Talk:List of North European Jews

Categorization issues with Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian Jews

I understand that today the Baltic States (Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia) are regarded by many international organizations as belonging to Northern Europe rather than Eastern Europe. Nonetheless, the history of the majority of the Jews in these countries (especially Lithuania and Latvia) is intimately connected to the history of Jews in Eastern Europe and Central Europe (especially Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia). Like Polish, Ukrainian, and Belarusian Jewry, Lithuanian and Latvian Jewry were part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Like Ukrainian, Belarusian, and Russian Jewry, Estonian, Latvian, and Lithuanian Jewry lived under the rule of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.

The Lithuanian, Latvian, and Estonian Jewish cultures and histories have little or nothing in common with Jewry from northern european countries such as Sweden, Denmark, or Norway. It makes little sense to group the Jews from the Baltic States in the Northern European list; they would fit far better in the list of East European Jews that includes the following closely related Jewish groups:

   List of Czech, Bohemian, Moravian and Slovak Jews
   List of Hungarian Jews
   List of Polish Jews
   List of Romanian Jews
   List of Ukrainian Jews
   List of Jews born in the former Russian Empire (and the former Soviet Union)

Untitled

I am removing Lars von Trier from the list of Danish Jews because although he grew thinking his father was Jewish, he was neither raised in the Jewish faith nor was he Jewish by heritage.--SVTCobra 01:21, 9 Jun 2005 (UTC)

From a religious point of view, von Trier is clearly not Jewish. However Jewishness is also an ethnicity/culture, and growing up with a Jewish father-figure exposes you to that ethnicity and affects your self-perception. This is, I believe, sufficient to justify the listing, with the comment in brackets making clear the extent of von Trier's relation to Judaism. Udzu 20:22, 10 Jun 2005 (UTC)

PS Also, according to a Boston Review article, von Trier "grew up thinking of himself as an atheistic Jew".

Swedish Jews

The IP 65.10.47.107 edited the list of Swedish Jews, adding "Jewish father" on Oskar Klein, with the edit comment "Oskar Klein father was a rabbi, do some research". Writing "Jewish father" implies that the mother was not Jewish, making the note not only superfluous but misleading, and one cannot help wondering why the anonymous contributor did not add "Jewish father" in all cases where somebody has two Jewish parents.

The same IP then removed Ernst Josephson and Erland Josephson from the list with the comment "Neither Josephson's are Jewish. Josephson is a common Christian name.". Josephson is actually neither a Christian nor a Jewish name per se, but these two individuals belong to a very well-known Swedish Jewish family, which can be found in any Swedish reference work, including the widely available Nationalencyklopedin. (In both cases, their Jewishness is common knowledge among educated Swedes, but the important point is that the fact is very easy to verify.) Uppland 10:20, 28 July 2005 (UTC)

I don't know if Art Spiegelman could be classified as "Swedish", since, although born in Stockholm, he moved to USA in his early childhood, long before he started creating his famous comics.

Gidon Kremer (& Ben Mottelson)

As far as I know (source: article in Israeli daily Ha'aretz) Gidon Kremer, despite his name, does not have Jewish origins. Neither does the article Gidon Kremer mention any. I would appreciate it if anyone could verify this assertion or refute it. RCSB 02:23, 18 October 2005 (UTC)

Kremer's father was a Jewish Holocaust survivor [1]. Also, Ben Mottelson is a naturalised Danish citizen and has lived in Denmark for over 50 years, which makes him 100% Danish in my book. Udzu 10:44, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

In the List?

• Reuben Leon Kahn

--Sheynhertz_געשׁ״ך 06:49, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

Swedish list

I have removed two names that were probably just added by anti-semites as "evidence" of the Jewish influence over the media. (There was some other crap as well.) One was a well-known Social Democratic journalist with a Jewish family background (her grandfather), but who is not Jewish herself an in fact a professing Lutheran who has studied to become a minister in the Church of Sweden. The other was a radio journalist who has a Jewish-sounding name, but whose Jewish background, if any, is uncertain. Despite being on radio, she is hardly that much of a public person in any case.

There are other names, which should be here but are missing (like the painter Hanna Hirsch-Pauli or medical researcher Jerzy Einhorn). But when anyone can change the page and add anti-semitic bullshit like what was there before my edits, I hesitate to do any constructive work here. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Malmq (talk • contribs) 01:36, 27 February 2007 (UTC).

Don't write with that tone. Maybe it was an honest mistake or even added with private information and true. The list lacks clarification of who qualifies to be in the list. Ethnic Jews or religious Jews.--Immunmotbluescreen (talk) 09:20, 29 December 2017 (UTC)

Lithuania

The Lithuanian list includes several Americans of Lithuanian Jewish descent, who are not Jewish themselves. Shouldn't they be removed from the list. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 12:02, 11 August 2011 (UTC)

...who are not Lithuanian themselves, I meant of course. Sorry. 惑乱 Wakuran (talk) 14:51, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

Max Goldberg, Iceland

Is this really the same person the link goes to? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.208.162.83 (talk) 15:20, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

Ethnic Jews or religious Jews

I think the article needs to clarify the definition of the Jew in the list. Are we making a list of the ethnic Jews or the followers of Judaism? Sometimes they overlap, but sometimes they do not. For example a born ethnic Jew could convert to become atheist, should he then be removed from the list? How can we know the religious status of everyone and when (if ever) does a Jew assimilate to disqualify for this list?

What about a Jew born in Denmark that moves to America? Is he still a part of the list? --Immunmotbluescreen (talk) 09:17, 29 December 2017 (UTC)