List of Jews from Sub-Saharan Africa
Wikimedia list article
This is a list of Jews from Sub-Saharan Africa. It is arranged by country of origin. The vast majority of African Jews inhabiting areas below the Sahara live in South Africa, and are mainly of Ashkenazi (largely Lithuanian) origin. A number of Beta Israel also reside in Ethiopia. Additionally, small post-colonial communities exist elsewhere.
Cameroon
Yaphet Kotto, actor (Cameroonian father)
DR Congo
Léon Kengo wa Dondo, Prime Minister of Zaire (Polish-Jewish father)
Moïse Katumbi, businessman and politician (Greek-Jewish father)
Olivier Strelli, fashion designer
Ethiopia and Eritrea
Ephraim Isaac, Phd Princeton Scholar
Adisu Massala, politician
Esti Mamo, Ethiopian-Israeli model
Meskie Shibru-Sivan, actress and singer
Kenya
Israel Somen, businessman and diplomat
Jonathan Somen, entrepreneur
Erica Mann, architect, town planner, NGO leader, women's cooperatives developer
Igor Mann, veterinarian, senior civil service professional
Mozambique
Albie Sachs, ANC activist (lived in Mozambique during exile from South Africa)
Ruth First, ANC activist (lived in Mozambique during exile from South Africa)
Namibia
Harold Pupkewitz, entrepreneur ( Lithuanian born)
South Africa
Politicians and activists
Morris Alexander (1877–1946), pre-apartheid MP
Hilda Bernstein, anti-apartheid activist
Lionel Bernstein, anti-apartheid activist
Harry Bloom, anti-apartheid activist
Jules Browde, barrister, jurist and anti-apartheid activist. Law school classmate of Nelson Mandela.
Arthur Chaskalson, chief justice
Abba Eban, Israeli diplomat (South African-born)
Andrew Feinstein, former ANC MP, author & anti-arms trade activist
Bram Fischer, anti-apartheid activist
Bernard Friedman, anti-apartheid MP
Richard Goldstone, judge and international war crimes prosecutor
Joel Joffe, human rights activist
Ronnie Kasrils, former South African Intelligence Minister
Tony Leon, former opposition leader
Joe Slovo, ANC activist and leader of the South African Communist Party
Harry Schwarz, anti-apartheid politician, lawyer and diplomat
Helen Suzman, anti-apartheid MP
Harold Hanson, QC and strong supporter of civil liberties
Other Jewish ANC activists included Ruth First, Albie Sachs and five of the six whites arrested in the Rivonia Trial: Denis Goldberg, Lionel Bernstein, Arthur Goldreich, James Kantor, Harold Wolpe and Gaby Shapiro.
Academics
Abraham Manie Adelstein, UK Chief Medical Statistician
Selig Percy Amoils, Inventor & Surgeon
Moses Blackman, crystallographer
Sydney Brenner, biologist, Nobel Prize (2002)
Leo Camron, educationalist
Sydney Cohen, pathologist (Jewish Year Book, 2005, p214, 230)
Meyer Fortes, anthropologist
Max Gluckman, anthropologist
Frank Herbstein, crystallographer, 1926-2011
Aaron Klug, chemist, Nobel Prize (1982)
Ludwig Lachmann, economist
Arnold Lazarus, psychologist
Roland Levinsky, biologist
Stanley Mandelstam, physicist (Jewish Year Book 2005 p214)
Shula Marks, historian (Jewish Year Book 2005 p215)
Frank Nabarro, physicist (Jewish Year Book 2005 p214)
Seymour Papert, Artificial Intelligence pioneer
Peter Sarnak, mathematician
Isaac Schapera, anthropologist (Jewish Year Book 2005 p215)
Anthony Segal, biochemist (Jewish Year Book 2005 p214)
Joseph Sonnabend, HIV/AIDS researcher
Phillip V. Tobias, palaeoanthropologist
Joseph Wolpe, psychotherapist
Lewis Wolpert, developmental biologist
Basil Yamey, economist (Jewish Year Book 2005 p215,315)
Solly Zuckerman, UK zoologist
Max Price, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cape Town
Cultural figures
Lionel Abrahams, poet
Jillian Becker, writer
Dani Behr, TV presenter
Harry Bloom, writer and lecturer
Johnny Clegg, World Beat musician
John Cranko, choreographer
Adam Friedland, comedian and podcaster
Graeme Friedman, writer
David Goldblatt, photographer
Nadine Gordimer, writer, Nobel Prize (1991)
Laurence Harvey, actor
Ronald Harwood, playwright
Manu Herbstein, writer
Dan Jacobson, writer
Sid James, comic actor
Danny K, pop singer
William Kentridge, artist
Lennie Lee, artist
Manfred Mann (Manfred Lubowitz), R&B keyboardist
Sarah Millin, writer
Trevor Rabin, guitarist & film composer
Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro), political cartoonist
Antony Sher, stage actor
Janet Suzman, stage actress
Business and professional figures
Raymond Ackerman, supermarket tycoon
Alfred Beit, diamond magnate
Donald Gordon, founder of insurance company Liberty Life, shopping centre owner & philanthropist
Sydney Jacobson, newspaper editor
Solomon Joel, financier
Sol Kerzner, hotel & casino owner
Sammy Marks, early entrepreneur from Pretoria
Ernest & Harry Oppenheimer, diamond tycoons & philanthropists (Harry converted to Christianity)
Percy Yutar, South Africa's first Jewish attorney general and prosecutor of Nelson Mandela in the 1963 Rivonia Treason Trial.
Walter Matulis JR. Co owner of a driver training business.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “List of Jews from Sub-Saharan Africa” as wikimedia list article. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as wikimedia list article. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 22, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q6575360. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1877, 1946, 2002 and 2005.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “List of Jews from Sub-Saharan Africa”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow List of Jews from Sub-Saharan Africa primary sources, List of Jews from Sub-Saharan Africa archive and List research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “List of Jews from Sub-Saharan Africa”?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “List of Jews from Sub-Saharan Africa” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.