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List of Jewish heads of state and government

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This is a list of former and current heads of state and heads of government of the sovereign countries who were/are of Jewish or have a largely Jewish heritage, other than the heads of state and government of Israel. This list includes de facto heads of state and government but does not include acting, caretaker, interim, representative, transitional or temporary heads of state and government.

Heads of state and heads of government

  Denotes incumbent heads of state or government   Denotes officer-elect/designated (presumptive)
S.No. Image Head of state or government Title Country In office from In office until Born in Jewish ancestry
1 Juan Lindo President of El Salvador  El Salvador 28 June 1841 1 February 1842 Tegucigalpa, Honduras Sephardic Jewish
President of Honduras  Honduras 2 February 1847 1 February 1852
2 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
20 February 1874 21 April 1880
3 Julius Vogel Premier of New Zealand  New Zealand 8 April 1873 6 July 1875 London, United Kingdom English Jewish
15 February 1876 1 September 1876
4 Alessandro Fortis Prime Minister of Italy  Italy 28 March 1905 8 February 1906 Forlì, Papal States Italian Jewish
5 Sidney Sonnino Prime Minister of Italy  Italy 8 February 1906 29 May 1906 Pisa, Grand Duchy of Tuscany Italian Jewish father, raised Christian
11 December 1909 31 March 1910
6 Luigi Luzzatti Prime Minister of Italy  Italy 31 March 1910 30 March 1911 Venice, Kingdom of Lombardy–Venetia Italian Jewish
7 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
8 Yakov Sverdlov Chairman of All-Russian Central Executive Committee  Soviet Russia 21 November 1917 16 March 1919 Nizhny Novgorod, Russian Empire Russian Jewish
9 Béla Kun De facto leaderPeople's Commissar of Foreign Affairs  Hungary 21 March 1919 1 August 1919 Lele, Austria-Hungary Hungarian Jewish
10 Alexandre Millerand Prime Minister of France  France 20 January 1920 24 September 1920 Paris, France Alsatian Jewish
President of France 23 September 1920 11 June 1924
11 Zigfrīds Anna Meierovics Prime Minister of Latvia  Latvia 19 June 1921 26 January 1923 Durbe, Latvia Latvian Jewish
28 June 1923 26 January 1924
12 Francis Bell Prime Minister of New Zealand  New Zealand 14 May 1925 30 May 1925 Nelson, New Zealand New Zealand Jew
13 Léon Blum Prime Minister of France  France 4 June 1936 22 June 1937 Paris, France French Jewish, Alsatian Jewish
13 March 1938 10 April 1938
16 December 1946 22 January 1947
14 Mátyás Rákosi General Secretary of the MKP/MDP  Hungary 23 February 1945 18 July 1956 Ada, Austria-Hungary Hungarian Jewish
Prime Minister of Hungary 14 August 1952 4 July 1953
15 René Mayer Prime Minister of France  France 8 January 1953 28 June 1953 Paris, France French Jewish father
16 Pierre Mendès France Prime Minister of France  France 18 June 1954 23 February 1955 Paris, France French Jewish, Portuguese Jewish
17 Ernő Gerő General Secretary of the Hungarian Working People's Party  Hungary 18 July 1956 25 October 1956 Terbegec, Austria-Hungary Hungarian Jewish
18 Michel Debré Prime Minister of France  France 8 January 1959 14 April 1962 Paris, France Alsatian Jewish, raised Catholic
19 Bruno Kreisky Chancellor of Austria  Austria 21 April 1970 24 May 1983 Vienna, Austria-Hungary Austrian Jewish
20 Léon Kengo wa Dondo Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo  Democratic Republic of the Congo 5 November 1982 31 October 1986 Libenge, Belgian Congo Polish Jewish father
26 November 1988 4 May 1990
6 July 1994 2 April 1997
21 Laurent Fabius Prime Minister of France  France 17 July 1984 20 March 1986 Paris, France French Jewish, parents converted to Catholicism and was raised Catholic
22 Eric Arturo Delvalle President of Panama  Panama 28 September 1985 26 February 1988 Panama City, Panama Panamanian Jewish, Portuguese Jewish
23
Petre Roman Prime Minister of Romania  Romania 20 June 1990 1 October 1991 Bucharest, Kingdom of Romania Hungarian Jewish father, showed no interest in Jewish affairs and was married in a Romanian Orthodox wedding ceremony
24
József Antall Prime Minister of Hungary  Hungary 23 May 1990 12 December 1993 Budapest, Hungary Hungarian Jewish
25 Ruth Dreifuss Member of Swiss Federal Council   Switzerland 10 March 1993 31 December 2002 St. Gallen, Switzerland Swiss Jewish
President of Switzerland 1 January 1999 31 December 1999
26
Gyula Horn Prime Minister of Hungary  Hungary 15 July 1994 6 July 1998 Budapest, Hungary Hungarian Jewish
27 Janet Jagan President of Guyana  Guyana 19 December 1997 11 August 1999 Chicago, Illinois, United States Guyanese Jewish, American Jewish
28 Sergey Kiriyenko Prime Minister of Russia  Russia 23 March 1998 23 August 1998 Sukhumi, Abkhaz ASSR, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union Russian Jewish, Georgian Jewish
29 Yevgeny Primakov Prime Minister of Russia  Russia 11 September 1998 12 May 1999 Kiev, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union Russian Jewish
30 Ricardo Maduro President of Honduras  Honduras 27 January 2002 27 January 2006 Panama Honduran Jewish, Portuguese Jewish
31 Zurab Zhvania Prime Minister of Georgia  Georgia 17 February 2004 3 February 2005 Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union Armenian Jewish
32 Mikhail Fradkov Prime Minister of Russia  Russia 5 March 2004 14 September 2007 Samara, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union Russian Jewish
33 Pedro Pablo Kuczynski President of Peru  Peru 28 July 2016 23 March 2018 Lima, Peru German Jewish, Peruvian Jewish
34 John Key Prime Minister of New Zealand  New Zealand 19 November 2008 12 December 2016 Auckland, New Zealand Austrian Jewish mother, he is agnostic and regularly attended church
35 Jan Fischer Prime Minister of the Czech Republic  Czech Republic 8 May 2009 13 July 2010 Prague, Czechoslovakia Czech Jewish
36 Volodymyr Groysman Prime Minister of Ukraine  Ukraine 14 April 2016 29 August 2019 Vinnytsia, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union Ukrainian Jewish
37 Volodymyr Zelenskyy President of Ukraine  Ukraine 20 May 2019 Incumbent Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union Ukrainian Jewish
38 Laurentino Cortizo President of Panama  Panama 1 July 2019 1 July 2024 Panama City, Panama Greek Jewish mother, but is a devout Roman Catholic
39 Egils Levits President of Latvia  Latvia 8 July 2019 8 July 2023 Riga, Latvian SSR, Soviet Union Latvian Jewish father, does not identify as Jewish
40 Sophie Wilmès Prime Minister of Belgium  Belgium 27 October 2019 1 October 2020 Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium Belgian Jewish
41 Mikhail Mishustin Prime Minister of Russia  Russia 16 January 2020 Incumbent Lobnya, Russian SFSR Russian Jewish
42 Élisabeth Borne Prime Minister of France  France 16 May 2022 9 January 2024 Paris, France French Jewish, Belgian Jewish, Polish Jewish
43 Aleksandr Rozenberg Prime Minister of Transnistria  Transnistria 30 May 2022 Incumbent Ladyzhyn, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union Ukrainian Jewish
44 Gabriel Attal Prime Minister of France  France 9 January 2024 5 September 2024 Clamart, France French Jewish, Tunisian Jewish
45 Claudia Sheinbaum President of Mexico  Mexico 1 October 2024 Incumbent Mexico City, Mexico Lithuanian Jewish, Bulgarian Jewish

Heads of state and heads of government with minor Jewish heritage

Some former head of states and government have smaller amounts of Jewish heritage. Boris Johnson, a former prime minister of the United Kingdom whose maternal great-grandfather, Elias Avery Lowe, was a Moscow-born Jew born to a textile merchant, said in a 2007 interview for the Jewish Chronicle, “I feel Jewish when I feel the Jewish people are threatened or under attack, that’s when it sort of comes out”. David Cameron, another former prime minister of the United Kingdom, has referenced the German Jewish ancestry of one of his great-grandfathers, Arthur Levita, a descendant of the Yiddish author Elia Levita.

Another recent head of state of Jewish heritage is Nicolas Sarkozy, a former president of France. Sarkozy has a Greek Jewish grandfather who converted to Catholicism to marry his French Catholic maternal grandmother. He referred publicly to his Jewish grandfather. Jorge Sampaio is a former president of Portugal whose maternal grandmother was a Sephardi Jew from Morocco. Sampaio said that he is proud of his Jewish ancestry. Xavier Bettel who has served as the prime minister of Luxembourg since 2013 said he has a Polish Jewish grandfather.

Helmut Schmidt, a former chancellor of West Germany from 1974 to 1982 had Jewish ancestry. His father was born to a German Jewish banker, Ludwig Gumpel, and a Christian waitress, Friederike Wenzel, and then covertly adopted, although this was kept a family secret for many years. Schmidt served in Hitler’s Wehrmacht, while managing to hide his Jewish roots from the Nazi regime. Árpád Göncz, a former president of Hungary from 1990 to 2000, had a Jewish maternal grandfather.

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. Qarase's mother is the daughter of John Herman Ma’afu Bowman, who had Jewish parents, Alexander Bowman and Sara Annette. 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”.

Some heads of state claim to have Jewish ancestry, although this is not confirmed. Mexican President Francisco I. Madero's family was widely thought to have been of Portuguese-Jewish heritage. Nicolás Maduro who has served as the president of Venezuela since 2013 said that his "grandparents were Jewish, from a Moorish background, and converted to Catholicism in Venezuela". Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa who has served as the president of Portugal since 2016 claimed that his mother had Jewish ancestry.

See also

References

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