Mexico has had a Jewish population since the early Colonial Era. However, these early individuals could not openly worship as they were persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition for practicing Judaism. After achieving independence, Mexico eventually adopted freedom of religion and began receiving Jewish immigrants, many of them refugees. The book 1900–1950 has records of almost 18,300 who emigrated to Mexico between 1900 and 1950. Most (7,023) were Ashkenazi Jews whose ancestors had settled in Eastern Europe, mainly Poland. A further 2,640 Jews arrived from either Spain or the Ottoman Empire and 1,619 came from Cuba and the United States.
The 2010 census recorded 67,476 individuals professing Judaism, most of whom live in Mexico City.
The following is a list of notable past and present Mexican Jews (not all with both parents Jewish, nor all practising Judaism), arranged by their main field of activity.
Academia Adina Cemet – sociologist, author, essayist. Julio Frenk – president of the University of Miami, former Secretary of Health and dean of the Harvard School of Public Health Enrique Krauze – public intellectual, historian, essayist, critic, producer, and publisher Helen Kleinbort Krauze – historian, mother of Enrique Krauze Arturo Warman – anthropologist, cabinet member of Salinas and Zedillo Larissa Adler Lomnitz – social anthropologist (French-born) Judit Bokser – sociologist Flora Botton – sinologist and gender studies scholar Daniel Cazés – anthropologist and gender studies scholar Enrique Leff – economist, environmental sociologist and environmentalist Katya Mandoki – philosophy scholar Otto Mayer-Serral – musicologist Andrés Roemer – lawyer and economist
Architecture Sara Topelson de Grinberg – architect Abraham Zabludovsky – architect Alejandro Zohn – architect, Holocaust survivor Ezequiel Farca – architect
Arts
Classical music Daniel Catán – composerOpera Japonica/Daniel Catán "I was born of Jewish parents in Mexico City." Max Lifchitz – composer Henryk Szeryng – violinist
Photography Senya Fleshin – photographer and anarchist Mariana Yampolsky – photographer
Visual arts Maurice Ascalon – sculptor Arnold Belkin – painter, born in CanadaUgalde Gómez Nadia. Arnold Belkin; la imágen como metáfora. México, 1999. Olga Costa – painter Luis Filcer – Expressionist painter Pedro Friedeberg – painter Mathias Goeritz – painter, sculptor, born in Germany Vlady Kibalchich Russakov – painter Tosia Malamud – sculptor Leonardo Nierman – painter, sculptor Wolfgang Paalen – painter, sculptor and art philosopher Fanny Rabel – painter, member of Los Fridos artistic group Diego Rivera – painter, muralist José Sacal – sculptor Jose Luis Seligson – visual artist
Business Carlos Alazraki – advertising executive Daniel Lubetzky – entrepreneur, author Franz Mayer – financier, photographer, collector, and the founder of the Franz Mayer Museum Isaac Assa – entrepreneur and philanthropist. Moisés Saba – businessman; board member of various companies Mauricio Umansky – real estate agent Sergio Zyman – marketing executive
Entertainment
Film and television Brigitte Alexander – actress, director, author and translator for UNESCO Susana Alexander – actress Louis C.K. – actor and comedian Erick Elias – actor Irán Eory – actress, model Amat Escalante – director Gabriela Goldsmith – actress Israel Jaitovich – host and comedian Pati Jinich – TV chef, cookbook author Brontis Jodorowsky – actor Mauricio Kleiff – screenwriter María Eugenia Llamas – actress Mariana Levy – actress Emmanuel Lubezki – cinematographer, winner of three Ariel Awards for Best Cinematography (1992, 1993, 1994) and three Oscars in the category (2013–2015) Luis Mandoki – film director Miroslava – actress Norma Mora – actress David Ostrosky – actor Alfredo Ripstein – film producer Arturo Ripstein – filmmaker, screenwriter, producer Claudia Salinas – model, actress Alexander Salkind – producer Ilya Salkind – producer Diego Schoening – singer, actor, and television host Alan Tacher – television host Ari Telch – actor Gregorio Walerstein – film producer and screenwriter
Music Alix Bauer – singer, founding member of Timbiriche Ari Borovoy – songwriter, founding member of the Latin pop group OV7 Adan Jodorowsky – musician, singer, and actor Gilad Kahana – Mexican-born Israeli singer for Girafot, and actor in A Tale of Love and Darkness Mark Tacher – musician, vocalist, guitarist, and television host Ariel Pink – musician, indie rocker, progenitor of the hypnagogic pop genre
Journalism Shanik Berman – journalist David Faitelson – sports journalist Giselle Fernández – television journalist Adela Micha – TV and radio journalist Jacobo Zabludovsky Kraveski – TV journalist100 year of Jewish immigration "The exhibit has photos of many members of the community who have become well known for their artistic or cultural contributions. Wolf Ruvinskis was a famous wrestler in the 1950s.... Jacobo Zabludovsky is a household name, having been a prominent news anchor for decades both in television and radio."
Literature Chloe Aridjis – novelist Sabina Berman – author, playwright, screenwriter Anita Brenner – writer, historian Mariana Frenk-Westheim – prose writer, Hispanist, translator Margo Glantz – writer and criticInvenciones multitudinarias: escritoras judíomexicanas contemporáneas "Guadalupe Cortina’s study of Mexican Jewish women writers features general introductions to four writers and textural analyses of their work. The writers are Margo Glantz, Ethel Krauze, Sara Levi Calderón, and, more briefly discussed than the previous three, Sara Sefchovich. "* a prose writer who was author of the New York Times bestseller The Empress. Bárbara Jacobs – author, poet, essayist, translator Myriam Moscona – author, journalist, poet and Ladino translatorWhere Words Like Monarchs Fly "Myriam Moscona is the daughter of Sephardic parents who came to Mexico from Bulgaria." Moises Salinas – author and psychologist Sara Sefchovich – writer Esther Seligson – writer, poet, translator, and historian Ilan Stavans – literary criticInterview: Ilan Stavans "born in Mexico in 1961 to an Eastern European Jewish family"
Science
Biology Jerzy Rzedowski – botanist, plant geographer, researcher, Holocaust survivor Annie Pardo Cemo – cell biologist
Engineering Edward Esseis – nuclear engineer
Mathematics Samuel Gitler Hammer – mathematician
Medicine George Rosenkranz – pioneering scientist in the field of steroid chemistry; contract bridge Grand Life Master Pablo Rudomín Zevnovaty – neuroscientist Nora Volkow – psychiatrist; current director of the United States' National Institute on Drug Abuse David Kershenobich Stalnikowitz – gastroenterologist; former director of the Salvador Zubirán National Institute of Health Sciences and Nutrition Samuel Siegfried Karl von Basch – personal physician of emperor Maximilian of Mexico and the inventor of the blood pressure meter (also known as sphygmomanometer) Edna Cukierman – biochemist René Drucker Colín – neuroscientist Enrique Graue Wiechers – ophthalmologist, former rector of UNAM. Marcos Rojkind Matlyuk – physiologist Arturo Rosenblueth – physiologist, known as one of the pioneers of cybernetics
Physics Jacob Bekenstein – physicist Deborah Berebichez – physicist Gloria Koenigsberger – physicist Marcos Moshinsky – awarded physicist, UNAM cathedratic, Ukrainian-born
Politics Andrés Roemer – diplomat, author Binyamin Temkin – Israeli politician Claudia Sheinbaum – President of Mexico David Goldbaum – surveyor and politician of Baja California Diego de Montemayor – founder of MonterreyHordes, Stanley M. To the ends of the earth: A history of the crypto-Jews in New MexicoFarias, George. The Farias chronicles: a history and genealogy of a Portuguese/Spanish family. Eliezer Ronen – Israeli politician Gabriela Brimmer – writer and activist for persons with disabilities Jorge Castañeda Gutman – politician and academic who served as Secretary of Foreign Affairs; also known for losing a Supreme Court ruling that would have allowed him to run as an Independent in the 2006 Presidential race José Woldenberg – political scientist and sociologist Juan de Oñate – Governor of Santa Fe de Nuevo México, descendant of Conversos Luis de Carvajal y de la Cueva – adventurer, slave-trader, first Governor of Nuevo León Francisca Nuñez de Carabajal – sister of Luis de Carabajal, executed along with family members for practicing Judaism Luis de Carabajal the Younger – author, merchant Salomón Chertorivski Woldenberg – Senator from Mexico City and former Secretary of Health Vicente Lombardo Toledano – labor leader
Religion Jacob Avigdor – Chief Rabbi of the Ashkenazi Jewish community, author, Holocaust survivor Yosef Dayan – rabbi and the author of several books in Hebrew, Spanish and Italian Moisés Kaiman – rabbi from Monterrey
Sports Ilana Berger – tennis player Wolf Ruvinskis – wrestler
See also List of Latin American Jews List of Mexicans List of Jews
References
External links Judíos Destacados en México, articles on notable Mexican Jews by Diario Judio