Contributions that changed everything
From groundbreaking scientific discoveries to life-saving innovations that touch every life on Earth.
New profiles this week
New profiles, added by hand
The directory grows continuously. Each profile below was researched and sourced before publication — nothing is added from memory.
Last update: 2 September 2026
Week of 31 August 202660
- Ryan CohenEconomics & BusinessRyan Cohen was born in 1986 at Montreal, in Quebec, and the sources state plainly that he was born to a Jewish family, the son of a teacher and of Ted Cohen, an importer of glassware whose business he watched his father run through his childhood.
- Paul VelsaArts & LiteraturePaul Velsa, born Paul Isaac Welsa in the twelfth arrondissement of Paris on 29 December 1905 to parents of Polish origin, was a French actor whose name is inscribed on the Wall of Names at the Memorial of the Shoah in Paris.
- Samuel KansiScience & MedicineSamuel Kansi was a Jewish astronomer of Provence in the fourteenth century, one of the Hebrew-writing men of science who made the Jewish communities of Provence and the Comtat Venaissin a centre of astronomy in the late Middle Ages.
- Bernard PicardHistorical & Religious FiguresBernard Picard was born at Colmar, in the Haut-Rhin, in 1925 and died in Israel in 1998, at the age of seventy-two; the sources describe him as a French Jewish educator whose influence in the Jewish community of France was considerable.
- Henri MonteuxArts & LiteratureHenri Philippe Moïse Monteux was born in the ninth arrondissement of Paris in 1874 and died on 12 April 1943 in the concentration camp of Oranienburg-Sachsenhausen, where, as the record states, he had been deported because of his Jewish origins.
- Marianne PicardHistorical & Religious FiguresMarianne Picard, born Marianne Schwab in 1929 and dead in 2006, was a French Jewish educator and the wife of Bernard Picard, with whom she shared a single vocation for the whole of their lives.
- Yael HollenbergHistorical & Religious FiguresYael Hollenberg-Azoulay was born at Thiais, near Paris, on 2 March 1969.
- Gisèle JoannèsCivil Rights & Human RightsGisèle Joannès was born Raca Golda Nusbaum at Warsaw on 28 July 1918, in a Polish working-class family of Jewish culture, and died at Groslay on 6 September 1992, at the age of seventy-four.
- Josué LifshitzHeroes of IsraelJosué Lifshitz, Yehoshua by his Hebrew name, was born at Kherson in Ukraine on 3 December 1896 and died at Ivry-sur-Seine on 17 November 1993, at the age of ninety-six; the sources call him a French Jew and a member of the Resistance, and his parents were among the founders of Tel Aviv.
- Pierre FinalyArts & LiteraturePierre Auguste Finaly was born in the sixteenth arrondissement of Paris on 7 August 1889, into a Hungarian Jewish family, and died at Asnières-sur-Seine on 4 April 1937, at the age of forty-seven.
- Reuben GrinbergHeroes of IsraelReuben Grinberg was born at Proskurov in Ukraine, today Khmelnytskyi, on 12 September 1888 and died at Geneva on 4 April 1970, at the age of eighty-one; the sources call him a French Jewish member of the Resistance.
- André ElbogenHeroes of IsraelAndré Elbogen was born at Hajdúnánás in Hungary on 17 January 1922 and was shot at Saint-Genest-Lerpt, in the Loire, on 7 July 1944, at the age of twenty-two; the sources describe him as an Orthodox French Jew of Hungarian origin.
- Emmanuel LipmannEconomics & BusinessEmmanuel Isaac Lipmann was born at Neuf-Brisach, in the Haut-Rhin, in 1844, into an Alsatian Jewish family of watchmakers, and died at Besançon on 20 January 1913.
- Madeleine ElbogenHeroes of IsraelMadeleine Elbogen, born Madeleine Klein at Mulhouse on 19 October 1922, was a science student at the University of Strasbourg, which had been evacuated to Clermont-Ferrand after the annexation of Alsace by the Reich.
- Mathieu MullerHeroes of IsraelMathieu Muller was born at Diemeringen, in an Alsace then held by the German Empire, on 13 August 1895, in an observant family, and died in Jerusalem on 8 July 1979; the sources call him a community figure of French Judaism.
- Armand FleischmanHistorical & Religious FiguresArmand Fleischman, born Heymann Fleischman in the fourth arrondissement of Paris on 13 October 1886, died in the thirteenth on 13 August 1973, at the age of eighty-six.
- Edmond ElaloufCivil Rights & Human RightsEdmond Elalouf was born in 1930 at Fès, in Morocco, in a traditional Jewish family of the mellah, the old Jewish quarter of the city, and died on 4 January 2025 at the age of ninety-four; the sources call him a major figure of French Judaism.
- Joseph LandauHistorical & Religious FiguresJoseph Landau was a French Orthodox Jewish community leader of the twentieth century, and the founder and president of the synagogue of the rue Pavée, in the Marais, in the fourth arrondissement of Paris.
- Marguerite KleinCivil Rights & Human RightsMarguerite Klein was born in the tenth arrondissement of Paris on 28 June 1914, in a Jewish and practising family, and died at Strasbourg on 4 February 1979 of cancer.
- Achille NaftalisHeroes of IsraelAchille Naftalis, born Ichil Naftalis at Bacău in Romania on 30 December 1909, came from a traditionalist and Zionist Jewish family; he died at Petah Tikva in Israel on 29 January 1984.
- Jacques CohnHistorical & Religious FiguresJacques Cohn, whom everyone called Bô, was born at Strasbourg on 8 July 1916 and died in Jerusalem on 22 April 1974; the sources describe him as a French Orthodox Jewish teacher.
- Robert JobHeroes of IsraelRobert Job was born at Imling, in the Moselle, on 31 January 1907 and died at Strasbourg on 6 June 1995.
- Charles MerzbachHistorical & Religious FiguresCharles Ezriel Merzbach was born in the sixteenth arrondissement of Paris on 6 December 1913 and died on 7 June 1985 in a road accident in the Negev; he is buried on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
- Gilbert MayHeroes of IsraelGilbert May was born at Strasbourg on 14 February 1925 and died on 12 October 2013, at the age of eighty-eight; he was one of the very few Alsatian Jews deported to the camp of Natzweiler-Struthof, on French soil.
- Jean IsraëlHeroes of IsraelJean Israël was born in the second arrondissement of Paris on 5 December 1913 and died in the twelfth on 16 December 1995.
- Joseph RytmannArts & LiteratureJoseph Rytmann was born at Borissov, in the Russian Empire, on 26 January 1903, and died at Créteil on 12 December 1983.
- André CharpakArts & LiteratureAndré Charpak was born at Sarny, then in Poland and today in Ukraine, on 4 September 1928, and died at Créteil on 23 June 2006.
- Arthur WeisweillerHistorical & Religious FiguresArthur Weisweiller was born at Ville-d'Avray on 14 June 1877 and died at Antibes on 15 October 1941.
- Eugénie WeillCivil Rights & Human RightsEugénie Weill was born in Paris on 15 June 1860 and died at Sarcelles on 28 December 1941, at the age of eighty-one; the sources describe her as a French Jewish philanthropist and feminist.
- Meyer HabibCivil Rights & Human RightsMeyer Habib was born in the twelfth arrondissement of Paris on 28 April 1961, into a Jewish family of Tunisian origin, and grew up in the nineteenth arrondissement, where he received a traditional Jewish education that has shaped his public life ever since.
- Barbara ButchArts & LiteratureBarbara Butch was born in the ninth arrondissement of Paris on 17 March 1981 and grew up in the seventh in a traditionally observant Jewish family, her father French of Moroccan origin and her mother of Ashkenazi descent.
- Claude-Annie GugenheimHistorical & Religious FiguresClaude-Annie Gugenheim was born in the seventeenth arrondissement of Paris on 23 August 1928 and died in Jerusalem on 20 June 2014, at the age of eighty-five.
- Didier Meïr LongConverts to JudaismDidier Meïr Long, born in 1965 to a Corsican mother, Valli Trentanoï, studied theology at the Institut catholique de Paris and was a Benedictine monk at the abbey of La Pierre-qui-Vire from 1985 to 1995, where he was known as Brother Marc.
- Myriam Ackermann-SommerHistorical & Religious FiguresMyriam Ackermann-Sommer was born at Perpignan in 1996 to a Tunisian Jewish mother and a Mennonite Protestant father, and she is a niece of Grand Rabbi Alexis Blum; she was raised in and has always lived within Judaism, the faith of her mother's family.
- Alain JakubowiczCivil Rights & Human RightsAlain Jakubowicz was born at Villeurbanne, near Lyon, on 2 May 1953, to Jewish parents who had reached France in 1933 from Poland and Austria.
- Dov ZerahEconomics & BusinessDov Zerah was born at Tunis on 31 July 1954 into a Sephardi Jewish family, part of the community that left North Africa for France in the years after independence.
- Gil TaïebCivil Rights & Human RightsGil Taïeb was born at Tunis on 20 July 1957 and died in Paris on 15 April 2024, at the age of sixty-six.
- Jean-François BensahelHistorical & Religious FiguresJean-François Bensahel was born at Boulogne-Billancourt on 2 January 1964.
- Ariel GoldmannCivil Rights & Human RightsAriel Goldmann was born at Bordeaux in 1963, into a family at the centre of French Jewish religious life: his father Alain Goldmann was chief rabbi of Paris from 1981 to 1994, and his mother Danielle is descended from Rabbi Henri Schilli, acting chief rabbi of France in the early 1950s.
- Emmanuelle BachArts & LiteratureEmmanuelle Bach was born in Paris on 31 May 1968 under the name Emmanuelle Anouk El Kabbach.
- Amir HaddadArts & LiteratureLaurent Amir Khalifa Khedider Haddad was born in the twelfth arrondissement of Paris on 20 June 1984, into a Sephardi Jewish family from Tunisia and Morocco; the household first lived at Sarcelles, north of Paris, which has been one of the main Jewish towns of France since the North African arrivals of the 1960s.
- Elsa LunghiniArts & LiteratureElsa Lunghini was born in the eighteenth arrondissement of Paris on 20 May 1973, daughter of the composer and photographer Georges Lunghini and of the painter and sculptor Christiane Jobert.
- Gilles LelloucheArts & LiteratureGilles Lellouche was born at Savigny-sur-Orge on 5 July 1972.
- Henri NersonScience & MedicineHenri Nerson was born at Strasbourg on 2 November 1902, into a French Orthodox Jewish family, son of Raphaël Nerson and Mina Bloch, and died in Jerusalem on 10 May 1980.
- Léon NisandScience & MedicineLéon Nisand was born Léon Neugewurtz at Strasbourg on 28 September 1923, eldest son of Ernest and Rose Nisand, traditionally observant Jewish shopkeepers of that city, and died at Schiltigheim on 6 June 2014, at ninety.
- Amélie JakobovitsCivil Rights & Human RightsAmélie Jakobovits was born at Ansbach in Germany on 31 May 1928, daughter of the rabbi Élie Munk, who got his family out of Nazi Germany in 1937, and of Fanny Goldberger, daughter of Nathan Goldberger, president of the Orthodox Jewish community of Nuremberg.
- Armand LipmanHistorical & Religious FiguresArmand Bernard Lipman was born at Phalsbourg on 12 August 1858, son of the chief rabbi Benjamin Lipman, who served at Metz and then at Lille.
- Emmanuel RacineHeroes of IsraelEmmanuel Racine was born in Moscow on 2 December 1911, son of Georges and Bassia Hirsch, Russian Jews who fled the Bolshevik regime and settled in Paris in 1926, where the family name was made French as Racine.
- Lionel RochemanArts & LiteratureLionel Rocheman was born in the twelfth arrondissement of Paris on 18 June 1928, in a Jewish family of Polish origin, and died in the twentieth on 30 July 2020, at ninety-two.
- Lazare LandauPhilosophy & Social SciencesLazare Landau was born at Strasbourg on 1 August 1928 and died in the same city on 3 January 2012, at eighty-three.
- Stéphane ZagdanskiArts & LiteratureStéphane Zagdanski was born in Paris on 28 April 1963, into an Ashkenazi Jewish family whose grandparents had emigrated from Poland at the beginning of the twentieth century; he has described the household as an Ashkenazi atmosphere of minimal and permissive traditionalism, which is to say the ordinary condition of second-generation Jewish Paris.
- Gustave HalphenEconomics & BusinessGustave Halphen was born in the old third arrondissement of Paris on 3 March 1810, son of Salomon Halphen and of Malka Cahen, in the Jewish Halphen family that produced within two generations bankers, a mayor of a Paris arrondissement, judges and a regent of the Bank of France.
- Maurice VanikoffCivil Rights & Human RightsMaurice Vanikoff was born at Sebastopol in the Crimea on 1 July 1886 and died on 31 March 1961.
- Mayer CahenScience & MedicineMayer Cahen was born in Paris on 21 January 1823, son of the physician Moïse Cahen, president of the Israelite Consistory of Paris, and of the philanthropist Coralie Cahen, who founded the refuge for Jewish children; his sister Rosine became a photographer under the name Madame Moriss.
- Moïse CahenScience & MedicineMoïse Cahen was born at Metz on 17 December 1785, six years before the Jews of France were made citizens, and died in the old third arrondissement of Paris on 24 May 1853.
- Achille HalphenCivil Rights & Human RightsAchille Halphen was born in Paris on 19 February 1825, into one of the notable Jewish families of the capital: his father Edmond Halphen was mayor of the second arrondissement of Paris, and his uncle Anselme Halphen was a regent of the Bank of France, which is to say that within two generations of the emancipation of 1791 a Jewish family sat in the municipal government of Paris and in the direction of the national bank.
- Cécile CerfHeroes of IsraelCécile Cerf was born Cypora Salit at Vilna, now Vilnius, on 12 January 1916, in the Jewish intellectual world of that city — the Jerusalem of Lithuania, where, as her biography puts it, traditionalism and modernism, mysticism and Marxism, Zionism and anti-Zionism lived side by side and argued daily.
- Henri HertzArts & LiteratureSalomon Léopold Henri Hertz was born at Nogent-sur-Seine on 17 June 1875, in a Jewish family originally from Lorraine; his father Émile Hertz was an army officer.
- Marc BreuerHistorical & Religious FiguresMarc Breuer was born at Frankfurt am Main on 19 November 1912, an Orthodox Jewish educator of German, French and later American life: he was the eldest son of Rabbi Joseph Breuer and a great-great-grandson of Samson Raphael Hirsch, the founder of German neo-Orthodoxy.
- Georges Weill (archiviste)Philosophy & Social SciencesGeorges Weill was born at Strasbourg on 31 January 1934, in the Jewish community of Alsace, and died at Neuilly-sur-Seine on 14 June 2022, at eighty-eight.
The last 60 profiles published — hover to pause the list
Browse the whole directoryThe Hebrew calendar
What day is it, in the oldest calendar still in daily use?
Jewish festivals seem to move every year against the Gregorian calendar. They do not: they are fixed in a different calendar, one that follows both the moon and the sun.
Gregorian date
—
Hebrew date
—
Why it differs, and how
- The months follow the moon. A lunar month lasts about 29½ days, so Hebrew months alternate between 29 and 30 days, and each one begins near the new moon.
- But the year has to follow the sun, because the festivals are tied to the seasons — Passover must fall in spring, Sukkot at the autumn harvest.
- Twelve lunar months make roughly 354 days, eleven short of the solar year. Left uncorrected, Passover would drift backwards through the seasons, as festivals do in a purely lunar calendar.
More on the mechanics
- The fix is a thirteenth month, Adar I, inserted seven times in every nineteen years — the Metonic cycle. Those are the leap years, which is why in some years Purim falls in Adar II.
- A Hebrew day begins at sunset, not at midnight. A festival therefore starts the evening before the civil date shown here.
- Years are counted from the traditional date of creation, which is why the current year is in the 5000s while the Gregorian year is in the 2000s.
Upcoming festivals
Each festival begins at sunset on the evening before the date shown.
Our mission
ThankJews.com documents and celebrates the verified contributions of the Jewish people and Israel that have shaped science, medicine, technology, culture and modern society. Our goal is simple: to help the world recognize, appreciate and learn from these extraordinary achievements — every fact sourced and dated.
“If you appreciate modern life, take a moment to thank the Jews.”
Despite representing only 0.2% of the world population, Jewish people have won:
22% of Nobel Prizes41% in Economics26% in Medicine25% in Physics