There was a large and thriving community of Jews, both religious and secular, in Czechoslovakia before World War II. Many perished during the Holocaust. Today, nearly all of the survivors have inter-married and assimilated into Czech and Slovak society.
Academics and scientists Engineering Itzhak Bentov, inventorReview of his book, The Cosmic Book: On the Mechanics of Creation Biblio.com booksellers calls him "a Jewish scientist and inventor, who was born in Prague". Retrieved 20 October 2006. Actually born in Humenné. Daniel Mandl (1891–1944), civil engineer, inventor, victim of the Holocaust
Social science Guido Adler (1855–1941), musicologist, composer, writer, born in Ivančice (Eibenschütz), Moravia Yehuda Bauer, Czech-born Israeli historian of the Holocaust Samuel Bergman, philosopherJewish Agency for Israel ; The Hugo Bergmann family Papers; both accessed 11 March 2007 Pavel Bergmann, historian, philosopher and political activist; signatory of charter 77; Berthold Bretholz, Moravian historianEncyclopaedia Judaica, article "Historians", list of "Prominent Jewish General Historians". Vilém Flusser (1920–1991), self-taught philosopher "Vilém Flusser was born on 12 May 1920 in Prague into a family of Jewish intellectuals" Ernest Gellner (1925–1995), philosopher and social anthropologistObituary, by John Davis, Warden of All Souls College London School of Economics , "Ernest Gellner, who has died a few days short of his 70th birthday, was brought up in Prague, in an urban intellectual Jewish family." Accessed 10 November 2006. Joseph Goldberger, discovered cure for pellagra Anna Hájková, (1978-) Holocaust historian and Theresienstadt expert Stephan Korner, philosopher(Jewish Year Book 2005 p215, in List of Jewish Fellows of the British Academy; born Czechoslovakia; see Who's Who) Julie Moschelesová (1892–1956) A pioneering geographer in Czechoslovakia who emigrated to Australia Ernest Nagel, philosopherList of Jewish philosophers; born in Prague Biography Research Guide 10 March 2008 Samuel Steinherz (1857–1942), Czechoslovak mediaevalistEncyclopedia Judaica, article "Historians", list of "Prominent Jewish General Historians".
Mathematics Nikolai Brashman (1796–1866), mathematician David Gans (1541–1613), mathematician Joseph Kohn (1932–2023), mathematician Ernst Kolman (1892–1972), philosopher of mathematics Charles Loewner (1893–1968), mathematician Assaf Naor (born 1975), mathematician Alfred Tauber (1866–1942), mathematician Olga Taussky-Todd (1906–1995), mathematician "Political tensions arose around this time, and like many other Jewish intellectuals, she left Germany"
Medicine Sigmund Freud (1856–1939), neurologist, founder of psychoanalysis; born in Příbor (Freiberg), Moravia Carl Koller (1857–1944), ophthalmologistEncyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed., art. "Koller, Carl": "born in Bohemia" Pavol Steiner (1908–1969), Olympic water polo player, swimmer, and cardiac surgeon Rudolf Vrba (1924–2006), pharmacologist (born in Slovakia)
Natural science Gerty Cori (1896–1957), biochemist Martin Fleischmann, chemist Eva Smolková‑Keulemansová, (1927-2024) professor of analytical science at Charles University. Rudolf Vrba, coauthor of the Vrba–Wetzler report, chemist
Arts/entertainment Bedřich Feuerstein (1892–1936), architect, painter and essayist Noted in "Prague Jewish Architecture" Miloš Forman (1932–2018), film director, actor and script writerWeb biographies that indicate Forman's father, who died in a concentration camp, was Jewish are incorrect. Neither one of his parents was Jewish. However, according to , Forman's biological father was Jewish, something he found out only after WWII: "About this time Miloš received word from a woman who befriended Anna in Auschwitz. What she had to say would come as quite a shock. It seems Rudolf was in fact not Miloš's father and that his real father was an architect who had worked for Anna. He too disappeared before the war but was Jewish thereby making Miloš half Jewish. Miloš would learn that this man was in fact alive and a professor at a university in Ecuador. They would never meet." Arnošt Goldflam (born 1946), playwright, writer, director, screenwriter and actorEncyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed, art. "Goldflam, Arnošt": "Czech playwright, writer, director, screenwriter, and actor. Born to Holocaust survivors in Brno (Moravia)" Hugo Haas (1901–1968), actor and film directorEncyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed, art. "Haas, Hugo": "Czechoslovak actor and film director" Juraj Herz (born 1934), film director, actor, and scenic designer (born in Slovakia) Miloš Kopecký (1922–1996), actor Hugo Lederer (1871–1940), sculptorInternational Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies – Cemetery Project : he is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Znojmo, Czech Republic; accessed 18 May 2007 Francis Lederer (1899–2000), actorEncyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed, art. "Lederer, Francis": "Czech actor" Herbert Lom (1917–2012), actor Peter Lorre, actor Robert Maxwell (1923–1991), media mogul Emil Orlik (1870–1932), painter "important Jewish graphic artist and painter, Emil Orlik" Alfréd Radok (1917–1976), writer and director in theater and film described Radok as "half Jewish" Karel Reisz (1926–2002), film director Ivan Reitman (1946-2022), film director (born in Slovakia) Emery Roth (1871–1948), architect (born in Sečovce at the present-day territory of Slovakia) Jan Saudek (born 1935), art photographer "in spite of the fact that due to his wartime experience as an enduring Jewish child" Anna Ticho (1894–1980), artist noted in an essay on "Jewish artists" Jiří Weiss (1913–2004), film director and screenwriter Adrianna Demiany (née Roskovanyi) (born 1942), Slovak-Hungarian-Canadian Journalist (Born in Košice at the present-day territory of Slovakia)LinkedIn Profile
Athletes Kurt Epstein (1904–1975), Czechoslovak national water polo team, Olympic competitor, incarcerated by the Nazis in Theresienstadt and Auschwitz Arie Gill-Glick (1930–2016), Israeli Olympic runner Ladislav Hecht (1909–2004), Czechoslovak-American tennis player, world #6 Gertrude "Traute" Kleinová (1918–1976), table tennis, three-time world champion, incarcerated by the Nazis in Theresienstadt and Auschwitz Pavol Steiner (1908–1969), Olympic water polo player, swimmer, and cardiac surgeon Olga Winterberg (1922–2010), Israeli Olympian in the discus throw
Music Karel Ančerl (1908–1973), conductor, respected for his performances of contemporary music and particularly cherished for his interpretations of music by Czech composersCanadian Encyclopedia, art. Jewish music and musicians "Post-war Jewish immigration has related less to persecution than to professional appointments or opportunities (e.g., Karel Ančerl" Accessed 23 October 2006. Karel Berman (1919–1995), opera singer and composerThe concentration camp for Jews – the Terezín Ghetto lists Berman as among the Jews sent there; Accessed 3 November 2006Jewish Theological Seminary : "Czech opera star Karel Berman" Accessed 3 November 2006 Ignaz Brüll, composer and pianistJewish: "Contemporary Review, June 1999 by Anthony Paterson" "the Nazi ban on his compositions – he was Jewish" Accessed 6 November 2006.born Moravia: "Composers of Classical Music" "Brull, Ignaz 1846–1907 Moravia, Prossnitz – Austria, Vienna" Accessed 6 November 2006. Arthur Chitz (1882–1944) musicologist, composer, pianist, and conductor Alexander Goldscheider (born 1950), composer and producer Alfred Grünfeld (1852–1924), pianist and composerJewish Encyclopedia; "born at Prague" Accessed 28 November 2006. Pavel Haas (1899–1944), composer"Classical Composers Database" "Born: 21 June 1899, Brno (Czechoslovakia) ... Being Jewish, at the time of the Nazi invasion he divorced his Christian wife to save his family" Accessed 6 November 2006. Eduard Hanslick (1825–1904), music criticAvins, Styra "Brahms and the German Spirit (review)" Music and Letters – Volume 87, Number 1, 2006, pp. 136–141 online at or "three other Jews, Julius Epstein, Anton Door, and Eduard Hanslick" (Needs subscription, but found with this search: Accessed 6 November 2006.) Born in Prague: Encyclopædia Britannica Accessed 6 November 2006. Gideon Klein (1919–1945), composer of classical musicCzech Jewish Museum "The life and work of the Czech Jewish composers Gideon Klein and Egon Ledeč" Accessed 10 November 2006.The Gideon Klein Foundation "The Gideon Klein Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by Eliška Kleinová, Gideon Klein’s sister" Accessed 15 June 2007. Eliška Kleinová (1912–1999), pianist, music educator; sister of Gideon Klein Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897–1957), composerKorngold Society : "he got thrown out of Vienna because he was Jewish" Jessica Duchen, author of E. Korngold's biography); Korngold Society: "BRNO, where the composer was born"; accessed 6 February 2007. Hans Krása (1899–1944), composerBerkeley Repertory Theater "Krása, who was Jewish" Accessed 23 November 2006Minnesota Public Radio "Krása was a gifted Czech composer" Accessed 23 November 2006 Egon Ledeč (1889–1944), music composer Gustav Mahler (1860–1911), music composer and conductor, Czech-born. Retrieved 28 November 2006. "Mahler's Jewish faith stood in the way of his career goal"Sony Essentials of Music "Czech-born Austrian composer and conductor" Accessed 28 November 2006. Herbert Thomas Mandl (1926–2007), concert violinist, professor at the Janáček Academy of Music in Ostrava, Holocaust survivor who was a contemporary witness to the rich cultural life in the Theresienstadt (Terezín) ghetto Ignaz Moscheles (1794–1870), composer and piano virtuosoArt. on Moscheles in Encyclopædia Britannica "Czech pianist, one of the outstanding virtuosos of his era"; Art. on Moscheles in Columbia Encyclopedia "Prague -born Jewish virtuoso Ignaz Moscheles" Both accessed 29 November 2006. Zuzana Růžičková (1927–2017), contemporary harpsichordist, interpreter of classical and baroque musicRadio Praha "She was born in Pilsen in 1927 into an upper class Jewish family"; Goldberg the early-music portal "France honours Czech harpsichordist Zuzana Ruzickova" Both accessed 29 November 2006. Erwin Schulhoff (1894–1942), composer and pianistSchool of Oriental and African Studies, Newsletter of the Jewish Music Institute "Erwin Schulhoff, a Czech Jew executed by the Nazis..." Accessed 8 December 2006. Julius Schulhoff (1825–1898), pianist and composerEncyclopædia Britannica, 2nd ed., art. "Schulhoff, Julius": "Born in Prague" Walter Susskind (1913–1980), conductorBach cantatas site "The distinguished Czech-born English conductor" Lake Placid Film Forum "Walter Susskind, a German Jew" Both accessed 4 January 2007 Viktor Ullmann (1898–1944), composer, conductor and pianist "Raised a German-Czech until a 1909 move to Austria" "Viktor Ullmann, composer, pianist, choirmaster, conductor and music critic, was one of the victims from among the Prague German Jewish musicians in World War II." Jaromír Weinberger (1896–1967), composer
Politicians Victor Adler (1852–1918), socialist politician, born in PragueEncyclopedia of Austria born Prague. Retrieved 20 March 2008; "Jews and the American Soul: Human Nature in the Twentieth Century" by Andrew R. Heinze; Published 2004 Princeton University Press , p.69 (includes him in list of notable Jews in Vienna) Madeleine Albright (1937–2022), served as the 64th United States Secretary of State "When born Jews like Madeleine Albright leave Judaism to participate in new secular religions a la Karl Marx with Marxism" "The Washington Post reported 4 February that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's parents were Jewish converts to Catholicism and that her grandparents died in the Holocaust." Ludwig Czech (1870–1942), leader and several times minister for the German Social Democratic Workers Party in the Czechoslovak Republic Jan Fischer (born 1951), prime minister of the Czech Republic (2009)