Image | Head of state or government | Title | Country | In office from | In office until | Born in | Jewish ancestry |
---|
| Samuel ibn Nagrella | Grand Vizier and Nagid | Taifa of Granada, Al-Andalus | 1027 | 1055 | Cordoba, Al-Andalus | Sephardic Jewish[1] [2] [3] [4] |
| Yosef ibn Nagrella | Grand Vizier and Nagid | Taifa of Granada, Al-Andalus | 1055 | 30 December 1066 | Granada, Al-Andalus | Sephardic Jewish[5] [6] [7] |
| Joseph Nasi | Duke of Naxos | Duchy of the Archipelago | 1566 | 1579 | Kingdom of Portugal | Portuguese Jewish[8] [9] [10] |
| Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva | Governor of the New Kingdom of León | | 1580 | 1588 | Mogadouro, Kingdom of Portugal | Portuguese Jewish[11] [12] [13] |
| Gabriel Milan | Governor of The Danish West Indies | Denmark | 7 May 1684 | 5 July 1686 | Glückstadt, Germany | Sephardic Jewish[14] |
| Juan Lindo | President of El Salvador | El Salvador | 7 January 1841 | 1 February 1842 | Tegucigalpa, Honduras | Sephardic Jewish[15] [16] [17] [18] |
President of Honduras | Honduras | 2 February 1847 | 1 February 1852 |
| Benjamin Disraeli | Prime Minister of the United Kingdom | United Kingdom | 27 February 1868 | 1 December 1868 | Bloomsbury, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom | British Jewish, Italian Jewish[19] [20] [21] [22] |
20 February 1874 | 21 April 1880 |
| Julius Vogel | Premier of New Zealand | New Zealand | 8 April 1873 | 6 July 1875 | London, United Kingdom | English Jewish[23] [24] [25] |
15 February 1876 | 1 September 1876 |
| Vaiben Louis Solomon | Premier of South Australia | | 1 December 1899 | 8 December 1899 | Adelaide, South Australia | Australian Jewish[26] |
| Matthew Nathan | Governor of the Gold Coast | | 17 December 1900 | 9 February 1904 | London, United Kingdom | English Jewish[27] [28] |
Governor of Hong Kong | | 29 July 1904 | 29 July 1907 |
Governor of Natal | Colony of Natal | 2 September 1907 | 23 December 1909 |
| Alessandro Fortis | Prime Minister of Italy | | 28 March 1905 | 8 February 1906 | Forlì, Papal States | Italian Jewish[29] [30] [31] |
| Sidney Sonnino | Prime Minister of Italy | | 8 February 1906 | 29 May 1906 | Pisa, Grand Duchy of Tuscany | Italian Jewish[32] [33] [34] father, raised Christian |
11 December 1909 | 31 March 1910 |
| Luigi Luzzatti | Prime Minister of Italy | | 31 March 1910 | 30 March 1911 | Venice, Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia | Italian Jewish[35] [36] [37] |
| Francisco Henríquez y Carvajal | President of the Dominican Republic | Dominican Republic | 31 July 1916 | 29 November 1916 | Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic | Dutch Jewish, Sephardic Jewish[38] [39] [40] [41] |
| Yakov Sverdlov | Chairman of All-Russian Central Executive Committee | | 21 November 1917 | 16 March 1919 | Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Empire | Russian Jewish[42] [43] [44] |
| Abraham Schrameck | Governor-general of French Madagascar | France | 1 August 1918 | 12 July 1919 | Saint-Étienne, France | French Jewish[45] [46] |
| Kurt Eisner | Minister President of the People's State of Bavaria | | 8 November 1918 | 21 February 1919 | Berlin, Kingdom of Prussia | German Jewish[47] [48] [49] |
| Béla Kun | De facto leaderPeople's Commissar of Foreign Affairs | | 21 March 1919 | 1 August 1919 | Lele, Austria-Hungary | Hungarian Jewish[50] [51] [52] [53] |
| Eugen Leviné | Leader of the Bavarian Soviet Republic | Bavarian Soviet Republic | 12 April 1919 | 3 May 1919 | St Petersburg, Russian Empire | Russian Jewish[54] [55] [56] |
| Alexandre Millerand | Prime Minister of France | France | 20 January 1920 | 24 September 1920 | Paris, France | Alsatian Jewish[57] [58] [59] |
President of France | 23 September 1920 | 11 June 1924 |
| Herbert Samuel, 1st Viscount Samuel | High Commissioner for Palestine | | 1 July 1920 | 30 June 1925 | Liverpool, England | British Jewish[60] [61] [62] |
| Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading | Viceroy and Governor-General of India | | 2 April 1921 | 3 April 1926 | London, England | British Jewish[63] [64] [65] |
| Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics | Prime Minister of Latvia | Latvia | 19 June 1921 | 26 January 1923 | Durbe, Latvia | Latvian Jewish[66] [67] [68] |
28 June 1923 | 26 January 1924 |
| Francis Bell | Prime Minister of New Zealand | New Zealand | 14 May 1925 | 30 May 1925 | Nelson, New Zealand | New Zealander Jew[69] [70] [71] |
| Sir Isaac Isaacs | Governor-General of Australia | Australia | 21 January 1931 | 23 January 1936 | Melbourne, Australia | Polish Jewish[72] [73] [74] |
| Léon Blum | Prime Minister of France | France | 4 June 1936 | 22 June 1937 | Paris, France | French Jewish, Alsatian Jewish[75] [76] |
13 March 1938 | 10 April 1938 |
16 December 1946 | 22 January 1947 |
| Léon Geismar | Acting governor-general of French West Africa | | 14 July 1938 | 28 October 1938 | Dambach-la-Ville, Alsace-Lorraine | Alsatian Jewish[77] |
| Mátyás Rákosi | General Secretary of the MKP/MDP | | 23 February 1945 | 18 July 1956 | Ada, Austria-Hungary | Hungarian Jewish[78] |
Prime Minister of Hungary | 14 August 1952 | 4 July 1953 |
| David Ben-Gurion
| Prime Minister of Israel | Israel | 17 May 1948 | 26 January 1954 | Płońsk, Congress Poland, Russian Empire | Israeli Jewish, Polish Jewish[79] [80] [81] |
3 November 1955 | 26 June 1963 |
| Chaim Weizmann | President of Israel | Israel | 17 February 1949 | 9 November 1952 | Motal, Russian Empire | Israeli Jewish, Russian Jewish, Belarusian Jewish[82] [83] [84] |
| Andrew Cohen | Governor of Uganda | Uganda Protectorate | January 1952 | 1957 | Berkhamsted, United Kingdom | British Jewish[85] |
| Yitzhak Ben-Zvi | President of Israel | Israel | 16 December 1952 | 23 April 1963 | Poltava, Russian Empire | Israeli Jewish, Russian Jewish, Ukrainian Jewish[86] [87] [88] [89] |
| René Mayer | Prime Minister of France | France | 8 January 1953 | 28 June 1953 | Paris, France | French Jewish[90] [91] father |
| Moshe Sharett | Prime Minister of Israel | Israel | 26 January 1954 | 3 November 1955 | Kherson, Russian Empire | Israeli Jewish, Russian Jewish, Ukrainian Jewish[92] [93] [94] [95] [96] |
| Pierre Mendès France | Prime Minister of France | France | 18 June 1954 | 23 February 1955 | Paris, France | French Jewish, Portuguese Jewish[97] [98] [99] |
| David Marshall | Chief Minister of Singapore | Singapore | 6 April 1955 | 7 June 1956 | Singapore, Straits Settlements | Baghdadi Jewish[100] [101] |
| Ernő Gerő | General Secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party | | 18 July 1956 | 25 October 1956 | Terbegec, Austria-Hungary | Hungarian Jewish[102] |
| Roy Welensky | Prime Minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland | Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland | 2 November 1956 | 31 December 1963 | Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia | Lithuanian Jewish[103] [104] [105] father, identified as "half Jewish" |
| Michel Debré | Prime Minister of France | France | 8 January 1959 | 14 April 1962 | Paris, France | Alsatian Jewish,[106] [107] [108] [109] raised Catholic[110] [111] |
| Zalman Shazar | President of Israel | Israel | 21 May 1963 | 24 May 1973 | Mir, Minsk Governorate, Russian Empire | Israeli Jewish, Russian Jewish, Belarusian Jewish[112] [113] [114] |
| Levi Eshkol
| Prime Minister of Israel | Israel | 26 June 1963 | 26 February 1969 | Orativ, Russian Empire | Israeli Jewish, Russian Jewish, Ukrainian Jewish[115] [116] [117] [118] |
| Joshua Hassan | Chief Minister of Gibraltar | Gibraltar | 11 August 1964 | 6 August 1969 | Gibraltar | Gibraltarian Jewish, Sephardic Jewish[119] [120] [121] |
25 June 1972 | 8 December 1987 |
| Max Delvalle | President of Panama | Panama | April 8, 1967 | April 15, 1967 | Panama City, Panama | Panamanian Jewish,Portuguese Jewish[122] [123] |
| Yigal Allon | Acting Prime Minister of Israel | Israel | 26 February 1969 | 17 March 1969 | Kfar Tavor, Occupied Enemy Territory Administration | Israeli Jewish, Belarusian Jewish[124] [125] [126] |
| Golda Meir | Prime Minister of Israel | Israel | 17 March 1969 | 3 June 1974 | Kyiv, Russian Empire | Israeli Jewish, Russian Jewish, Ukrainian Jewish[127] [128] |
| Bruno Kreisky | Chancellor of Austria | Austria | 21 April 1970 | 24 May 1983 | Vienna, Austria-Hungary | Austrian Jewish[129] [130] [131] [132] |
| Ephraim Katzir | President of Israel | Israel | 24 May 1973 | 24 May 1978 | Kyiv, Russian Empire | Israeli Jewish, Russian Jewish, Ukrainian Jewish[133] [134] [135] |
| Yitzhak Rabin | Prime Minister of Israel | Israel | 3 June 1974 | 20 June 1977 | Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine | Israeli Jewish, Russian Jewish, Ukrainian Jewish[136] [137] |
13 July 1992 | 4 November 1995 |
| Menachem Begin | Prime Minister of Israel | Israel | 20 June 1977 | 10 October 1983 | Brest, Russian Empire | Israeli Jewish, Russian Jewish, Belarusian Jewish[138] [139] [140] [141] |
| Sir Zelman Cowen | Governor-General of Australia | Australia | 8 December 1977 | 29 July 1982 | Melbourne, Australia | Australian Jewish, Belarusian Jewish[142] [143] [144] [145] |
| Yitzhak Navon | President of Israel | Israel | 24 May 1978 | 5 May 1983 | Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine | Israeli Jewish, Turkish Jewish, Moroccan Jewish[146] [147] [148] [149] |
| Léon Kengo wa Dondo | Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo | | 5 November 1982 | 31 October 1986 | Libenge, Belgian Congo | Polish Jewish[150] [151] father |
26 November 1988 | 4 May 1990 |
6 July 1994 | 2 April 1997 |
| Chaim Herzog | President of Israel | Israel | 5 May 1983 | 13 May 1993 | Belfast, Ireland | Israeli Jewish, Irish Jewish |
| Yitzhak Shamir | Prime Minister of Israel | Israel | 10 October 1983 | 13 September 1984 | Ruzhinoy, Russian Empire | Israeli Jewish, Russian Jewish, Belarusian Jewish[152] [153] [154] [155] |
20 October 1986 | 13 July 1992 |
| Laurent Fabius | Prime Minister of France | France | 17 July 1984 | 20 March 1986 | Paris, France | French Jewish,[156] [157] [158] [159] parents converted to Catholicism and was raised Catholic[160] |
| Shimon Peres
| Prime Minister of Israel | Israel | 13 September 1984 | 20 October 1986 | Wiszniew, Poland | Israeli Jewish, Polish Jewish, Belarusian Jewish[161] [162] [163] [164] |
22 November 1995 | 18 June 1996 |
President of Israel | 15 July 2007 | 14 July 2014 |
| Eric Arturo Delvalle | President of Panama | Panama | 28 September 1985 | 26 February 1988 | Panama City, Panama | Panamanian Jewish, Portuguese Jewish[165] |
| Henny Eman | Prime Minister of Aruba | Aruba | 1 January 1986 | 9 February 1989 | Aruba | Aruban Jewish[166] [167] |
29 July 1994 | 30 October 2001 |
| Petre Roman | Prime Minister of Romania | Romania | 26 December 1989 | 1 October 1991 | Bucharest, Kingdom of Romania | Hungarian Jewish[168] [169] [170] [171] [172] father, showed no interest in Jewish affairs and got married in a Romanian Orthodox wedding ceremony[173] [174] [175] |
| Ruth Dreifuss | Member of Swiss Federal Council | Switzerland | 10 March 1993 | 31 December 2002 | St. Gallen, Switzerland | Swiss Jewish[176] [177] [178] |
President of Switzerland | 1 January 1999 | 31 December 1999 |
| Ezer Weizman | President of Israel | Israel | 13 May 1993 | 13 July 2000 | Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine | Israeli Jewish, Russian Jewish, Belarusian Jewish |
| Efraín Goldenberg | Prime Minister of Peru | Peru | 17 February 1994 | 28 July 1995 | Lima, Peru | Peruvian Jewish, Romanian Jewish[179] |
| Benjamin Netanyahu | Prime Minister of Israel | Israel | 18 June 1996 | 6 July 1999 | Tel Aviv, Israel | Israeli Jewish, Polish Jewish[180] [181] |
31 March 2009 | 13 June 2021 |
29 December 2022 | Incumbent |
| Janet Jagan | Prime Minister of Guyana | Guyana | 17 March 1997 | 19 December 1997 | Chicago, Illinois, United States | Guyanese Jewish, American Jewish[182] [183] [184] |
President of Guyana | 19 December 1997 | 11 August 1999 |
| Sergey Kiriyenko | Prime Minister of Russia | | 23 March 1998 | 23 August 1998 | Sukhumi, Abkhaz ASSR, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union | Russian Jewish, Georgian Jewish[185] |
| Yevgeny Primakov | Prime Minister of Russia | | 11 September 1998 | 12 May 1999 | Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union | Russian Jewish[186] [187] [188] [189] [190] |
| Ehud Barak
| Prime Minister of Israel | Israel | 6 July 1999 | 7 March 2001 | Mishmar HaSharon, Mandatory Palestine | Israeli Jewish, Lithuanian Jewish[191] [192] |
| Moshe Katsav | President of Israel | Israel | 1 August 2000 | 1 July 2007 | Yazd, Iran | Israeli Jewish, Persian Jewish[193] [194] |
| Ariel Sharon
| Prime Minister of Israel | Israel | 7 March 2001 | 14 April 2006 | Kfar Malal, Mandatory Palestine | Israeli Jewish, Russian Jewish, Belarusian Jewish[195] [196] [197] |
| Ricardo Maduro | President of Honduras | Honduras | 27 January 2002 | 27 January 2006 | Panama | Honduran Jewish, Portuguese Jewish[198] [199] [200] [201] [202] |
| Zurab Zhvania | Prime Minister of Georgia | Georgia | 17 February 2004 | 3 February 2005 | Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union | Armenian Jewish[203] |
| Mikhail Fradkov | Prime Minister of Russia | | 5 March 2004 | 14 September 2007 | Samara, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union | Russian Jewish[204] [205] |
| Pedro Pablo Kuczynski | Prime Minister of Peru | Peru | 16 August 2005 | 27 July 2006 | Lima, Peru | German Jewish, Peruvian Jewish[206] |
President of Peru | 28 July 2016 | 23 March 2018 |
| Ehud Olmert | Prime Minister of Israel | Israel | 14 April 2006 | 31 March 2009 | Binyamina, Mandatory Palestine | Israeli Jewish, Russian Jewish, Ukrainian Jewish[207] |
| Yehude Simon | Prime Minister of Peru | Peru | 14 October 2008 | 11 July 2009 | Lima, Peru | Peruvian Jewish[208] |
| John Key | Prime Minister of New Zealand | New Zealand | 19 November 2008 | 12 December 2016 | Auckland, New Zealand | Austrian Jewish[209] mother, he is agnostic and regularly attended church[210] |
| Jan Fischer | Prime Minister of the Czech Republic | Czech Republic | 8 May 2009 | 13 July 2010 | Prague, Czechoslovakia | Czech Jewish[211] [212] [213] |
| Mike Eman | Prime Minister of Aruba | Aruba | 30 October 2009 | 17 November 2017 | Oranjestad, Aruba | Aruban Jewish[214] [215] |
| Salomón Lerner Ghitis | Prime Minister of Peru | Peru | 28 July 2011 | 10 December 2011 | Lima, Peru | Peruvian Jewish[216] [217] [218] |
| Reuven Rivlin | President of Israel | Israel | 24 July 2014 | 7 July 2021 | Jerusalem, Mandatory Palestine | Israeli Jewish, Austrian Jewish[219] |
| Volodymyr Groysman | Acting Prime Minister of Ukraine | Ukraine | 25 July 2014 | 31 July 2014 | | Ukrainian Jewish[220] [221] [222] |
Prime Minister of Ukraine | 14 April 2016 | 29 August 2019 |
| Volodymyr Zelenskyy | President of Ukraine | Ukraine | 20 May 2019 | Incumbent | Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union | Ukrainian Jewish[223] [224] |
| Laurentino Cortizo | President of Panama | | 1 July 2019 | 1 July 2024 | Panama City, Panama | Greek Jewish[225] [226] [227] [228] mother, but is a devout Roman Catholic[229] [230] |
| Egils Levits | President of Latvia | Latvia | 8 July 2019 | 8 July 2023 | Riga, Latvian SSR, Soviet Union | Latvian Jewish[231] [232] [233] [234] father, does not identify as Jewish[235] |
| Sophie Wilmès | Prime Minister of Belgium | Belgium | 27 October 2019 | 1 October 2020 | Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium | Belgian Jewish[236] [237] [238] [239] [240] |
| Mikhail Mishustin | Prime Minister of Russia | | 16 January 2020 | Incumbent | Lobnya, Russian SFSR | Russian Jewish[241] [242] [243] |
| Naftali Bennett | Prime Minister of Israel | Israel | 13 June 2021 | 30 June 2022 | Haifa, Israel | Israeli Jewish, American Jewish[244] [245] |
| Isaac Herzog | President of Israel | Israel | 7 July 2021 | Incumbent | Tel Aviv, Israel | Israeli Jewish, Irish Jewish[246] [247] |
| Élisabeth Borne | Prime Minister of France | France | 16 May 2022 | 9 January 2024 | Paris, France | French Jewish, Belgian Jewish, Polish Jewish[248] [249] [250] [251] [252] |
| Yair Lapid | Prime Minister of Israel | Israel | 1 July 2022 | 22 December 2022 | Tel Aviv, Israel | Israeli Jewish, Hungarian Jewish[253] [254] |
| Gabriel Attal | Prime Minister of France | France | 9 January 2024 | Incumbent | Clamart, France | French Jewish, Tunisian Jewish[255] [256] [257] |
| Claudia Sheinbaum | President of Mexico | Mexico | 1 October 2024 | | Mexico City, Mexico | Lithuanian Jewish, Bulgarian Jewish[258] [259] | |
Although most head of states with Jewish ancestry come from Europe and Latin America, some are from other regions of the World. Laisenia Qarase, a former prime minister of Fiji, has Jewish ancestry.[272] Qarase's mother is the daughter of John Herman Ma’afu Bowman, who had Jewish parents, Alexander Bowman and Sara Annette.[273] [274] Another example is Carlos Veiga, a former prime minister of Cape Verde. He said in a 2018 interview: “my grandfather on my mother’s side was Jewish, who came to Cape Verde from Gibraltar in the mid-1840s. He died before I was born and his grave was lost”.[275]
Some head of states claims to have Jewish ancestry, although not confirmed. Mexican President Francisco I. Madero's family was widely thought to have been of Portuguese-Jewish heritage.[276] Nicolás Maduro who has served as the president of Venezuela since 2013 said that his "grandparents were Jewish, from a [Sephardic] Moorish background, and converted to Catholicism in Venezuela".[277] Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa who has served as the president of Portugal since 2016 claimed that his mother had Jewish ancestry.[278]