ibn-Pulgar

philosopher, poet, politician

Besalu, Spain,
14th century CE

Abraham ben-David Caslari

physician, scientist

Spain, 14th century CE

Moses ben-Joshua, Maestro Vidal Blasom,
Moses Narboni

philosopher, physician

Toledo, Spain,
14th century CE

Isaac Israeli ben-Yosef

astronomer, mathematician

Toledo, Spain,
14th century CE - 1391

Israel ben-Yosef an-Nakawa (Alnucawi)

ethical writer, poet

Avignon, France,
14th century CE

Nathan Judah ben-Shlomo ben-Yishai
(En Bongodas)

physician, scholar

Thessaloniki, Greece,
14th century CE

Shlomo ben-Eliyahu Sharbit ha-Zahab

astronomer, grammarian, writer, poet

Arles, France,
14th-15th century CE

Isaac Nathan ben-Kalonymus

philosopher, politician

Lunel, France, 1411

Solomon ben-Judah of Lunel

philosopher, writer

Montecchio Maggiore, Italy, 1420 ? - Monastir, Macedonia, 1498

Judah ben-Jehiel Rofe, Judah Messer Leon

physician, philosopher, professor

Constantinople, 1435 -
Italy, ca.1505

Yohanan Alemanno

philosopher, linguist, was teacher of Pico della Mirandola

Lisbon, Portugal, 1437 -
Venice, Italy, 1508

Yitzchak ben-Yehuda Abravanel

philosopher, statesman, businessman

Salamanca, Spain, 1452 -
Damascus, 1515

Abraham ben-Shmuel Zagut (Zacuto)

mathematician, astronomer, historian

Lisbon, Portugal, ca.1465 -
Naples, Italy, 1529

Yehuda ben-Yitzhak Abravanel
(Judah Leon Abravanel)

physician, philosopher, poet, writer

15th century CE

Moshe Bottarel Farissol

mathematician, astronomer

15th century CE
Constantinople

Mordekhai ben-Eliezer Comtino

mathematician, scientist

15th century CE
Adrianople - Constantinople

Caleb Afendropolo

mathematician, astronomer, scientist, historian, philosopher

15th century CE
Brugge/Bruges, Flanders

Lodewyk van Berken

jeweller, diamond cutter;
invented the scaif

Ipsheim or Neustadt/Aisch, Germany, 13/2/1469 -
Venice, Italy, 28/1/1549

Elijah Levita, Eliyahu Bakhur

grammarian, poet, writer

Khaybar, Arabia, 1490 -
Spain? Portugal? ca.1540

David Reubeni

adventurer, chronicler

Avignon, France, 1496 -
Genova, Italy, 1576

Yosef ben-Yoshua ben-Meďr ha-Kohen

historian, writer, physician

After the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, the centre of Jewish culture is displaced towards other European lands. The Arab world collapsed under Turkish rulers and also the Arab scientific development ceased. Since beginning the 17th century CE, the number of Jewish personalities in science, arts and every kind of disciplines is in constant increasement in Europe and subsequently in the American Continent.

Jewish Personalities from the 16th to the 19th century:

Pedro Nunes (Alcácer do Sal, Portugal, 1502 – Coimbra, Portugal, 11/8/1578)
Cosmographer, mathematician and scholar, invented many instruments for measuring and introduced the concept of rhumb line in navigation.

Solomon ben-Jacob Almoli (Constantinople, 16th Century CE)
Physician, grammarian, author, publisher.

David ben-Shlomo Gans (Lippstadt, Germany, 1541 – Praha, Czech, 25/8/1613)
Astronomer, historian, mathematician.

Jacob Uziel (Spain, Italy ? – Zakynthos, Greece, 1630)
Physician and poet.

Diego Rodríguez da Silva y Velázquez (Sevilla, Spain, 6/6/1599 – Madrid, Spain, 6/8/1660)
Painter, recognized as one of the greatest Spanish artists of all times.

Antonio Enríquez Gómez (Segovia, Spain, 1601 – France, 1661)
Writer, poet, novelist.

Isaac Fernando Cardoso (Celorico, Portugal, 1603 – Verona, Italy, 1683)
Physician, philosopher, writer.

David Cohen Nassy (Portugal, 1612 – Suriname, 1685)
Explorer, physician, writer, a pioneer in the Dutch colonization of the Caribbean.

Rabbi Shalom Shabbazi, Abba Shalom ben-Yosef ben-Abijad ben-Khalfun Shabbazi (Sharab, Yemen, 1619 – 1720)
Poet, Diwan composer, kabbalist, philosopher, wrote in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Arabic.

Daniel Ha-Levi, known as Miguel Barrios (Montilla, Spain, 1625 – Amsterdam, Netherlands, 1701)
Writer, poet, historian.

Toviyyah ben Moshe ha-Kohen, known as Tobiasz Kohn, Toviyah Kats (Metz, France, 1652 – Jerusalem, Israel, 1729)
Physician, biologist, polyglot, scholar.

Jacob Antonio Castello (Amsterdam, Netherlands, ? – 1685 ?)
Poet, famous as author of riddles.

Jacob de Castro Sarmento, Jacob Henriquez (Bragança, Portugal, 1691 – London, England, 1761)
Physician, naturalist, poet.

Jacob Rodrigues Pereira, FRS, (Peniche, Portugal, 11/4/1715 – Bordeaux, France, 15/9/1780)
Invented the manual language for the deaf, he was the first teacher of non-verbal speech for deaf and mute people.

Hannah Adams (1755 – 1831 )
The first American woman professional writer.

Moses Mendelssohn (Dessau, Prussia, 6/8/1729 – Berlin, Prussia, 4/1/1786)
Philosopher. He was the grandfather of the musicians Felix and Fanny Mendelssohn.

Élie Halfon-Halévy (Fürth, Bavaria, 1760 – Paris, France, 5/11/1826)
Writer, poet.

Sara Itzig Levy (Prussia, 1761 – 1854)
Musician, harpsichord player.

Rahel Varnhagen von Ense, born Rahel Levin (Berlin, Prussia, 19/5/1771 – Berlin, Prussia, 7/3/1833)
Writer, author, literary salon promoter.

Nathaniel Wallich, or Nathan ben-Wulff (Copenhagen, Denmark, 28/1/1786 – London, England, 28/4/1854)
Doctor, physician and botanist, pioneer in India.

Giacomo Meyerbeer, born Jacob Liebmann Beer (Vogelsdorf, Prussia, 5/9/1791 – Paris, France, 2/5/1864)
Musician, opera composer.

Ignaz Moscheles, born Isaak Moscheles (Praha, Bohemia, 23/5/1794 – Leipzig, Prussia, 10/3/1870)
Musician, piano virtuoso, composer.

Zachariah Allen (Providence, Rhode Island, 15/9/1795 – 17/3/1882)
Scientist, invented the automatic cut-off valve for steam engines, several machines for the textile industry, built the first hot-air furnace for houses and introduced many innovative solutions in the city.

Wilhelm Wolff Beer (Berlin, Prussia, 14/1/1797 – Berlin, Prussia, 27/3/1850)
Astronomer, designed the first accurate map of the Moon and calculated Mars' rotation period. He was Giacomo Meyerbeer's brother.

Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (Düsseldorf, Germany, 13/12/1797 – Paris, France, 17/2/1856)
Writer,poet, journalist, outstanding representative of romantic lyric poetry.

Benjamin D'Israeli or Disraeli, FRS, Earl of Beaconsfield (London, England, 21/12/1804 – 19/4/1881)
Statesman and writer, the only Jewish Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Hayyim Selig Slonimski (Byelostok, Russian Empire -now Bialystok, Poland-, 31/3/1810 – Warsaw, Poland, 15/5/1904)
Astronomer, scientist, editor, invented a calculator, a multiple telegraphy system and other innovative devices.

Georg Friedrich Heinrich Hitzig (Berlin, Prussia, 8/11/1811 – Berlin, Prussia, 11/10/1881)
Architect, president of the Prussian Academy of Arts.

J. J. Benjamin (Fălticeni, Romania, 1818 – London, England, 3/5/1864)
Historian.

Daniil Avraamovich Khvolson -or Chwolson- (Vilna, Russian Empire -now Lithuania-, 1819 – 1911)
Historian, orientalist, writer, scholar.

Leopold Eidlitz (Praha, Kingdom of Bohemia, 23/3/1823 – New York City, 1908)
Architect.

Leopold Kronecker (Liegnitz, Prussia 1818 -now Legnica, Poland-, 7/12/1823 – 29/12/1891)
Mathematician.

Chaim Aronson (Serednik, Russian Empire -now Seredžius, Lithuania-, 30/7/1825 – 22/4/1893)
Engineer, inventor and writer; designed several devices and machines which were greatly innovative for that time.

Joseph Halévy (Adrianople, Ottoman Empire, 15/12/1827 – 1917)
Historian, orientalist, archaeologist and explorer, deciphered the Sabaean inscriptions, explored Yemen and Ethiopia.

Ferdinand Julius Cohn (Breslau, Prussia -now Wroclaw, Poland-, 24/1/1828 – 25/6/1898)
Biologist, classified bacteria into different groups.

Meyer Guggenheim (Lengnau, Aargau, Switzerland, 1/2/1828 – Palm Springs, California, 15/3/1905)
Businessman, the patriarch of the Guggenheim family.

Levi Strauss, or Löb Strauß (Bayern, Germany, 26/2/1829 – California, 26/9/1902)
The first manufacturer of blue jeans. Although an Italian invention, it was Levi Strauss who brought them to America and founded the first jeans factory, Levi's. The patent was obtained in association with Jacob David Youphes.

Jacob David Youphes, then Jacob W. Davis (Latvia, Russian Empire, 1831 – California, 1908)
Invented the copper-riveted jeans, patented and manufactured by Levi's.

Felix Philip Kanitz (Budapest, Austro-Hungarian Empire, 2/8/1829 – Vienna, 8/1/1904)
Geographer, ethnographer, archaeologist, chronicler, painter, artist. Specialized in Southern Slavic peoples' ethnicity and culture.

Siegfried Samuel Marcus (Malchin, Grand Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, 18/9/1831 – Vienna, Austro-Hungary, 1/7/1898)
Inventor of the first automobile, the first vehicle having an engine fed by gasoline. He owned more than 130 patens for his inventions.

Georges Montefiore-Levi (England, 1832 – Belgium, 1906)
Invented the phosphorus bronze alloy.

Julius von Sachs (Breslau, Prussia -now Wroclaw, Poland-, 2/10/1832 – 29/5/1897)
Outstanding botanist.

Jorge Isaacs, Jorge Enrique Isaacs Ferrer (Cali, Colombia, 1/4/1837 – Ibagué, Colombia, 17/4/1895)
Writer, journalist, novelist, politician. María, his only novel, is one of the most famous romantic works in Spanish literature.

Ephraim Shay (Sherman Township, Huron County, Ohio, 17/9/1839 – Harbor Springs, Michigan, 19/4/1916)
Engineer, teacher, designed the Shay locomotive, the most widely known geared steam locomotive.

Isaak Eduard Schnitzer, known as Mehmet Emin Pasha (Oppeln, Germany, -now Opole, Poland-, 28/3/1840 – 23/10/1892)
Physician, biologist, explorer, he was also appointed as governor of Equatoria, then the southernmost province of Egypt (now in Southern Sudan).

Jonah Hayyim Gurland (Kletsk, Russian Empire, 1843 – Odessa, Russian Empire, 19/3/1890)
Writer, linguist, orientalist, historian.

Viktor Meyer (Berlin, Prussia, 8/9/1848 – Heidelberg, Germany, 18/8/1897)
Chemist, invented a device to measure vapour densities.

Yitzhaq Yehuda [Ignác] Goldziher (Székesfehérvár, Hungary, 22/6/1850 – 13/11/1921)
Orientalist, scholar, historian, specialized in Arab and islamic studies.

Morris Michtom
Invented the Teddy Bear.


Jewish and Arab Personalities in Modern Times

If during the Middle Ages we can find an equal cultural development among Jews and Arabs, after the 16th century CE, with the fall of the Arab hegemony under the Turks, also the Arab scientific development faded away. It was not until the Arab countries were established in the 20th century, by the British and French authorities that took the control over the defeated Ottoman Empire, that some Arab personalities have emerged in sciences and arts.

Arab Personalities

Since the creation of the independent Arab countries, little scientific progress has been achieved. Most of the outstanding personalities of the Arab world had studied and developed their professional career in the Americas, Europe or Israel, or else they were born there. Many of them are Lebanese Christians, who do not consider themselves as Arabs, but Arabic-speaking descendants of the ancient peoples of Lebanon that dwelled in the country millennia before the Arab conquest and subsequent occupation. Although some of them are mentioned, we cannot include in this list the greatest modern writer of the Arab world, Gibrān Khalīl Gibrān bin-Mikhā'īl bin-Sa'ad (Bsharri, Lebanon, 6/1/1883 – New York City, 10/4/1931) because he was a Maronite Christian of Assyrian origin, and Assyrians are not Arabs at all.

May Ziadeh, born Marie Ziyadah (Nazareth, Israel, 11/2/1886 – Cairo, Egypt, 17/10/1941)
Writer, linguist, poet, journalist, translator; she was of Christian Lebanese origin. She was engaged in emancipation of the Arab woman, for education and equality.

Hassan Fathy (Alexandria, Egypt, 23/3/1900 – Cairo, Egypt, 30/11/1989)
Architect, his major contribution was a reappraisal of adobe in building.

Michael Ellis DeBakey, born Michel Dabaghi (Lake Charles, Louisiana, 7/9/1908 – Houston, Texas, 11/7/2008)
Physician, heart surgeon, invented the peristaltic pump, was a pioneer in heart surgery. His parents were Lebanese Christians.

Nagīb Mahfūz (Cairo, Egypt, 11/12/1911 – Cairo, Egypt, 30/8/2006)
Writer, novelist. Athough he was of Arab family, his name was given in honor of a Coptic physician. Since he strongly supported the peace with Israel, his books were banned in most Arab countries and he was included in the list of people to be killed by islamic terrorism, he was target of many death threats and almost murdered by stabbing. As a consequence, he was seriously affected on his writing physical capacity for a permanent damage caused on his right hand. He had to spend the rest of his life under protection.

Victor Assad Najjar (Beirut, Lebanon, 15/4/1914 – Nashville, Tennessee, 30/11/2002)
Physician, paediatrician, microbiologist, discovered the Crigler-Najjar syndrome and formulated the Najjar solution for treatment of babies. He was Professor of Microbiology at Vanderbilt University.

Sir Peter Brian Medawar (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 28/2/1915 – London, England, 2/10/1987)
Medical scientist, immunologist, pioneer in tissue grafting for transplants, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. His father was a Lebanese Christian.

Albert Habib Hourani (Manchester, England, 31/2/1915 – 17/1/1993)
Historian, scholar, author, professor. His parents were Lebanese Christian.

Abd el-Majid Hidr, then Lieutenant Colonel Amos Yarkoni (Na'oura, Israel, 1920 – Tel-Aviv, Israel, 7/2/1991)
Israel Defense Forces hero, belonged to the Bedouin tribe of 'Arab-el-Mazarib. Commander of the Shomrei Kav haDarom (ShaKeD) of the Givati Brigade, was awarded the Medal of Distinguished Service. He sided with Israel since the Independence War until his retirement. At his funerals he received exceptional honors.

Elias James Corey, born William James Corey (Methuen, Massachusetts, 12/7/1928)
Chemist, formulated the retrosynthetic analysis, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. His parents were Lebanese Christians.

Ahmed Hassan Zewail (Damanhur, Egypt, 26/2/1946)
Scientist, pioneer in femtochemistry, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. He completed his PhD in the United States, of which he became a naturalized citizen.

Zaha Hadid (Baghdad, Iraq, 31/10/1950)
Architect, the first woman to be awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize, which equals the Nobel Prize for this discipline. She has won several international competitions and is also a member of the Encyclopćdia Britannica editorial board. She graduated in mathematics at the American University of Beirut, and as architect in London, England. She is a British citizen.

Lisa Najeeb Halaby, then Queen Noor of Jordan (Washington, D.C., 23/8/1951)
Architect, humanitarian activist. She is of Arab origin by her grandfather only, a Syrian-Lebanese settled in the United States. She is engaged in promoting international understanding.

Steven Paul Jobs (S. Francisco, California, 24/2/1955 – Palo Alto, California, 5/10/2011)
Co-founder of Apple, Inc. His biological father was a Syrian, Jandali by surname. He was adopted. His sister is the writer Mona Simpson.

Taher Elgamal (Egypt, 18/8/1955)
Cryptographer, computer scientist, pioneer in digital signature algorithm and Internet payment systems. He obtained his doctorate at Stanford University, California, and settled in the United States.

Rania Al-Yassin, then Queen Rania of Jordan (Kuwait, 31/8/1970)
Philanthropist, advocates for women's and children's rights.

Alean Al-Krenawi (Negev, Israel)
Doctor in in social work and cross-cultural mental health, author of books and articles. Senior Lecturer at the Department of Social Work and Director of the Bedouin Center for Studies and Development at Ben Gurion University of the Negev, a Bedouin, together with Aref Abu-Rabia, he is the first Arab to be appointed for such position in any Israeli university.

Aref Abu-Rabia (Negev, Israel)
Doctor, PhD in Sociology and Anthropology from Tel Aviv University, Masters in Public Health from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and BA in Education and Hebrew from Ben Gurion University. Professor of Middle East Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, a Bedouin, together with Alean Al-Krenawi, he is the first Arab to be appointed for such position in any Israeli university.


Jewish Personalities

The number of Jewish distinguished personalities in every discipline is definitely much greater than it would be in proportion with the Jewish population. The names listed below are only a few of them, mainly concerning science and technology, excluding representatives of arts and other humanistic fields. It is also significant the versatility shown by Jewish intellectuals and professionals, that worked for the progress of the nations which they were serving: during the "Cold War" that characterized the second half of the 20th century, Jewish scientists, philosophers, writers, artists, etc. have contributed to the cultural, social and scientific development in both the Soviet and the Western sides.

Dankmar Adler (Stadtlengsfeld, Prussia, 3/7/1844 – Illinois, 16/4/1900)
Architect, engineer, the buildings designed by him are of outstanding acoustic quality.

Max Nöther, or Max Noether (Mannheim, Grand Duchy of Baden, 24/9/1844 – Erlangen, Germany, 13/12/1921)
Mathematician, geometer, among the most outstanding ones of the century.

Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov (Kharkov, Russian Empire, 16/5/1845 – Paris, France, 15/7/1916)
Microbiologist, zoologist, pioneer in immunology research.

Gabriel Jonas Lippmann (Hollerich, Luxemburg, 16/8/1845 – open sea, 13/7/1921)
Physicist, pioneer of color photography.

Emile Berliner (Wolfenbuttel, Germany, 21/5/1851 – Washington, D.C., 3/8/1929)
Inventor of the disc record as the vehicle to be played in the gramophone [phonograph]; modern CD and DVD technologies are still based on this concept. He also ivented the microphone for the first telephones, a machine for weaving thread or yarn into textiles, a prototype of the helicopter and other innovative devices.

Paul Ehrlich (Strehlen, Prussia -now Strzelin, Poland-, 14/3/1854 – Bad Homburg, Germany, 20/8/1915)
Pharmacologist, developer of the chemotherapy and the magic bullet, the method of targeting the infectious agents in a selective manner.

David Gestetner (Csorna, Hungary, 20/3/1854 – London, England, 18/3/1939)
Invented the mimeograph, or stencil duplicator.

Phoebe Sarah Marks, known as Hertha Ayrton (Portsea, England, 28/4/1854 – Lancing, England, 23/8/1923)
Mathematician, physicist, engineer, inventor. She invented the line divider, used by professionals to precisely divide a line into equal sections. She invented also the Ayrton flapper fan, used in war to dissipate poison gas attacks, then adapted for ventilation in mines. She was the first woman to address the Royal Society.

Sigismund Shlomo Freud (Freiberg in Mähren, Austria-Hungary -now Príbor, Czech-, 6/5/1856 – London, England, 23/9/1939)
Psychiatrist, founder of psychoanalysis.

Waldemar Mordecai Wolff Haffkine, born Vladimir Aaronovich Havkin (Odessa, Russian Empire, 15/3/1860 – Lausanne, Switzerland, 26/10/1930)
Doctor, microbiologist, developed the vaccines against cholera and bubonic plague.

Vito Volterra (Ancona, Italy, 3/5/1860 – Rome, Italy, 11/10/1940)
Mathematician, physicist, professor, was also senator of the Kingdom of Italy.

Jacob Robert Emden (Sankt Gallen, Switzerland, 4/3/1862 – Zürich, Switzerland, 8/10/1940)
Mathematician, astronomer, astrophysicist, meteorologist, explained stellar structure.

Franz Oppenheimer (Berlin, Prussia, 30/3/1864 – Los Angeles, California, 30/11/1943)
Sociologist, economist.

Guido Castelnuovo (Venice, Italy, 14/8/1865 – Rome, Italy, 27/4/1952)
Mathematician, son of the writer Enrico Castelnuovo.

Albert Kahn (Rhaunen, Prussia, 21/3/1869 – Detroit, Michigan, 8/12/1942)
Architect, the most renowned in Detroit, many of his buildings are regarded of historic interest.

Alfred Adler (Rudolfsheim, Austria, 7/2/1870 – Aberdeen, Scotland, 28/5/1937)
Doctor, psychologist, founded the school of individual psychology.

Arthur Korn (Breslau, Prussia -now Wroclaw, Poland-, 20/5/1870 – Jersey City, New Jersey, 22/12/1945)
Mathematician, physicist, invented telephotography, he sent the first fax from a city to another, transmitting a photograph.

Rachel Hirsch (Prussia, 1870 – London, England, 1953)
Physician, Professor of Medicine, discovered the Rachel Hirsch Effect.

Imre Róth, Emery Roth (Gálszécs, Hungary -now Sečovce, Slovakia-, 1871 – New York City, 20/8/1948)
Architect, designed many hotels and buildings in New York.

Benno Strauß (Fürth, Germany, 30/1/1873 – Vorwohle, Germany, 27/9/1944)
Metallurgist, physicist, developed the stainless steel.

Tullio Levi-Civita (Padova, Italy, 29/3/1873 – Rome, Italy, 29/12/1941)
Mathematician, geometer, his research on absolute differential calculus was essential to the Theory of Relativity.

Otto Loewi (Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, 3/6/1873 – New York City, 25/12/1961)
Pharmacologist, discovered the chemical transmission of nerve impulses, acetylcholine. Received many prizes, besides the Nobel, and honorary degrees.

Sándor Ferenczi, or Sándor Fraenkel (Miskolc, Hungary, 7/7/1873 – Budapest, Hungary, 22/5/1933)
Doctor, neurologist, psychoanalyst, was Freud's friend and antagonist.

Karl Schwarzschild (Frankfurt am Main, Germany, 9/10/1873 – Potsdam, Germany, 11/5/1916)
Astronomer, physicist, astrophysicist, developed the concept of black holes.

Gustav Georg Embden (Hamburg, Germany, 10/11/1874 – Nassau, Germany, 25/7/1933)
Chemist, discovered the conversion of glycogen to lactic acid, enabling the studies on diabetes. He was one of the three scientists involved in the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway.

Chaim Azriel Weizmann (Motal, Russian Empire, 27/11/1874 – Rehovot, Israel, 9/11/1952)
Chemist, statesman. He developed an innovative process for acetone production. He founded the Weizmann Institute of Science and was the first President of the State of Israel.

Max Abraham (Danzig, Germany -now Gdańsk, Poland-, 26/3/1875 – München, Germany, 16/11/1922)
Physicist, mathematician.

Julius Hayes Hess (Ottawa, Illinois, 26/1/1876 – 1955)
Doctor, invented the incubator for premature babies.

Viktor Kaplan (Mürzzuschlag, Austria, 27/11/1876 – Unterach am Attersee, Austria, 23/8/1934)
Engineer, invented the Kaplan turbine, a still widely used water turbine for producing electric energy.

Aaron Aaronsohn (Bacău, Romania, 1876 – over the English Channel/La Manche, 15/5/1919)
Agronomist, botanist, explorer, discovered the wild hybrid wheat in Israel.

Carl Alexander Neuberg (Hannover, Germany, 29/7/1877 – New York, 30/5/1956)
Chemist, achieved important discoveries in biochemistry.

Marcel Grossmann (Budapest, Hungary, 9/4/1878 – Zürich, Switzerland, 7/9/1936)
Mathematician, geometer, provided essential contribution to Einstein's achievement in formulating the Theory of Relativity.

Lina Solomonovna Stern (Liepāja, Russian Empire -now Latvia-, 26/8/1878 – Moscow, Russia, 7/3/1968)
Neurophysiologist, biochemist, discovered an effective treatment on hemato-encephalic and histohematic barriers.

Lise Meitner (Vienna, Austria, 7/11/1878 – Cambridge, England, 27/10/1968)
Physicist, discovered nuclear fission process, although the credit was recognized to her colleague.

Albert Einstein (Ulm, Kingdom of Württemberg, German Empire, 14/3/1879 – Princeton, New Jersey, 18/4/1955)
Physicist, considered the greatest scientist of modern times for his Theory of Relativity, he discovered the mass-energy relation through the formula E=mc2.

Paul Ehrenfest (Vienna, Austria, 18/1/1880 – Amsterdam, Netherlands, 25/9/1933)
Mathematician, physicist, specialized in quantum mechanics, formulated the Ehrenfest theorem.

Sir Isaac Shoenberg (Pinsk, Russian Empire, 1/3/1880 – London, England, 25/1/1963)
Electrical engineer, one of the co-inventors of television.

Richard Martin Gans (Hamburg, Germany, 7/3/1880 – La Plata, Argentina, 27/6/1954)
Physicist, professor; founder of the Physics Institute of the National University of La Plata, Argentina.

Abram Fyodorovich Ioffe (Romny, Russian Empire -now Ukraine-, 29/10/1880 – Leningrad -now St. Petersburg-, Russia, 14/10/1960)
Physicist, held important scientific investigations on many fields.

Julius Edgar Lilienfeld (Lemberg, Austro-Hungarian Empire -now Lviv, Ukraine-, 18/4/1881 – Charlotte Amalie, Virgin Islands, 28/8/1963)
Physicist, inventor, patented many devices, among which the first solid state electrolytic capacitor, a solid state rectifier, the field-effect transistor, etc.

Theodore von Kármán, born Szőllőskislaki Kármán Tódor (Budapest, Hungary, 11/5/1881 – Aachen, Germany, 7/5/1963)
Mathematician, engineer, designer. He made significant contributions to aeronautic industry, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, crystallography, elasticity, heat transfer, stability and functionality of aircraft wings, etc.

Ernst Gräfenberg (Adelebsen, Germany, 1881 – New York City, 28/10/1957)
Scientist, medical doctor, gynaecologist, discovered the "G-spot".

Emanuel Goldberg (Moscow, Russia, 1881 – Tel-Aviv, Israel, 1970)
Chemist, invented a great deal of technologies for photography and film industry.

Melanie Klein (Vienna, Austria, 30/3/1882 – London, England, 22/9/1960)
Psychoanalyst, she specialized on children psychology with innovative methods of therapy.

Otto Heinrich Warburg (Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany, 8/10/1883 – Berlin, Germany, 1/8/1970)
Biochemist, discovered the role of flavins and nicotinamide coenzymes in oxidative metabolism and the causes of tumors.

Israel Julius Fromm (Konin, Russian Empire, 4/3/1883 – London, England, 12/5/1945)
Chemist, invented the latex condom.

Yakov Karol Oskarovich Parnas (Mokriany, Austro-Hungarian Empire -now in Ukraine-, 16/1/1884 – Moscow, Russia, 29/1/1949)
Biochemist, one of the scientists that researched on glycolysis, the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway.

Otto Fritz Meyerhof (Hannover, Germany, 12/4/1884 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 6/10/1951)
Biochemist, physician, one of the scientists that researched on glycolysis, the Embden-Meyerhof-Parnas pathway.

Erich Mendelsohn (Allenstein, East Prussia -now Olsztyn, Poland-, 21/3/1887 – S. Francisco, California, 15/9/1953)
Architect, master of expressionism.

Edward Neville da Costa Andrade, FRS (London, England, 27/12/1887 – London, England, 6/6/1971)
Professor, physician, poet, writer, broadcaster.

Victor Moritz Goldschmidt (Zürich, Switzerland, 27/1/1888 – Oslo, Norway, 20/3/1947)
Chemist, mineralogist, ceated the Goldschmidt Classification of elements, pioneer of geochemistry.

Selman Abraham Waksman (Nova Pryluka, Russian Empire, 22/7/1888 – Woods Hole, Massachusetts, 16/8/1973)
Biochemist, microbiologist, discovered streptomycin, neomycin and other antibiotics.

Kurt Zadek Lewin (Mogilno, Prussia -now Poland-, 9/9/1890 – Newtonville, Massachusetts, 12/2/1947)
Psychologist, pioneer in group dynamics and social psychology.

Abraham Low (Baranów Sandomierski, Poland, 28/2/1891 – Rochester, Minnesota, 1954)
Neuropsychiatrist, created treatments for healing people affected by mental illness.

Richard Joseph Neutra (Vienna, Austria, 8/4/1892 – Wuppertal, Germany, 16/4/1970)
Architect, a master of modernism.

Mikhail Iosifovich Gurevich (Rubanščina, Russia, 12/1/1893 – Leningrad -now St. Petersburg-, Russia, 12/11/1976)
Aerospace engineer, designer of the MIG Soviet aircraft in co-operation with Artyom Ivanovich Mikoyan.

Kornél Lánczos, or Kornél Löwy (Székesfehérvár, Hungary, 2/2/1893 – Budapest, Hungary, 25/6/1974)
Physicist, mathematician, an outstanding expert in finding equation solutions for many applications.

Boris Mikhailovich Hessen (Elisavetgrad, Russia -now Kirovohrad, Ukraine-, 16/8/1893 – Moscow, Russia, 20/12/1936)
Philosopher, scientific historian, physicist.

Yakov Ilyich Frenkel (Rostov-na-Donu, Russia, 10/2/1894 – Leningrad -now St. Petersburg-, Russia, 23/1/1952)
Physicist, meteorologist.

Pyotr Leonidovich Kapitsa, FRS (Kronstadt, Russia, 9/7/1894 – Moscow, Russia, 8/4/1984)
Physicist, made several discoveries and created innovative techniques, invented high power microwave generator devices.

Sofya Aleksandrovna Yanovskaya (Pruzhany, Russia, 31/1/1896 – Moscow, Russia, 24/10/1966)
Mathematician, historian, pioneer in mathematic research in the Soviet Union.

Roman Osipovich Jakobson (Moscow, Russia, 11/10/1896 – Massachusetts, 18/7/1982)
Linguist, literary scholar, semiotics expert.

Samuel Noah Kramer (Zhashkiv, Russian Empire -now Ukraine-, 28/9/1897 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 26/11/1990)
Assyriologist, outstanding in Sumerian history and language.

Simcha Blass (Warsaw, Russian Empire -now Poland-, 27/11/1897 – Tel-Aviv, Israel, 18/7/1982)
Engineer, invented with his son Yeshayahu, the drip irrigation system.

Sylvan Nathan Goldman (Ardmore, Chickasaw Nation, Oklahoma, 15/11/1898 – Oklahoma City, 27/11/1984)
Businessman, invented the shopping cart for supermarkets and shops.

Oscher Zaritsky (Kobryn, Russia, 24/4/1899 – Brookline, Massachusetts, 4/7/1986)
Geometer, mathematician.

Charlotte Auerbach, FRS (Krefeld, Germany, 14/5/1899 – Edinburgh, Scotland, 17/3/1994)
Geneticist, studied the effects of radiation and chemicals on living beings and other genetic processes.

László József Bíró (Budapest, Hungary, 29/9/1899 – Buenos Aires, Argentina, 24/11/1985)
Invented the most popular ballpoint pen. In Argentina, where he created it, the ball-pen is called birome in his honour.

Juda Hirsch Quastel, FRS (Sheffield, England, 2/10/1899 – Vancouver, Canada, 15/10/1987)
Biochemist, scientist, doctor, professor.

Leopold Damrosch Mannes (New York City, 26/12/1899 – 11/8/1964)
Musician, invented Kodachrome, the first color transparency film, in co-operation with Leopold Godowsky, Jr.

Pál László, Paul Laszlo (Debrecen, Hungary, 6/2/1900 – Santa Monica, California, 27/3/1993)
Architect, he was the designer for many famous Hollywood artists and other influent people in the United States.

Leopold Godowsky, Jr. (New York City, 27/5/1900 – 18/2/1983)
Chemist, violinist, invented Kodachrome, the first color transparency film, in co-operation with Leopold Damrosch Mannes.

Erich Pinchas Fromm (Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, 23/3/1900 – Locarno, Switzerland, 18/3/1980)
Philosopher, sociologist, psychoanalyst.

Dénes Gábor, FRS (Budapest, Hungary, 5/6/1900 – London, England, 9/2/1979)
Engineer, invented holography.

Semyon Alekseyevich Lavochkin (Smolensk, Russia, 29/8/1900 – Moscow, Russia, 9/6/1960)
Aircraft designer. Many Soviet fighter aircrafts used in World War II were designed by him.

Joseph Bernard Friedman (Cleveland, Ohio, 9/10/1900 – 21/6/1982)
Inventor, his best known creation is the flexible drinking straw.

Itze-Leib Schmuilowsky, Leiser-Itze Schmalowski, known as Louis Isadore Kahn
(Kuressaare, Saaremaa island, Estonia -then Russian Empire-, 20/1/1901 – New York City, 17/3/1974)
Architect, professor, specialized in monumental designs.

Berthold Romanovich Lubetkin (Tbilisi, Georgia -then Russian Empire-, 14/12/1901 – Bristol, England, 23/10/1990)
Architect, pioneer of modernism in Great Britain.

Ephraim Avigdor Speiser (Skalat, Austria-Hungary -now Ukraine-, 24/1/1902 – Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 15/6/1965)
Assyriologist, Hurrian language translator, discovered the ancient site of Tepe Gawra in 1927.

Marcel Lajos Breuer, Lajkó Breuer (Pécs, Hungary, 21/5/1902 – New York City, 1/7/1981)
Architect, designer, pioneer of Modernism, was the creator of the first bent tubular steel chair, known as "Wassily Chair".

Erik Homburger Erikson, born Erik Salomonsen (Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany, 15/6/1902 – Harwich, Massachusetts, 12/5/1994)
Psychologist, psychoanalyst, coined the term identity crisis.

Alexander Romanovich Luria (Kazan, Russia, 16/7/1902 – Moscow, Russia, 14/8/1977)
Neuropsychologist, among the most famous ones of the Soviet Union.

Egon Orován (Budapest, Hungary, 2/8/1902 – Cambridge, Massachusetts, 3/8/1989)
Mechanical engineer, patented many inventions and won many honors.

Abraham Wald (Kolozsvár, Hungary, 31/10/1902 – Travancore, India, 13/12/1950)
Mathematician, specialized in statistical sequential analysis.

Morris Lapidus (Odessa, Russian Empire -now Ukraine-, 25/11/1902 – Miami Beach, Florida, 18/1/2001)
Architect, designer of many hotels in Miami Beach.

Gregory Goodwin Pincus (Woodbine, New Jersey, 9/4/1903 – Boston, Massachusetts, 22/8/1967)
Biologist, invented the oral contraceptive pill.

Victor David Gruen, born Viktor David Grünbaum (Vienna, Austria, 18/74/1903 – 14/2/1980)
Architect, specialized in designing malls in the United States.

John von Neumann, born János Lajos Neumann (Budapest, Hungary, 28/12/1903 – Washington D.C., 8/2/1957)
Mathematician, among the most prominent ones of the 20th century.

J. Robert Oppenheimer (New York City, 22/4/1904 – Princeton, New Jersey, 18/2/1967)
Physicist, pioneer in nuclear development, he directed the "Manhattan Project".

Hermann Henselmann (Roßla, Prussia, 3/2/1905 – Berlin, Germany, 19/1/1995)
Architect, he was head architect of Gotha, Weimar and East Berlin.

Viktor Emil Frankl (Vienna, Austria, 26/3/1905 – 2/9/1997)
Psychiatrist, neurologist, founder of logotherapy.

Hans Freudenthal (Luckenwalde, Prussia, 17/9/1905 – Utrecht, Netherlands, 13/10/1990)
Mathematician, formulated the Freudenthal suspension theorem.

Sir Ernst Boris Chain (Berlin, Prussia, 19/6/1906 – Caisleán an Bharraigh, Ireland, 12/8/1979)
Biochemist, Nobel laureate for his research on penicillin. Brother-in-law of Jewish historian Baron Max Beloff.

Albert Sabin, born Albert Saperstein (Byalistok, Russian Empire -now Poland-, 26/8/1906 – Washington D.C., 3/3/1993)
Medical doctor, created several vaccines, the best known is the oral vaccine against poliomyelitis.

Péter Károly Goldmark (Budapest, Hungary, 2/12/1906 – Westchester, New York, 7/12/1977)
Physicist, engineer, invented the long-playing 33 RPM vinyl discs (LP).

Sir Rudolf Ernst Peierls (Berlin, Germany, 5/6/1907 – Oxford, England, 19/9/1995)
Physicist, provided a major contributioon to the British nuclear program.

Guido Pontecorvo (Pisa, Italy, 29/11/1907 – Pisa, Italy, 25/9/1999)
Geneticist.

Lev Davidovich Landau (Baku, Russian Empire -now Azerbaidjan-, 22/1/1908 – Moscow, Russia, 1/4/1968)
Physicist, mathematician, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Abraham Harold Maslow (Brooklyn, New York, 1/4/1908 – California, 8/6/1970)
Psychologist, author of the hierarchy of human needs.

Albert Neuberger, FRS (Hassfurt, Germany, 15/4/1908 – England, 14/8/1996)
Professor, medical doctor, biochemist.

Max Abramovitz, (Illinois, 23/5/1908 – Pound Ridge, New York, 12/9/2004)
Architect, designed many important buildings of the United States.

Claude Lévi-Strauss (Brussels, Belgium, 28/11/1908 – Paris, France, 1/11/2009)
Anthropologist, ethnographer, sociologist, scholar.

Hanon Ilyich Izakson (Novo-Bereslav, Russia -now Ukraine-, 15/3/1909 – Taganrog, Russia, 4/4/1985)
Engineer, designer of agricultural machines and harvesters.

Nathan Rosen (Brooklyn, New York, 22/3/1909 – Haifa, Israel, 18/12/1995)
Physicist, worked with Albert Einstein and Boris Podolsky, in research leading to the Theory of Relativity.

Rita Levi-Montalcini (Turin, Italy, 22/4/1909 – Rome, Italy, 30/12/2012)
Neurologist, discovered the nerve growth factor (NGF) in co-operation with Stanley Cohen. She was the only Nobel Prize to reach 100 years of age. She was Senator for Life since 2001.

Edwin Herbert Land (Bridgeport, Connecticut, 7/5/1909 – Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1/3/1991)
Scientist, patented inventions mainly related with photography and vision.

Gordon Bunshaft (Buffalo, New York, 9/5/1909 – 6/8/1990)
Architect of the modernist school, winner of the Pritzker Prize.

Rudolf Kompfner (Vienna, Austria, 16/5/1909 – Stanford, California, 3/12/1977)
Physicist, engineer, invented the travelling-wave tube (TWT).

Jacob Rabinow, Yakov Aaronovich Rabinovichin (Kharkov, Russian Empire -now Kharkiv, Ukraine-, 1910 – New York, 1999)
Engineer, invented many devices as the optical character recognition machine, automated mail-handling equipment, phonograph tone arms, turntables, timekeeping mechanisms, roadway reflectors, magnetic disk file for computers, auto-focusing camera, automobile headlight dimmer, magnetic particle clutch, etc.

David Shoenberg (Pinsk, Russia -now Belarus-, 4/1/1911 – Cambridge, England, 10/3/2004)
Physicist, specialized in the field of superconductivity; son of engineer and inventor Sir Isaac Shoenberg.

Yisrael Galili, born Izrael Berchenko (Brailov, Russian Empire -now Ukraine-, 10/2/1911 – Kibbutz Na’an, Israel, 8/2/1986)
Politician, designed the Galili rifle.

Bernard Katz FRS (Leipzig, Prussia, 26/3/1911 – London, England, 20/6/2003)
Biophysicist, biochemist; discovered properties of synapses, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Leonid Vitaliyevich Kantorovich (St. Petersburg, Russia, 19/1/1912 – Moscow, Russia, 7/4/1986)
Mathematician, economist, the only Soviet winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics.

Martin Schwarzschild (Potsdam, Germany, 31/5/1912 – Langhorne, Pennsylvania, 10/4/1997)
Astrophysicist, son of Karl Schwarzschild and nephew of Robert Emden, both physicists.

Israďl Moiseevich Gelfand, FRS (Okny, Russian Empire -now Krasnye Okny, Ukraine-, 20/8/1913)
Mathematician, among the most renowned ones of the Soviet Union, then a Distinguished Professor in the United States.

Bruno Pontecorvo (Marina di Pisa, Italy, 22/8/1913 – Dubna, Russia, 24/9/1993)
Atomic physicist.

Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler, better known as actress Hedy Lamarr (Vienna, Austria-Hungary, 9/11/1913 – Altamonte Springs, Florida, 19/1/2000)
Scientist, invented communication technology systems which are the grounds for modern WiFi connections and wireless networks.

Robert Adler (Vienna, Austria, 4/12/1913 – Boise, Idaho, 15/2/2007)
Inventor, among his many patents there is the television wireless remote control.

Heinz Berggrün (Berlin, Prussia, 5/1/1914 – Paris, France, 23/2/2007)
Founder of the Berggruen Museum in Berlin.

Sidney Eisenshtat (New Haven, Connecticut, 6/6/1914 – Los Angeles, California, 1/3/2005)
Architect, building designer.

Jonas Edward Salk (New York City, 28/10/1914 – La Jolla, California, 23/6/1995)
Physician, biologist, discovered the polio vaccine, later perfectioned by Albert Sabin.

Anatole Abragam (Griva, Russia -now Latvia-, 15/12/1914)
Physicist, pioneer in nuclear magnetism.

Yevgeny Mikhailovich Lifschitz (Kharkov, Russian Empire -now Kharkiv, Ukraine-, 21/2/1915 – Moscow, Russia, 29/10/1985)
Physicist, expert in gravitation and relativity.

Baron Péter Tamás Bauer (Budapest, Hungary, 6/11/1915 – London, England, 2/5/2002)
Economist, expert in the field of development.

Frank Reginald Nunes Nabarro (London, England, 7/3/1916 – London, England, 20/7/2006)
Physicist, mathematician.

Vitaly Lazarevich Ginzburg (Moscow, Russia, 4/10/1916)
Physicist, astrophysicist, formulated several thoeries, one of them is the Ginzburg-Landau Theory.

Herbert Aaron Hauptman (New York City, 14/2/1917)
Mathematician, crystallographer, Nobel Prize for his methods and research on molecular structures.

David Joseph Bohm (Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, 14/2/1917 – London, England, 27/10/1992)
Quantum physicist, neuropsychologist, philosopher, involved in the "Manhattan Project".

Belle Elion (New York City, 23/1/1918 – Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 21/2/1999)
Biochemist, pharmacologist, discovered and developed several therapies and drugs as 6-MP, acyclovir and others, was the first woman in the National Inventors Hall of Fame.

Solomon Aaron Berson (New York City, 22/4/1918 – Atlantic City, New Jersey, 11/4/1972)
Physician, musician, chess player, formulated the the radioimmunoassay technique (RIA) in co-operation with Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize.

Richard Phillips Feynman (New York City, 11/5/1918 – Los Angeles, California, 15/2/1988)
Physicist, mathematician, outstanding in the field of quantum electrodynamics for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize.

Jerome Karle (New York City, 18/6/1918)
Physicist, chemist, Nobel Prize in Chemistry, shared with Herbert Aaron Hauptman.

Franco Modigliani (Rome, Italy, 18/6/1918 – Cambridge, Massachusetts, 25/9/2003)
Economist, Nobel Prize.

Abraham Nemeth (New York City, 1918)
Mathematician, inventor, created the Nemeth Braille Code for Mathematics and Science Notation.

Vladimir Abramovich Rokhlin (Baku, Russian Empire -now Azerbaidjan-, 23/8/1919 – Leningrad -now St. Petersburg-, Russia, 3/12/1984)
Mathematician, geometer, topologist.

Isaak Markovich Khalatnikov (Dnipropetrovsk, Russian Empire -now Ukraine-, 17/10/1919)
Physicist, formulated several theories and was among the most important Soviet scientists.

Rosalind Elsie Franklin (Notting Hill, London, England, 25/7/1920 – Chelsea, London, England, 16/4/1958)
Biophysicist, crystallographer, msde important studies on the structure of DNA.

Richard Ernest Bellman (New York City, 26/8/1920 – Los Angeles, California, 19/3/1984)
Mathematician, invented dynamic programming.

Samuel Blum (New York City, 28/8/1920)
Physicist, chemist, invented the ultraviolet dental surgery.

Gavriil Abramovich Ilizarov (Kusary, Azerbaidjan, 15/6/1921 – Kurgan, Russia, 24/7/1992)
Physician, invented the Ilizarov apparatus, used in surgery to lengthen or reshape limb bones.

Alick Isaacs, FRS (Glasgow, Scotland, 17/7/1921 – 26/1/1967)
Virologist, discovered interferon in co-operation with Jean Lindemann.

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (New York City, 19/7/1921)
Physicist, formulated the the radioimmunoassay technique (RIA) in co-operation with Solomon Aaron Berson, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize.

Yevgeniy Mikhailovich Landis (Kharkov, Russia -now Kharkiv, Ukraine-, 6/10/1921 – Moscow, Russia, 12/12/1997)
Mathematician, invented the AVL tree together with Georgiy Maximovich Adelson-Velsky.

Georgiy Maximovich Adelson-Velsky (Russia, 8/1/1922)
Mathematician, computer expert, developed computer chess programs and invented the AVL tree together with Yevgeniy Mikhailovich Landis.

Albert Schatz (Norwich, Connecticut, 2/2/1922 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 17/1/2005)
Scientist, microbiologist, discovered streptomycin.

Imre Lakatos, born Avrum Lipschitz, then called Imre Molnár (Debrecen, Hungary, 9/11/1922 – London, England, 2/2/1974)
Scientific philosopher, specialized in philosophy of mathematics, formulatd the thesis of the fallibility of mathematics methodology.

Stanley Cohen (Brooklyn, New York, 17/11/1922)
Biochemist, discovered the nerve growth factor (NGF) in co-operation with Rita Levi-Montalcini.

Esther Miriam Zimmer Lederberg (Bronx, New York, 18/12/1922 – Stanford, California, 11/11/2006)
Geneticist, immunologist, microbiologist, elaborated the replica plating technique with her husband Joshua Lederberg, discovered lambda phage, the bacterial fertility factor F and other biological processes.

Jack David Dunitz (Glasgow, Scotland, 29/3/1923)
Crystallographer, chemist, professor, one of the discoverers of DNA structure.

Irving Millman (New York City, 23/5/1923)
Doctor, developed the vaccine for hepatitis B.

Harry Seidler (Staten Island, New York, 18/7/1923 – Los Angeles, California, 1/10/1997)
Inventor, innovator, holds a great number of patents in several fields, automation, telephone technologies, music recording industry, etc.

Jerome Hal Lemelson (Vienna, Austria, 25/6/1923 – Sydney, Australia, 9/3/2006)
Architect, introduced the Bauhaus school in Australia.

Carl Djerassi (Vienna, Austria, 29/10/1923)
Chemist, playwright, one of the creators of the oral contraceptive pill.

Uziel Gal, "Uzi", born Gotthard Glass (Weimar, Germany, 15/12/1923 – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 7/9/2002)
IDF soldier, designer of the Uzi submachine gun.

Stanford Ovshinsky (Akron, Ohio, 1923)
Engineer, physicist, invented the amorphous silicon semiconductors, widely used in many applications like LCD monitors, CD-RW, photocopy and fax machines, etc.

Michel Mirowski, born Mordechai Frydman (Warsaw, Poland, 14/10/1924 – Baltimore, Maryland, 26/3/1990)
Physician, doctor, invented the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD).

Joshua Lederberg (Montclair, New Jersey, 23/5/1925 – New York City, 2/2/2008)
Geneticist, molecular biologist, discovered bacterial exchange activity with genes, elaborated the replica plating technique with his wife Esther Miriam Zimmer.

Basil Isaac Hirschowitz (Bethal, South Africa, 29/5/1925)
Gastroenterologist, invented the optical fiber for endoscopy.

Baruch Samuel Blumberg (New York, 28/7/1925)
Scientist, developed the treatment for hepatitis B.

Donald Arthur Glaser (Cleveland, Ohio, 21/9/1926)
Physicist, neurobiologist, invented the bubble chamber.

Leslie Eleazer Orgel (London, England, 12/1/1927 – S. Diego, California, 27/10/2007)
Chemist, one of the discoverers of DNA structure.

Sydney Brenner, FRS (Germiston, South Africa, 13/1/1927)
Biologist, one of the discoverers of DNA structure.

Theodore Harold Maiman (Los Angeles, California, 11/7/1927 – Vancouver, Canada, 5/5/2007)
Physicist, created the laser.

Leon Mestel (Melbourne, Australia, 5/8/1927)
Astronomer, astrophysicist. He is the father of Jonathan Mestel, mathematician and chess player.

Marvin Lee Minsky (New York City, 9/8/1927)
AI scientist, patented several inventions concerning artificial intelligence systems.

Daniel Leonard Dworsky (Minneapolis, Minnesota, 4/10/1927)
Architect, specialized in designing arenas and stadiums.

César Milstein (Bahía Blanca, Argentina, 8/10/1927 – Cambridge, England, 24/3/2002)
Biochemist, formulated the hybridoma technique to produce antibodies.

Bernard Marshall Gordon (Springfield, Massachusetts, 1927)
Inventor, patented a great deal of devices related with hi-tech and computing systems, as scanners, analog-to-digital signal converters, encoded detectors, tomography systems, digital Doppler radar, dual energy power supply, and many others.

Seymour Papert (Pretoria, South Africa, 29/2/1928)
Mathematician, scientist, expert in new technologies.

Frank Owen Gehry, born Ephraim Owen Goldberg (Toronto, Canada, 28/2/1929)
Architect, winner of the Pritzker Prize. The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, is one of his most famous buildings.

Zhores Ivanovich Alferov or Alfyorov (Vitebsk, Belarus', 15/3/1930)
Physicist, invented the heterotransistor.

Charles David Kelman (Brooklyn, New York, 23/5/1930 – Palm Beach, Florida, 1/6/2004)
Ophthalmologist, created the phacoemulsification in cataract surgery.

James Ingo Freed (Essen, Germany, 23/6/1930 – New York City, 15/12/2005)
Architect, designer of the United States Air Force Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, among other important buildings.

Gustave Solomon (Brooklyn, New York, 27/10/1930 – Beverly Hills, California, 31/1/1996)
Engineer, mathematician, co-inventor of the Reed-Solomon codes for digital information error correction.

Sir Roy Yorke Calne, FRS (London, England, 30/12/1930)
Physician, surgeon, specialized in organ transplantation, he achieved the first liver transplant in Europe, the first combined transplant of liver, heart, and lung in the world, and several other multiple-organ transfer operations.

Samuel Fedida, (England, 1930 ?)
Invented viewdata.

Felix Alexandrovich Berezin (Moscow, Russia, 25/4/1931 – Kolyma, Russia, 14/7/1980)
Mathematician, physicist.

Michael Ellis Fisher (Trinidad, Trinidad and Tobago, 3/8/1931)
Mathematician, physicist, chemist.

Peter Eisenman (Newark, New Jersey, 11/8/1932)
Architect.

Moses Judah Folkman (Cleveland, Ohio, 24/2/1933 – Denver, Colorado, 14/1/2008)
Physician, scientist, pioneer in anti-angiogenesis therapy, oncology, cellular biology; designed pacemakers and other medical devices.

Selig Percy Amoils (Johannesburg, South Africa, 1933)
Biomedical engineer, ophthalmologist, inventor, patented several devices related with optical surgery.

Richard Meier (Newark, New Jersey, 12/10/1934)
Architect, was awarded the Pritzker Prize and other medals.

Carl Edward Sagan (Brooklyn, New York, 9/11/1934 – Seattle, Washington, 20/12/1996)
Astronomer, astrophysicist, astrochemist, scientist, writer.

Ronald A. Katz (1935 ?)
Inventor, patented many telephonic interface systems.

Edward Albert Feigenbaum (Weehawken, New Jersey, 20/1/1936)
Computer scientist, founded the Knowledge Systems Laboratory at Stanford University.

Vladimir Igorevich Arnold (Odessa, Ukraine, 12/6/1937)
Mathematician.

Jaime Lerner (Curitiba, Brazil, 17/12/1937)
Architect, he was the designer of Curitiba's urban transport network, the BRT, one of the most advanced and functional transportation systems in the world. He was also the governor of the State of Paraná, of which Curitiba is the capital city.

Manuel Blum (Caracas, Venezuela, 26/4/1938)
Computer scientist.

Moshe Safdie (Haifa, Israel, 14/7/1938)
Architect, designer, professor at Harvard University.

Leonard "Lenny" Lipton (Brooklyn, New York, 18/5/1940)
Filmmaker, invented the 3D stereoscopic vision system.

Jef Raskin (New York City, 9/3/1943 – Pacifica, California, 26/2/2005)
Computer scientist, creator of the Macintosh project for Apple Computer Inc.

Ernő Rubik (Budapest, Hungary, 13/7/1944)
Architect, sculptor, professor, invented several mechanical puzzles like Rubik Sphere, Rubik's Magic, Rubik's Snake or Rubik's Twist, and the best known Rubik's Cube, of which he developed different versions, as well as many other puzzle and multi-player games including Rubik's Illusion game board.

Iosif Naumovič Bernštejn (Moscow, Russia, 18/4/1945)
Mathematician, geometer.

Philip Cohen, FRS (Middlesex, England, 22/7/1945)
Biologist, biochemist, professor, scholar.

Leonard Max Adleman (S. Francisco, California, 31/12/1945)
Molecular biologist, computer scientist, professor, invented DNA computing, co-invented the RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) cryptosystem.

Lee Felsenstein (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1945)
Computer engineer, designer of computer technology devices.

Daniel Libeskind (Lódz, Poland, 12/5/1946)
Architect, has designed many important museums in Europe, Israel and the United States.

Robert Samuel Langer (Albany, New York, 29/8/1948)
Biochemical engineer, professor, scientific author, expert in biotechnology, drug delivery systems and tissue engineering. He has a number of degrees, hundreds of patents and many other titles and honors.

Philippe Kahn (France, 16/3/1952)
Computer scientist, musician, yacht racer, invented the camera phone.

Adi Shamir (Tel-Aviv, Israel, 16/3/1952)
Computer scientist, cryptographer; co-invented the RSA (Rivest-Shamir-Adleman) cryptosystem, the Feige-Fiat-Shamir identification scheme, and the differential cryptanalysis in co-operation with the Israeli scientist Eli Biham.

Jeffrey Friedman (Orlando, Florida, 20/7/1954)
Geneticist, discovered the leptin protein hormone and its influence on metabolism.

Jonathan J. Rubinstein (New York City, 1956)
Engineer, computer scientist, chief designer of the of the iPod and the iMac.

Noga Alon (Israel, 1956)
Mathematician, computer scientist, professor, received many important awards.

Shafrira “Shafi” Goldwasser (New York City, 1958)
Engineer, computer scientist, mathematician, co-invented the zero-knowledge protocol. She has won twice the Gödel Prize and several other distinguished awards, and has been elected to the most prestigious Academies of Science.

Nicolas Berggruen (1962)
Economist, known as the "homeless billionaire", he is one of the sons of Heinz Berggrün.

Kevin David Mitnick (Los Angeles, California, 6/8/1963)
Formerly the most famous computer hacker, now a computer security consultant.

Julie Eizenberg (1964)
Architect, widely known and awarded in the United States and Australia.

Grigorii Yakovlevich Perelman, Grisha Perelman (St. Petersburg, Russia, 13/6/1966)
Geometer, mathematician, scholar.

Lawrence Edward Page, "Larry" Page (Ann Arbor, Michigan, 26/3/1973)
Founder, with Sergey Mikhailovich Brin, of the Google search engine.

Sergey Mikhailovich Brin (Moscow, Russia, 21/8/1973)
Founder, with Lawrence Edward Page, of the Google search engine.

Mark Zuckerberg (White Plains, New York, 14/5/1984)
Developed, with Dustin Moskovitz, the online social network Facebook, both being still Harvard students.

Dustin Moskovitz
Developed, with Mark Zuckerberg, the online social network Facebook, both being still Harvard students.

Justin Rosenstein
Computer engineer, worked as product manager for Google Page Creator and as lead engineer for Facebook.

Joel Davidson (United States)
Built the first vehicle that was completely fed by solar power.

Gavriel Iddan (Israel)
Engineer, invented the wireless camera-in-a-capsule endoscopy swallowable device.

Rafi Yoeli (Tel-Aviv, Israel)
Engineer, invented the Urban Aeronautics X-Hawk, the first flying car, a vertical take-off and landing vehicle.

Ruth Kedar (Brazil)
Artist, designer, art professor, she is the author of the Google logo, co-designer of Adobe Deck and co-founder of Art.Net.

Ori Allon (Israel)
University student, creator of Orion search engine, whose algorithm was hired by Google.

 

Jewish and Arab Achievements

The fall of the Arab Empire determined also the end of the scientific and cultural development of he Arab world, whose brilliant scientists and philosophers date back to the Caliphate period. The availability of opportunities existing today in the West has allowed some Arab professionals to develop their capacity in complete freedom, and some achievements have been produced by Arab scientists, as the peristaltic pump, the Najjar solution, tissue grafting for transplants, retrosynthetic analysis or femtochemistry.

Regarding the inventions and discoveries achieved by Jewish people, we can number thousands of them, from simple items of everyday use like the blue jeans, the ball-pen, the television set, the shopping cart or the contraceptive pill to the highest breakthrough technology in medicine, aeronautic industry, engineering, nuclear fission, the structure of DNA or the Theory of Relativity. A great deal of essential vaccines, antibiotics and treatments have been produced by research done by Jewish scientists, as well as cutting-edge medical devices. In everyday life, a person can hardly avoid using anything that has been discovered or invented by a Jew.


 

Jewish and Arab Nobel Prizes

The Nobel Prize is the most prestigiuos international award given to people who have made some important contribution to mankind. The disciplines considered are: Biomedical Sciences, Chemistry, Physics, Literature, Economics and Peace. This last one does not imply any kind of creativity or outstanding intelligence, therefore, they deserve to be counted apart. If the amount of Nobel Prizes won by a nation or people are to be considered as a marker of cultural development, we can reach misleading conclusions. It is the education and commitment, not the ethnicity, that should be credited. Unfortunately, many nations are hindered from progress not because their population is intellectually less capable than other peoples, but because of their education policy, that is conditioned either by religious or political bias. On the other side, there are human groups for whom education and progress have priority over prejudices of any kind and should be pursued overcoming any social, political or financial situation, and the results they obtain are evident. Between 1901 and 2007, 777 individuals and 20 organizations have been awarded the Nobel Prize.

Arab Nobel Prizes
(except Peace)

Out of more than three hundred million inhabitants of the Arab countries, there are only two Nobel Prizes: Nagib Mahfouz (Literature, 1988) and Ahmed Zewail (Chemistry, 1999), both from Egypt. One of them, Ahmed Zewail, developed his career and research in the West. Nagib Mahfouz was beaten and as consequence he remained partially paralyzed, because he supported peace with Israel. Out of the Arab world, there were other two Arab Nobel Prizes, both of Lebanese Christian origin: Elias James Corey (Chemistry, 1990), American, and Sir Peter Brian Medawar (Medicine, 1960), Brazilian, of British mother. Christian Lebanese do not always regard themselves as Arabs, however, we can agree in considering them an Arabic-speaking people.
There were also two Nobel Prizes born in Algeria, when it belonged to France, but none of the two was Arab: Albert Camus (Literature, 1957), was of French-Spanish origin, and Claude Cohen-Tannoudji (Physics, 1997), Jewish. Another French laureate was born in Morocco, Serge Haroche (Physics, 2012), Jewish.

Total of Arab laureates: 4

Jewish Nobel Prizes
(except Peace)

The number of Jewish Nobel Prizes is definitely not proportional to the Jewish world population. There are several complete name lists available, which should be updated every year, therefore, here we present only a brief resume of the number of Jewish Nobel laureates by discipline and country, avoiding to repeat what is available in other sources concerning the names of each one.

    By discipline :

     

     

    Biomedical Sciences

    between 1908 and 2013:

    57

    Chemistry

    between 1905 and 2013:

    36

    Physics

    between 1907 and 2016:

    50

    Literature

    between 1910 and 2016:

    15

    Economic Sciences

    between 1970 and 2016:

    28

Total of Jewish laureates: 186

They represented the following countries (in cases of more than one citizenship, the birth place is chosen):

Country

Jewish / Total Nobel Prizes

% Jewish Laureates

% Jewish Population

Algeria

1 / 2

50 %

0.001 %

Argentina

1 / 3 *

33 %

0.9 %

Azerbaidjan

1 / 1

100 %

0.05 %

Austria

10 / 17 *

59 %

0.1 %

Belarus'

2 / 2

100 %

0.05 %

Belgium

1 / 5 *

20 %

0.7%

Bulgaria

1 / 1

100 %

0.04 %

Canada

5 / 17 *

29.4 %

1.2 %

Czech

1 / 5 *

20 %

0.05 %

Denmark

1 / 12 *

8 %

0.14 %

France

5 / 43 **

11.6 %

0.3 %

Germany **

24 / 89 *

27 %

0.25 %

Hungary

6 / 9

67 %

0.75 %

 

 

Country

Jewish / Total Nobel Prizes

% Jewish Laureates

% Jewish Population

Israel

9 / 9 *

100 %

75 %

Italy

4 / 19 *

21 %

0.05 %

Lithuania

2 / 3

67 %

0.1 %

Luxembourg

1 / 2

50 %

0.15 %

Morocco

1 / 1

100 %

0.01 %

Poland

4 / 9 *

45 %

0.07 %

Russia

9 / 18 *

50 %

0.6 %

South Africa

2 / 5 *

40 %

0.05 %

Switzerland

2 / 17 *

12 %

0.2%

Ukraine

4 / 5

80 %

0.35 %

United Kingdom

7 / 92 *

7.6 %

0.6 %

United States

81 / 238 *

34 %

2.1 %

Venezuela

1 / 1

100 %

0.1 %

      * Excluding Nobel for Peace, International and Organizations, otherwise, the total laureates are:
      Argentina: 5;   Austria: 19;   Belgium: 9;   Canada: 19;   Czech: 6;   Denmark: 13      ;   Germany: 93;   Israel: 12;   Italy: 20;   Poland: 10;   Russia: 20 (the laureates from Azerbaidjan and Belarus' -all Jewish- are usually counted as Russian, that makes: 23, of which 12 Jewish);   South Africa: 9;   Switzerland: 19;   United Kingdom: 103;   United States: 256.
      ** France: Excluding 9 Nobel for Peace, 2 Algerian-born laureates and 1 Moroccan-born laureate, but including Madagascar and Caribbean-born laureates. The total French Nobel Prizes, including Algerian and Moroccan, are: 52, of which 7 Jewish (1 Algerian-born, 1 Moroccan-born and 1 Peace Nobel), 13 %.
      ** Germany-Poland: 15 laureates (7 Jewish) born in former Prussian territories now belonging to Poland are considered German, according to their birth nationality.
      ** Germany-Russia: 1 laureate (Jewish) born in former East Prussia, now belonging to Russia, is considered German, according to his birth nationality.
      ** Germany-France: 2 laureates (1 Jewish) born in former German territories now belonging to France are considered German, according to their birth nationality.


      Peace Nobel Prizes

The Nobel Prize for Peace should be counted separately, not only because it is given at Oslo instead of Stockholm, but also because it is not awarded for any creative achievement and often it has short-lasting effect (as the "peace" agreed in 1994) or not any effect at all in mankind's cultural development.

Until 2011, there are eight Jewish Peace Nobel Prizes:

    1911
    1911
    1968
    1978
    1994
    1994
    1986
    1995

    Austria-Hungary
    Netherlands
    France
    Israel
    Israel
    Israel
    Romania
    Poland

    Alfred Hermann Fried
    Tobias Asser
    René Cassin
    Menachem Begin
    Yitzhak Rabin
    Shimon Peres
    Elie Wiesel
    Józef Rotblat

Until 2011, there are three Arab Peace Nobel Prizes:

    1978
    2005
    2011

    Egypt
    Egypt
    Yemen

    Anwar El-Sadat
    Mohamed El-Baradei
    Tawakkel Karman

Anwar El-Sadat was murdered for having recognized the State of Israel. Obviously, here we cannot consider a Nobel Prize for Peace given in 1994 to a terrorist who was always proud of being photographed holding a Kalashnikov gun, before and after having been unworthyly awarded. However, we have also omitted listing another Peace Nobel Prize conferred in 1973 to a Jewish diplomat who was the American Secretary of State, thus having dropped one from each side and avoided mentioning their names (although usually for each Jew they are required many Arabs, mainly when it concerns to prisoner exchange, here we consider both peoples having equal dignity, and exchanges are done 1 x 1).

In conclusion, until 2011, the Jewish Nobel Prizes, including Peace, are 182, representing 26 countries. The Arab Nobel Prizes are 7, from 4 countries: Egypt, Yemen, Brazil and the United States. The only Arab countries having Nobel laureates are Egypt and Yemen. Egypt, with 4 laureates, of which 2 are Peace awards, one of them was laureated in Chemistry but his scientific work was possible because his studies were performed in the West, one of them was awarded in Literature and punished for his position for peace with the Jewish State, and one of them was killed for the same reason. The only Yemeni laureate was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace.

 

 

Next:

Miscellaneous

 


Back:
Part I: Israel and the Arab World

 

 

All human beings are equal. There is no superior people.
The difference is between education and superstition, between reason and fanaticism,
between freedom and slavery...