OXFORD JEWISH PERSONALITIES

Here is a list of great Oxford Jewish personalities who have either lived in Oxford or visited. Please click on any of the links to read their profile and relationship to Oxford.

If you have any information about other prominent Jewish figures who are no longer living and should be added to this list, please email info@oxfordchabad.org.

Jacob Barnet (Picture: Isaac Casaubon)

 

Sir Moses Montefiore

 

James Joseph Sylvester

 

Alfred Edersheim 

 

 

 

Adolf Neubauer

 

Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook

 

Albert Einstein

 

Chief Rabbi Israel Brodie

 

Cecil Roth

 

H.L.A. Hart

 

Sir Isaiah Berlin

 

AJ Ayer

 

David Paterson CBE

 

Lionel Edmund Kochan

 

 

Chaim Raphael (Rabinovich)

Sir Alan Abraham Mocatta

Sir Basil Henriques

Major-General Sir Henry Joseph D'Avigdor-Goldsmid

Walter Eytan (Ettinghausen)

Solomon (Sol) Adler

Avraham (Abe) Harman

Dr. Herbert Loewe

Professor Samuel Alexander

Arthur Lehman Goodhart, KBE, QC

Professor S. Herbert Frankel

Professor Sir Rudolf Peierls

Sir Keith Joseph

Lord Arnold Goodman

Prof. Jonathan Cohen (May, 1923 - Sep, 2006), British Philosopher

Professor David Daube

Professor David M. Lewis

Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889 - 1951), Austrian - English Philosopher, Oxford, 1950

Henri-Louis Bergson (1859 - 1941), French Philosopher, lectured in Oxford and received honorary Doc. of Science, 1911

Oskar Ewald (1881 - 1940), Hungarian-Austrian Philosopher, died near Oxford

Karl Marx Visited St Ebbe's when researching "Das Kapital" (myth)

Ernest Gellner (1925 - 1995), Philosopher, Balliol

Raymond Klibansky (1905 - 2005), Philosopher, Oriel

Robert Nozick (1938 - 2002), American Philosopher, visiting Fellow and lectured at Oxford

Richard Rudolf Walzer (1900 - 1975), Philosopher, Fellow St Catherines

Richard Arthur Wollheim (1923 - 2003), British Philosopher, Balliol

Dr. Mike Woodin (6 Nov, 1965 - 8 July, 2004), Balliol College and Principal Speaker of the Green Party of England and Wales

Professor Geoffrey Lewis CMG FBA (June 19, 1920- Feb 12, 2008), professor of Turkish language, Oxford University

Dr. Joseph Sherman (passed away 2009), Yiddish scholar, Oriental Institute, Oxford University

Professor Judah Benzion Segal, Judah Benzion Segal MC, FBA, often known as Ben (21 June 1912 - 23 October 2003, Edgware, Middlesex) studied at Magdalen College School, Oxford and later also did his DPhil in Oxford in 1939, when he became Mansel Research Exhibitioner, at St. John's College, Oxford, between 1936-39. He then became Professor of Semitic Languages at the School of Oriental and African Studies. His father was Professor Moses Segal and his brother was the doctor and Labour Party politician Samuel Segal. He had two daughters; one is Prof. Naomi Segal.

Dr Samuel (Sam) Segal, Lord Segal of Wytham. He lived in Wytham Abbey and also north Oxford. Starting out as a medical practitioner, he was elected as a Labour MP in the 1945 Attlee parliament, during which he assisted in the creation of the National Health Service. He became Lord Segal in 1962 and subsequently became a Deputy Speaker in the House of Lords. As a reasonably prominent Jewish British life peer who had also lived in Egypt, he was instrumental (largely behind the scenes) in helping build the relationship between Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat prior to the Israel - Egypt treaty. He was also an honorary fellow of Jesus College, Oxford. He died in 1985.

Professor Gerald Allan "Jerry" Cohen (14 April 1941 – 5 August 2009) was a Marxist political philosopher, formerly Visiting Quain Professor of Jurisprudence, University College London and Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory, All Souls College, Oxford. Born into a communist Jewish family in Montreal, Cohen was educated at McGill University, Canada (BA, philosophy and political science) and the University of Oxford (BPhil, philosophy) where he studied under Isaiah Berlin and Gilbert Ryle.

Mr Roger Van Noorden (passed away 12th April, 2010) was a Fellow of Hertford College where he taught economics from 1963 to 2006. He was involved with the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies for many years and served on the Board of Governors from 1987 until 2006.

Jonny Fraser drowned trying to save a friend in India in summer of 2005 at 21-year-old, while studying in his second year politics, philosophy and economics degree at St Peter's College, Oxford University.

Antonia Bruch (Nov, 2009) was an undergraduate student studying theology at Regent's Park College, Oxford University.  

Copyright Chabad of Oxford - Rabbi Eli Brackman