Jewish Who's Who Of Nobel Prize Winners (Foreword Included)
DarrinT68
have been Jews, even though Jews comprise less than 1/4 of 1% of the world's
population. Is it true that Jews win more Nobel Prizes than any other ethnic
group? The answer is 'yes'. Jews do win more Nobel Prizes in Science
proportionately than any other religious or ethnic group. 86% of Nobel Science
prizes from 1901 through 1990 have been won by Jews and Protestants, with Jews
taking 22% of the prizes. Jews are also 40 times more likely to win the Science
Prize than projected, based on a per capita basis. With that said, here is just
a taste of some of the great Jewish Nobel prize winners of our time:
LITERATURE
Shmuel Yosef Agnon - Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1966 (shared with
Nelly Sachs). Agnon was born in Poland in 1888 and died, in Israel, in 1970. He
is regarded as one of the most important writers in the Hebrew language. Full
biography on following link. Agnon
Saul Bellow - Nobel Prize winning author who was born in Canada and moved at
age 9 to Chicago (where he has stayed). Author of "Herzog", "Seize the Day" and
many other works. Send him a card, just became a father again at 84 (his wife
is 41 and, yes, she is Jewish).
Joseph Brodsky - Russian-born poet, essayist, and critic. He wrote both in
Russian and English. He was sent to a Siberian labor camp for a year and forced
into exile in 1972. He became an American citizen. He won the Nobel Prize in
1987 and was poet laureate of the U.S. in 1991. He was only 55 when he died in
1996.
Elias Cannetti - Bulgarian-born novelist who won the Nobel Prize for literature
in 1981. Cannetti was raised in a Ladino-speaking Sephardic home. His novels
are difficult going, but interesting. Cannetti sought refuge in London before
the War and remained there the rest of his life.
Nadine Gordimer - Winner of the 1991 Nobel Prize for literature. Gordimer, a
South African, is known for her novels and short stories. The link will take
you to short summaries of all her novels and short story collections and from
there you can read the full NY Times review. Gordimer
Paul Heyse - German. Nobel Prize for Literature, 1910. Jewish mother.
Boris Pasternak - (1890-1960) Pasternak, a Russian Jew, was the winner of the
1958 Nobel Prize for literature. Pasternak was forced to decline the award by
the Soviet government. Pasternak was born into a prominent Moscow Jewish
family. His father was a well known painter whose works are still much admired
today. Pasternak's literary production was not that large. Probably because
during most of his active career he had to self-censor himself due to the
nature of the Soviet regime. His most famous novel, "Doctor Zhivago", was
published abroad in 1957, but supressed in the Soviet Union. Gorbachev finally
allowed the "great novel of the Revolution" to be published in 1988. In 1989,
Pasternak's son accepted the Nobel on his father's behalf. We found this
interesting quote about Pasternak, "Pasternak loved Russia. He was prepared to
forgive his country all its shortcomings, all, save the barbarism of Stalin's
reign; but even that, in 1945, he regarded as the darkness before the dawn
which he was straining his eyes to detect - the hope expressed in the last
chapters of Doctor Zhivago." (Isaiah Berlin in The Proper Study of Mankind,
1998)
Nelly Sachs - Born 1891. German-born novelist, poet, and playwright. She was
born in Berlin and fled to Sweden in 1940. Remarkably, at age 50, she began a
distinguished literary career. Her works often were on Jewish themes and the
experience of persecution. She shared the 1966 Nobel Prize for literature with
S.Y. Agnon. Ms. Sachs was the first Jewish woman in any field to win a Nobel.
(There have been a number of Jewish women who have won the award since her).
Nelly Sachs died in 1970. Sachs Bio
Isaac Bashevis Singer - (1904-91) Singer won the 1978 Nobel Prize for
literature. Singer, who was born in Poland, came to the United States in 1935.
He wrote in Yiddish. But he heavily collaborated with his English translators.
Singer's short stories and novels are all in print and are still very popular.
Several have been made into films, but Singer said that once he sold the
rights, he knew he couldn't control the film product and accepted what
happened. He didn't like the film production of "Yentl"; but expressed some
admiration for the film production of "Enemies: A Love Story". Singer's life is
well-known through his own volumes of memoirs and any fan of his fiction can
gain a great deal by reading them. Singer was aware that the Holocaust had
destroyed something like 70% of the world's Yiddish speakers and that the
language was often described as dying. In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech he
said, "Yiddish has not yet said its last word. It contains treasures that have
not been revealed to the eyes of the world. It was the tongue of martyrs and
saints, of dreamers and cabalists--rich in humor and in memories that mankind
may never forget. In a figurative way, Yiddish is the wise and humble language
of us all, the idiom of the frightened and hopeful humanity." Full text of
speech on the following link. Singer speech
MEDICINE
Julius Axelrod - American. Nobel Prize, l970, for discoveries relted to
transmittors in nerve terminals.
David Baltimore - American. Nobel Prize, l975, for discoveries related to tumor
viruses and genetic materials of cells.
Robert Barany - Hungarian Jew. Winner of the l914 Nobel Prize for breakthroughs
in physiology.
Baruj Benacceraf - American citizen. First Sephardic Jew (Jew of non-northern
or eastern european origin) to win a Nobel Prize in science (l980)(shared). His
award was for his discoveries related to the gene structure as it relates to
immunology reactions. He was born in Venezuela in 1920. His father is from
Morroco and his mother from Algeria. The family moved to the US in 1940.
Konrad Bloch - American. Born in Germany, he was forced to leave in 1934. Bloch
won the Nobel Prize l964 (shared). Discoveries related to cholestrol and fatty
acid. Before Bloch (and his co-recipient who independently discovered
cholesterol)--the existence of this potentially life threatening substance was
not known. He died in 2000, age 88.
Baruch Blumberg - American. Nobel Prize l976. Discoveries related to infectious
disease. His work was critical to the development of the vaccine against
hepatitis "b". In 1999 he was named to head up NASA's Astrobiology lab, the
purpose of which is to look for life in outer space.
Ernest Chain - (1906-79) Chain was born and trained in Germany, but was forced
to leave in 1933. He went to Britain and became a British citizen. Chain was
the co-winner of the 1945 Nobel Prize in medicine. His co-winners were
Alexander Fleming and Howard Flourey. Fleming discovered pencillin, the first
antibiotic, in the 1920s. He published a paper on his findings, but did not do
animal experiments. The discovery languished for a decade until Chain and
Flourey "discovered" his work and began (in 1940) the difficult process of
making penicillin production practical. This was an extremely difficult problem
and the two men did truely heroic work to find a method to purify penicillin
and to produce it in mass quantities. They were doing their work during WWII
and they were acutely aware that the lives of thousands of soldiers could be
saved if the problem could be solved. By 1944, penicillin was being produced in
large quantities and it is credited with saving the lives of many Allied
soliders during D-Day and later. The success of penicillin started an
"antibotic revolution" that has completely changed the face of modern medicine.
Chain was knighted for his work and is more properly known as Sir Ernest Chain.
Biography
Stanley Cohen - American. Nobel Prize, l986, for discoveries of growth factors.
Maurice Edelman - American. Nobel Prize, l972. for work related to chemical
properties of antibodies.
Paul Ehrlich - (1854-1914) German Jew. Ehrlich was the winner of the l908 Nobel
Prize. He developed the first successful treatment for syphillis. It was a
treatment based on the use of chemicals. It was a difficult treatment for the
patient. But before Ehrlich's treatment there was no treatment available for
persons who contracted syphillis and the disease inevitably killed its victim.
The treatment was replaced by antibiotics after WWII. Ehrlich is considered one
of the fathers of chemotherapy. There is a 1930s movie about his life starring
Edward G. Robinson ("Dr. Ehrlich's Magic Bullet".) If you watch the film
closely, you can figure out that he is supposed to be Jewish. Warner Brothers,
which made the film, was willing to be a "little bit political" in the 1930s.
(Unlike other studios) They turned out some "bio pics" on great democratic
leaders or figures like Ehrlich. A subtle message of the Ehrlich picture was
"here is a German Jew who has brought honor to his country and a benefit to
mankind". Most thinking persons during the 1930s could watch this picture and
realize that persons as distinguished as Ehrlich were being driven out of
Germany. The film does touch on the fact that as a Jew, it was not easy for him
to advance in German academia and that a revolutionary treatment (such as his)
was looked at with more skepticism because he was a Jew. But the Germany of the
Kaisers was not "insane". Once Ehrlich's treatment was a success, they did
honor him and support his work. Ehrlich
Gertrude Elion - Nobel Prize winner in 1988 for her work with drug treatments.
American.
Joseph Erlanger - American. Nobel Prize l944. Discoveries of functions of
single nerve fibers.
Herbert Gasser - American. l944 Nobel Prize for work with Erlanger.
Viktor Hamburger - A pioneer in embryo research whose importance is summarized
on this linked piece better than we can summarize it. Hamburger has often been
mentioned for the Nobel Prize. He was born in Germany in 1900 and fled to the
United States in the 1930s. His one hundreth birthday, celebrated in 2000, has
been marked by many articles and conferences heralding his contributions.
Hamburger
Francois Jacob - French Jew. Nobel Prize 1965 for discoveries related to virus
and enyzme synthesis. He shared his prize with Andre Lwoff (his mentor) and
Jacques Monod (not Jewish). Jacob began his medical studies before WWII and
planned to be a surgeon. However, his hands were damaged as he fought with the
Free French Forces in North Africa. He was awarded several combat medals, incl.
the Compagnon de la Liberation, one of the highest French medals.
Eric Kandel - Winner of the 2000 Nobel Prize in medicine. Kandel was born in
Austria and came to the United States as a child--for the "usual reason". He
shared his award with another American, Paul Greengard, and a Swede. All the
awards were for research on the function of the brain. Kandel was cited for
demonstrating that short-term and long-term memory in the sea slug is located
at the synapse. Kandel teaches at Columbia University. One interesting note:
Kandel delayed responding to the Nobel Prize announcement because he was in
synagogue--it was Yom Kippur. (Special note: Paul Greengard announced that a
good portion of his Nobel prize money will go to a lecture series in honor of
his late mother. She died while giving birth to him. Her name was Pearl
Meister. It seems pretty likely, if not certain, that he is Jewish. If anyone
knows--please let us know.)
Sir Bernard Katz - British Jew. Nobel Prize l970 for work related to work by J.
Alexrod.
Seymour Kety - Dr. Kety is Professor Emeritus of neuroscience, Department of
Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and Senior Psychobiologist, Mailman
Research Center, McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. Kety's fame is in two
related fields. In 1945, he was the co-discoverer of the "nitrous oxide" method
of determining human blood flow. This has proved to be an invaluable tool in
determining blood flow to the brain and, thus, determining a patient's
condition. He also did a pioneering study of schizophrenia--establishing that
there was a strong genetic element to the disease--it ran in families--but that
environnment had some influence. Excellent biography on link. Interview by
Nobel Prize winner, Eric Kandel. Interview
Hans Kreb - British Jew. Nobel Prize l953 for discovery of citric acid cycle.
Karl Landsteiner - Austrian Jew. Winner l930 Nobel Prize for his discovery of
human blood groups. In a bizzare twist, in the early '30's Landsteiner sued a
reference guide in the US that listed him as Jewish (he had converted). He lost
the suit. Fortunately, he emigrated to the US before the Nazis had a chance to
determine his religion.
Joshua Lederberg - American. Nobel Prize l958. Discoveries related to genetic
recombination. His parents were born in Palestine and came to the United States
before the creation of the State of Israel. Lederberg Interview
Rita Levi-Montalcini - Italy. Nobel Prize for work in the same field as Stanley
Cohen. l986. She has done much her work in the United States. As an editorial
note, it is nice to see Jewish women catching up with the men in medicine.
Three of the six Nobel prizes in medicine awarded to women (to date)have gone
to Jewish women.
Fritz Lipmann - American. Nobel Prize l953. Work on enzymes.
Otto Lowei - Austrian Jew. Nobel Prize l936. Discoveries of chemical
transmission of nerve impulses. Lowei had to sign over his Nobel Prize funds to
the Nazis (they had been held in a Swedish bank) in order to get "permission"
to emigrate from his homeland.
Salvador Luria - American. Nobel Prize (shared) l969 for discoveries related to
the replication of viruses. Luria was born and educated in Italy. He became an
American citizen in 1947. In 1974, he became the first head of MIT's famous
Center for Cancer Research. He died in 1991.
Andre Lwoff - French Jew. Nobel Prize l965. Work with F. Jacob.
Ellie Metchnikoff - Nobel Prize Winner l908. Work on immunity. Russian, his
mother was Jewish. He shared his prize with Paul Ehrlich. He left Russia in
1882 and worked in France.
Otto Meyerhof - German Jew. Winner of the l922 Nobel Prize for his discovery of
the relationship of lactic acid to oxygen use and its effect on muscles.
Cesar Milstein - Great Britian and Argentina. Nobel Prize l984. For discoveries
related to the immune system.
Hermann J. Muller - American. Nobel Prize l946 for discovery of x-rays effects
on mutations. Muller was a geneticist at Indiana University. Later in his
career he urged caution in the use of radioactive materials to avoid possible
damage to the health of the human gene pool. Muller's mother's family was
mostly Sephardic in origin. His father was of Ashkenazi background.
Daniel Nathans - American. Nobel Prize l978. Discoveries related to enzymes and
molecular genetics.
Marshall Nirenberg - American. Nobel Prize l968 for interpretations of the
genetic code.
Stanley Prusiner - Nobel Prize winner in 1997 for his discovery of the
particles called prions. Possible cause of Mad Cow's disease. American.
Tadeus Reichstein - Swiss Jew. Nobel Prize l950. Discoveries related to
hormones of the adrenal cortex.
Martin Rodbell - American. Nobel Prize, 1994, for his (shared) discovery of
natural substances like G-Proteins and how they help cells respond to external
stimuli.
Howard Temin - Nobel Prize l975 for work with D. Baltimore.
Harold Varmus - American. Nobel Prize, 1990, for the discovery of the cellular
origins of retroviral oncogenes. He received a post-graduate degree in English
from Harvard before turning to medicine. He served, until recently, as the head
of the National Institutes of Health and has been widely praised for his
performance.
Selman Abraham Waksman - 1952 Nobel Prize winner for medicine for discovering
streptomycin, coined the word 'antibiotic'. American.
George Wald - American. Winner of the 1967 Nobel Prize for his work on eye
pigments and the role of vitamin A in eyesight.
Otto Warburg - German Jew; Nobel Prize l93l. Discovery of the action of
respiratory enzymes.
Carl Weigert - Weigert, a German Jew, was one of the leading pathologists of
the 19th century. He pioneered the use of aniline dyes as biological stains.
His cousin was Dr. Paul Ehrlich, who won the Nobel Prize. We saw a nice note on
Weigert--he was a generous to Alice Hamilton, an American woman who came to
study his techniques and was a founder of industrial toxicology in America. Sad
to say, most of the German leaders in the field, including Weigert's famous
cousin, would not receive her because she was a woman.
Rosalyn Yalow - American. First Jewish woman to win a science Nobel Prize.
(1977) for discoveries related to peptide hormones. Yalow on what being Jewish
means to me
PHYSICISTS
Hans Bethe - German-born. His mother was Jewish, his father was not. He
immigrated to America for the "usual reason". As an American he won the Nobel
Prize in 1967 (shared) for his contributions to the theory of nuclear
reactions; especially his discoveries regarding the energy production of stars.
Official "Nobel Prize" biography on following link. Bethe
Felix Bloch - American. Nobel Prize, 1952 (shared).The award was for his
developments of new methods for nuclear magnetic precision measurements. Bloch
was born in Switzerland. His parents, who were first cousins, were born,
respectively, in Bohemia and Austria and settled in Switzerland in the late
19thC. He was teaching in Germany when the Nazis took over and he had to leave.
He eventually settled in the U.S. and taught at Stanford for most of the rest
of his life. He married Lore Misch, a German Jewish refugee who was also a
physicist. The most practical fruit of Bloch's research--not quite realized in
his lifetime (he died in 1971)--is magnetic resonance imaging. The machines
that are a now a cornerstone of modern medical diagnostic tools. Bloch bio
Niels Bohr - Winner of the 1922 Nobel Prize for work on atomic structure.
Important later work in quantum mechanics. Danish; his mother was Jewish. Like
most Danish Jews, he was taken by the Danish Resistance by fishing boat to
Sweden in 1943. After the War, he founded the "Atoms for Peace" program. Bohr,
who was one the giants of 20thc. physics, was an important "go-between" in the
hasty plan to evacuate Jews from Denmark to Sweden days before the Germans
planned to round up the whole community. He had been warned of plans to arrest
him days before the evacuation. His great prestige and Nobel Prize opened doors
to Swedish officials and helped secure their cooperation. His brother, Harald,
was an Olympic bronze medal winner and a brilliant mathematician. Harald, too,
sucessfully escaped. The first link takes you to an "offical biography" of
Bohr. The second to an excellent history of the Jewish community of Denmark.
Biography Denmark
Aage Bohr - Son of Niels Bohr. Bohr shared the 1975 Nobel Prize for work on
atomic structure which, in part, elucidated his father's theories. Only his
maternal grandmother was Jewish, but he did go into his father's business. Like
his father, he had to flee to Sweden during WWII. Aage Bohr Bio
Max Born. - Born was a British citizen when he received his Nobel. He was born
in Germany and remained there until he had to flee. He won the Nobel Prize in
1954, (shared), for his fundamental research in quantum mechanics. Olivia
Newton-John, the singer, is his grandaughter.
Georges Charpak - Polish-born, French Jew who won the Nobel Prize in 1992 for
his improvements and work with multi-particle accelerators. He shared his award
with Leon Lederman and Jack Steinberger (see below). Biography
Claude Cohen-Tannoudji - Algerian-born, French Jew who won the Nobel Prize in
1997 (shared) for the development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser
light. As stated on the following linked biography, his ancestors were Spanish
Jews who went to North Africa in the wake of the Spanish Inquisition. Biography
Albert Einstein - The most respected scientist of the 20th century. Nobel
Prize, 1921. Born in Germany, he left for the United States in 1933 and died in
1955. It is hard to know how to try and encapsulate the importance of a person
whose influence on physics and science was as great as anyone since Newton. To
those who follow these things casually, Time Magazine named Einstein their,
"Person of the Century". Einstein was offered the Presidency of Israel in 1952
(a largely honorary office), but declined. While not an observant religious
Jew, Einstein did believe in G-d and was a strong supporter of the right of
Jews to have their own state--the Zionist dream. He said, “Zionism springs
from an even deeper motive than Jewish suffering. It is rooted in a Jewish
spiritual tradition whose maintenance and development are for Jews the basis of
their continued existence as a community.” And since this is Einstein, after
all, one more quote, "The pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, an almost
fanatical love of justice, and the desire for personal independence—these are
the features of the Jewish tradition which make me thank my lucky stars that I
belong to it." The following link takes you to the first page of the Time
magazine "spread" on Einstein. The full text of the essay on Einstein is easily
found and there are other excellent links on the same page. You can even listen
to Einstein speak. We might add that the basic premises of the theory of
relativity are not that hard to grasp and there are many excellent films that
demonstrate many of the theory's "applications" through animated and live
action experiments and "real life" examples. PBS's Nova series made such a
film. Einstein Nova Program
Richard Feynman - American. 1965 Nobel Prize winner(shared), for his work in
quantum electrodynamics. Delightful speaker and engaging personality. One
example of his unconventional personality follows. Feynman was appointed to
serve on the commission investigating the Challenger space shuttle explosion.
He cut through the "bull". He put a rubber "O" ring in a cup of freezing water
and broke it on the table in front of him. He thus cut through the jargon and
buck passing and showed all why the explosion happened. (The shuttle exploded
because the ring froze on a cold day when the shuttle should not have been
launched). Biography
James Franck - German Jew. Nobel Prize, 1925. For his discovery, with Hertz, of
the laws governing the impact of the electron upon the atom. Franck, unlike
some of his colleagues, was a fairly committed Jew. He was the winner of the
Iron Class, First Class, for his WWI service. Therefore, he was exempted from
the dismissal of most Jewish academics in 1933. (This exemption was withdrawn
by 1938). But he publicly resigned his chair rather than be treated as an alien
in his own country. One non-Jewish professor at Gottingen University supported
him. The remaining forty did not. He left for Denmark and eventually settled in
the United States. Franck urged a "demonstration" use of the atomic bomb in
WWII before its actual use. This plan was not adopted.
Dennis Gabor - British Jew. Born Hungary. Nobel Prize, 1971. For his invention
and development of the holographic method. All those holograms would not be
possible without him. Like the ones on your credit cards. Nice bio on link. It
is from a site on famous Hungarians. The nice feature of this biography is that
the advancement is explained in lay language. Gabor bio
Murray Gell-Mann - American. Nobel Prize, 1969. For this contributions
concerning the classification of elementary particles and their interactions.
Gell-Mann is clearly one of the great physicists of our time. He discovered and
coined the term "quark". There is a wonderful piece about Gell-Mann and Feynman
at the following link. Gell-Mann and Feynman
Donald Glaser - American. Nobel Prize, 1960. For his invention of the bubble
chamber. This invention has been of great importance in the study of sub-atomic
particles. Professor Glaser was only 34 years old when he won his Nobel. Glaser
Bio
Sheldon Glashow - American. Nobel Prize, 1979. For his contributions (shared)
to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between
elementary particles. Nice biography by Glashow on the link. As he says, his
parents were poor Russian Jewish immigrants. His father, a plumber, emphasized
education and one son became a dentist, another a doctor, and a third one a
Nobel Prize. Biography
Gustav Hertz - German. He was Jewish on his father's side. Nobel Prize, 1925
for his work w/J. Franck. His father converted to Christianity. Under Nazi
pressure, Hertz was forced to give up his teaching post despite being a Nobel
Prize winner, a Christian by faith,"only" half Jewish by birth, and a decorated
war veteran. He went into private industry (essentially his colleagues hid him
in the bowels of the Siemens factory). He taught at an E.Ger.Univ. after the
War.
Robert Hofstadter - American. Nobel Prize in Physics, 1961, for using electron
scattering to determine nuclear structure. Father of Douglas Hofstadter, author
of "Godel Escher Bach."
Brian Josephson - British Jew. Nobel Prize, 1973. For his theoretical
predictions of the properties of suppercurrent thru a tunnel barrier.
Peter L. Kapitsa - Soviet citizen. Father, ethnic Russian; mother, Jewish.
Nobel Prize, 1978. For his basic inventions and discoveries in the area of low
temp. physics.
Lev Davidovich Landau - Soviet Jew. Nobel Prize, 1962. For his pioneering
theories in condensed matter, esp. liquid helium.
Leon M. Lederman - American. Nobel Prize 1988 "for the neutrino beam method and
the demonstration of the doublet structure of the leptons thru the discovery of
the muon neutrino".
David Lee - Physicist; born in Rye, N.Y., 1931. A researcher and professor at
Cornell University (1959), he has made major contributions to condensed matter
and low-temperature physics with his pioneering investigations of solid and
superfluid phases of helium. Shared 1996 Nobel Prize in physics with Osheroff
and Richardson for work in the same field.
Gabriel Lippmann - French Jew. Nobel Prize, 1908, for his method of reproducing
colors photographically based on the phenomenon of interference.
Albert A. Michelson - First American of any faith to win a Nobel Prize in
Science (1907). Developer of precise optical instruments that, among other
things, allowed for measuring the speed of light. Michelson, who was born in
Poland, came to the US as a small child. He was a graduate of the Annapolis,
the US Navy Academy. He taught Physics at the Academy in the 1870's. A building
is named in his honor at the Academy. Michelson (and Morley) also conducted a
famous experiment which showed that there was no "ether"--a hypothetical
substance that many scientists speculated effected the propagation of light.
Michelson volunteered for service at the beginning of WWI (he was 65) and was
given the rank of Lieut. Commander (he served stateside).
Benjamin Mottelson - American. Co-winner (with Aage Bohr) of the 1975 Nobel
Prize. Their work helped explain the inner workings of the atom.
Douglas Osheroff - American. Nobel Prize in Physics, 1996 (shared). Won prize
for discovery of superfluidity in helium-3. Father Jewish, mother not. He
shared his award with his mentor, David Lee, who is Jewish, and Robert
Richardson (no info. available).
Arno Penzias - American. Nobel Prize, 1978. For his part in the discovery of
cosmic microwave background radiation. Penzias was born in Germany to Polish
Jewish parents. His family was expelled from Germany in 1938 and came to the
United States in 1939. His discovery is credited with providing solid evidence
of the "big bang" theory of the origins of the universe.
Martin L. Perl - American. Winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize for his discovery of
the tau lepton.
Isidor I Rabi - American. Nobel Prize, 1944. For his resonance method of
recording the magnetic properties of the atomic nuclei.
Frederick Reines - Co-winner of the 1995 Nobel Prize for his discovery of the
"neutrino". He is the grand-nephew of Rabbi Issac Jacob Reines, founder of the
Mizarchi--religious Zionist movement.
Burton Richter - American. Winner of 1976 Nobel Prize in Physics for discovery
of subatomic psi particle. Director of Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.
Melvin Schwartz - American. Nobel Prize, 1988. Shared w/Lederman and
Steinberger for work in the same area.
Julian Schwinger - American. Nobel Prize, 1965, (shared), "for his fundamental
work in quantum electrodynamics". Schwinger published his first "professional
paper" in physics at the age of 16.
CONTINUED....
DarrinT68
Emilio Segre - American. Born Italy. Nobel Prize, 1959. For his part in the
discovery of the antiproton. Segre, like his mentor and friend, Fermi, worked
on the Manhattan Project. Segre came from a distinguished family of businessmen
and intellectuals. In addition to his Nobel Prize winning discovery, he did
important work in fission. Moreover, a radioisotophe he discovered in 1938,
with Glenn Seaborg, is now the most commonly used such isotophe in nuclear
medicine. (Special note: Enrico Fermi, the most famous Italian physicist, was
not Jewish. His wife, Laura Capon Fermi, came from an "unobservant" Jewish
family. In her autobiography, "Atoms in the Family", she says that Fermi was
not a fan of the Mussolini regime, but probably would have stayed had the
regime not passed "racial laws" in 1938. Her father, a Navy Admiral, was
"retired" and, as she put it, they did not know what would happen next. They
left the country, pretending it was just a vacation). On the link is an article
by Segre about the Manhattan Project. Segre was quite a man of letters and
wrote extensively on physics and other issues. Segre aricle
Jack Steinberger - American, Nobel Prize, 1988. Refugee from Germany. He shared
his award with Schwartz and Lederman for work in the same area.
Otto Stern - American. Nobel Prize, 1943. For his contribution to the
development of the molecular ray method and discovery of the magnetic mvmt. of
the proton.
Steven Weinberg - American particle physicist who in 1979 shared the Nobel
Prize in physics with Sheldon Lee Glashow and Abdus Salam for work in
formulating a theory that explains the known facts of the electromagnetic and
weak interactions. Weinberg and Glashow were members of the same classes at the
Bronx High School of Science, New York City (1950), and Cornell Univ.('54).
Since 1983 he has been at the Univ. of Texas at Austin.
ECONOMICS
Kenneth Arrow - American. Nobel Prize in economics, 1972 (shared), for his
pioneering contributions to general economic equilibrium and welfare theory.
Robert W. Fogel - American. Nobel Prize in economics, 1993, shared with his
frequent collaborator on economic history studies, Douglas North (not Jewish).
Their work is not without controversy in economic history circles.
Milton Friedman - Winner, 1976, of the Nobel Prize in economics. An American,
he is the founder of the (Univ. of) Chicago School of Economics which advocates
a very free market. Friedman has been an advisor to Republican Presidents.
John C. Harsanyi - American, born Hungary. Co-winner of the 1994 Nobel Prize in
economics for his work in game theory. Harsayni barely escaped death by hiding
in a Jesuit monastery during the end of WWII. He and his wife fled Hungary in
1950 because his views were not in accord with the Communist regime. He taught
in Australia and then went to the United States. He taught at UC Berkeley.
(B.1920;D.2000)
Leonid Kantrovich - Soviet citizen. Nobel Prize in Economics, 1974, (shared)
for his contributions to the theory of optomium allocation of resources.
Lawrence Klein - American. Nobel Prize in economics, 1980. Associated with the
Univ. of Chicago, Brookings Institute. Created econometic models to help
understand economic fluctations.
Simon Kuznets - American, born in Russia. Nobel Prize winner in economics,
1971. His research was based on real world data and investigation, including
impt. work in national income and formation. He also wrote extensively on the
how Jews precarious position (ironically) made them ready to adapt to economic
change.
Harry M Markowitz - American. Nobel Prize in economics, 1990, (shared), for his
pioneering work in portfolio choice; i.e., diversifying one"s investments. He
shared this award with Merton H. Miller, who is also Jewish and William F.
Sharpe, who is not.
Merton H. Miller - American. Co-winner with Harry Markowitz and William F.
Sharpe of the 1990 Nobel Prize in economics. He is famous as the co-author
(with Franco Modigliani) of the Modigliani-Miller theorem about corporate
finance/profitability.
Franco Modigliani - 1985 Nobel Prize winner in economics for his work on
discount rates. Modigliani was born in Rome, Italy. He left Italy in 1939
following the promulgation of fascist "racial laws". He immigrated to the US
just ahead of the outbreak of war. He currently teaches at M.I.T., in Boston.
Special note: In 1938, Mussolini asked Italian academics to sign a
pseudo-scientific declaration supporting the dismissal of Italian Jewish
academics. Only six signed-- to the everlasting credit of Italian academia.
Paul Samuelson - One of the most prominent American economists of the post-war
era. Advocated a strong hand for government in the marketplace. Nobel Prize,
1970. Samuelson often wrote on economic issues for general circulation
newspapers and magazines.
Reinhard Selten - German, born 1930. Nobel Prize winner in economics, 1994
(shared). Selten"s award was for his "pioneering analysis of equaliberia in the
theory of non-competitive games". In other words, mathematical models of how
competitors ("players") in the marketplace compete. Selten"s father was Jewish.
His mother was not. He says that his parents planned to raise him without
religion, but later had him baptized in the hope that it would offer some level
of protection in Nazi Germany. His father died ("fortunately", he says) of
natural causes early in the war and Selten was relegated to doing unskilled
labor because he was "half" Jewish.
Herbert A. Simon - American. Nobel Prize in economics, 1978. Simon is a
political scientist and psychologist, his work brought scientific techniques to
the analysis of how decision making is made in organizations.
Robert M. Solow - American, born in Brooklyn. Nobel Prize in economics, 1987,
for his contributions to the theory of economic growth.
PHILOSOPHERS
Henri Bergson - One of the most influential philosophers of this century.
Flirted with Catholicism, but rose from his deathbed to register as a Jew as
racist Vichy France laws required and to show his mettle. Nobel Prize winner
for literature, 1927.
ARCHITECTURE
Frank Gehry - Innovative architect (Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain) whose
buildings have been often called works of art. He changed his name from
"Goldberg", which he recently told the NY Review of Books was the, "only thing
he regretted." The Bilbao Guggenheim is so extraordinary that it has been
heralded as one of the masterpieces of the 20thc. The building, more than the
contents, has attracted millions of visitors to a city long economically
depressed. The effect on the economy and spirit of the capital city of the
Basque region has been profound. Gehry was awarded the Pritzker prize, often
called the "Nobel Prize" of architecture, in 1989. He is also the architect of
the new rock music museum in Seattle.(Good article/profile). By the way, Gehry
often uses a "curved fish" design/motif. This is inspired by the carp his
Jewish grandmother kept in the bathtub for Friday night gefilte fish. Third
link takes you to Gehry sculpture on this theme. Discusses Bilbao Time/Rock
Gefilte Fish Sculpture
CHEMISTS
Sidney Altman - Canadian-born (American citizen). Altman is a microbiologist.
He was the (shared) winner of the 1989 Nobel Prize in chemistry for research
into chemical cell reactions. Full Bio
Christian B. Anfinsen - Nobel Prize in chemistry, 1972, for his work on
ribonuclease. Originally a Danish Gentile but converted to Judaism on the
occasion of (not "because" of) marrying a religious Jewish woman. According to
mutual acquaintances at the Weizmann Institute (which which he had a
long-standing collaboration), he remained kashrut-observant ever after.
(Editor's note: We put this entry up un-edited to note the general source for
this unusual entry. To our knowledge, Mr. Anifsen has never appeared on any
list of Jewish Nobel prize winners ever published. Jewhoo is honored to be the
first to list him).
Paul Berg - 1980 Chemistry Nobel prize for work with recombinant DNA. American.
His prize was shared with Walter Gilbert, who is also Jewish, and Frederick
Sanger, who is not.
Herbert Charles Brown - 1979 Chemistry Nobel Prize for boron reagents in
organic chemistry. American.
Melvin Calvin - 1961 Chemistry Nobel Prize for mechanism of CO2 assimilation in
plants (Calvin cycle). American.
George Charles De Hevesy - Born in Hungary, he worked in Austria, Germany, an
Denmark (with Niels Bohr). He fled to Sweden during WWII and remained there for
the rest of his life. In 1943 he was awarded the Nobel Prize "for the use of
isotopes as tracers in the study of chemical processes." This work has been
critical to both industrial and medical applications.
Walter Gilbert - Co-winner of the 1980 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his work in
bio-chemistry. His father-in-law was I.F. Stone, famous left-wing journalist.
Gilbert is an American.
Fritz Haber - German-Jewish physical chemist. 1918 Nobel Prize for synthesis of
ammonia from the elements; less nicely, considered father of gas warfare in WW
I. Ousted as head of Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute in '33 by Hitler's wish, despite
contributions to German WW I effort (saving country from starvation since
synthetic ammonia offered alternative to imported fertilizers which were
stopped by naval blockade). Haber, who had left Judaism to advance his career,
helped bring about his early dismissal by refusing to approve the dismissal of
"unconverted" Jewish scientists. He died in 1934, deeply embittered at his
treatment.
Roald Hoffmann - 1981 Chemistry Nobel Prize for qualitative molecular orbital
theory of chemical reactions. Born in Poland in 1937, he survived the Holocaust
and immigrated to the United States in 1947.
Jerome Karle - Karle and Albert A. Hauptman (also Jewish) shared the 1985
Chemistry Nobel Prize for direct methods for determining crystal structures.
Walter Kohn - Austrian-born physicist (UCSB), fled to US after the Anschluss.
Chemistry. Nobel prize 1998 for development of density functional theory, a
fundamental tool for theoretical chemistry and solid state physics.
Harold W. Kroto - British. Shared 1996 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovery
of buckminsterfullerene (C60). His father was German Jewish, his mother was not
Jewish. Sir Harold was born in Britain. The sense one gets from a short
autobiographical piece is that Kroto was raised Jewish. However, he calls
himself a devout atheist and humanist. He devotes a lot of his time to
organizations like Amnesty International.
Rudolph A. Marcus - 1992 Chemistry Nobel Prize for theory of electron transfer
reactions. American citizen. Born and educated in Canada.
Henri Moissan - 1906 Chemistry Nobel Prize for contributions to fluorine
chemistry and his development of the Moissan electric furnace. Moissan was a
French citizen. His mother was Jewish. His father was not.
Max Ferdinand Perutz - 1962 Chemistry Nobel Prize for elucidating chemical
structure of proteins. British citizen, born in Austria.
Ilya Prigogine - Up with an asterik. Prigogine is the 1977 Nobel Prize winner
in Chemistry for "his contributions to non-equilibrium thermodynamics;
particularly the theory of dissipative structures". A site devoted to the
Belgian Jewish community says that he is probably the most famous Jewish
Belgian today--but that he is very low key about his Jewishness. Prigogine, who
was born in Russia, came to Belgium as a child. We really would like to know
more--because he seemed to pursue his studies without any trouble during
WWII--which is very odd for someone who was Jewish. Since many scientists visit
the site and may know--is he, in fact, Jewish?
Otto Wallach - 1910 Chemistry Nobel Prize for discovery of alicyclic compounds.
Wallach was a German Jew.
Richard Willstaetter - 1915 Chemistry Nobel Prize for his discovery of
chlorophyl. German Jew. He also did important research for the German Army
during WWI on gas masks and was director of the German State Chemical
Laboratory. He received the civilian Iron Cross. In 1924, he resigned his
position at the Univ. of Munich to protest the non-appointment of qualified
Jewish scientists. In 1939 the Gestapo ransacked his house and ordered him to
leave Germany. He died in Switzerland in 1946.
Morganna
>>have been Jews, even though Jews comprise less than 1/4 of 1% of the world's
>>population. Is it true that Jews win more Nobel Prizes than any other ethnic
>>group? The answer is 'yes'. Jews do win more Nobel Prizes in Science
>>proportionately than any other religious or ethnic group. 86% of Nobel Science
>>prizes from 1901 through 1990 have been won by Jews and Protestants, with Jews
>>taking 22% of the prizes. Jews are also 40 times more likely to win the Science
>Prize than projected, based on a per capita basis. With that said, here is just
>>a taste of some of the great Jewish Nobel prize winners of our time:>>
What an amazing catalogue. I think there are a few others who should be added to the list
in truth.and one of them's the surgeon who first used keyhole surgery on a difficult case
which was I understand filmed...horrible me I've forgotten his name something like Ackle?
--
http://www.walk-wales.org.uk
http://www.homeusers.prestel.co.uk/jewelionl
DarrinT68
>From: "Morganna" morg...@venator.greatxscape.net
>Date: 3/1/01 2:07 AM Eastern Standard Time
>Message-id: <97ks7i$29l$1...@news7.svr.pol.co.uk>
Morganna, what's cooking!? As was stated in my preface, the list was just a
taste!ehe Some taste, eh!?eh Remember, out of the 663 Nobel Prizes given from
1901 to 1995, Jews have won 140. Amazing number, considering that Jews only
comprise 1/4 of 1% of the population!! I believe you are alluding to Julius
Axelrod!? He won for discoveries concerning the humoral transmittors in the
nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation.