J Factor: 15 Most Influential Jews in the World

Some are political leaders, others changed the world through music: As 2016 comes to a close, meet the Jews that made our year

From Bob Dylan and Ellie Weisel to Ivanka Trump: meet the Jews of 2016.

Passed away this year at the age of 82, the musician who reinvented “Hallelujah”.

A month and a half ago, one of the most famous and influential Jewish musicians in the world, Leonard Cohen, passed away. Cohen, who spent his last years living in the United States, was actually more popular in his homeland, Canada, as well as in Europe and Israel with songs such as “Hallelujah” and “Suzanne”.  He wasn’t just a musician and poet – he was a proud Jew – and his Judaism was palpable in both his music and his lyrics.
  

His Hebrew name was Eliezer Ben Nissan HaCohen and his family belonged to the Shaar Hashomayim synagogue in Montreal, which was founded by his grandfather. His final album included a collaboration with a cantor and the cantorial choir at his childhood synagogue. The chorus of the song ends with the Hebrew word “hineni” (which means “I am here”), and the entire song is a sort of translation of the Jewish Kadish, or Prayer for the Dead. “I was looking for a melody that reminded me of the time I spent in synagogue as a child,” said Cohen.

The artist spoke openly about Judaism over the years, as well as about his connection to Buddhism. “I’m not looking for a new religion,” he explained. “I’m quite happy with the old one.”

Age 83, a Jewish philanthropist who stands firmly behind Donald Trump.

Many in the United States and in Israel scoffed when they heard that Jewish-American businessman Sheldon Adelson decided to support the candidacy of Donald Trump in the U.S. Presidential race.
 

Israeli media sources underestimated the candidate and seriously questioned the possibility that Trump could reach the level of public support that had been garnered by his Democratic rival. As it turns out, Adelson bet on the right horse.

Adelson is the controlling shareholder of Las Vegas Sands company, owners of hotels and casinos in Las Vegas, China, Singapore and Vietnam. Full disclosure: he is also the owner of the Israeli newspapers Israel Today and Makor Rishon as well as the NRG news site. In 2014, he was estimated to be worth $31 Billion.

Adelson’s philanthropic work in the Jewish world and in Israel made him one of the more important players in the field: Adelson and his wife, Dr. Miriam Adelson, donated more than $100 Million to the Birthright Israel Project, which became the most successful program in the Jewish world, praised by all subsets and organizations. In addition, the Adelsons were some of the biggest supporters of the new and thriving organization for Israeli-Americans, the IAC.

Age 22, the most successful Jewish athlete in the world.
 

Aly Raisman is a talented athlete who first made headlines during the 2012 Olympics in London where she was tagged as one of the most popular athletes on the U.S. women’s gymnastic team when she performed her set to the song “Hava Nagila”. During the same Olympic games, Raismen was the most decorated female American athlete with two gold medals and one bronze. Last summer, at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, she won one gold medal and two silvers.

The Raismans have been members of the reform synagogue Temple Beis Avoda in Newton, Massachusetts for 20 years. Aly celebrated her Bat Mitzvah there and attended a local Jewish day school.

Age 38, Prime Minister of Ukraine, attends synagogue.
 

Though you’ve probably never heard of him, it turns out that the Prime Minister of Ukraine is a practicing Jew, third generation to Holocaust survivors, who attends synagogue regularly.
Meet Volodymyr Groysman, who was elected into office in April of 2016 after serving as a senior member of parliament and the country’s Vice Prime Minister.

He was born in Vinnytsia where he remains involved in the local synagogue to this day. During interviews, he has repeatedly mentioned that he prays there despite the rampant anti-Semitism in the country. Groysman has relatives who made Aliyah and live in Ashdod.

In 2014, after the Euromaidan demonstrations in the streets of Ukraine (a wave of demonstrations by Ukrainians seeking increased collaboration with the EU), the then Ukrainian President, Viktor Yanukovych resigned and the opposition rose to power. Groysman was then appointed as the Minister of Regional Development, Construction and Housing and Communal Services. A few months later, he was elected into parliament under Petro Poroshenko’s party.

Both just 35-years-old – the influential Jewish power couple in the White House.
 

The U.S. has never seen a president with a Jewish daughter and son-in-law. The pair serves as two of the President’s closest advisors. Ivanka, President Trump’s daughter, was considered to be his “stable” right hand during her father’s Presidential campaign.

Her husband, Jared Kushner, a Real-Estate developer, publisher of the newspaper “The Observer” and a scion in a noble Orthodox Jewish family was in charge of managing Trump’s campaign. Kushner is credited for the campaign’s winning strategy, and he is also responsible for consulting to the president on matters concerning the Middle East. Kushner is responsible for writing Trump’s speech that was given in front of thousands of supporters of the pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC, and was in charge of the massive campaign aimed at collecting votes from U.S. citizens living in Israel.

Currently, Ivanka and Jared will be joining the President in the Oval Office, which requires some serious preparations by the White House including a Kosher kitchen and even the installation of Shabbat elevators for the young couple and their three kids.

Age 51, the first Chassidic Jewish judge

If you think the integration of Ultra Orthodox Jews in the work place in Israel is rare, we invite you to take a peek at the ol’ U.S. of A. Meet Rachel (Ruchi) Frayer. This mother of six is first Chasidic woman elected into public office. She will serve as a judge in Brooklyn. The U.S> media celebrated when it was announced that Freier was elected to serve as a judge in the civil court in Brooklyn.

In addition to being an attorney, a mother and grandmother, Freier volunteers with at-risk youth and works as an EMT. “There are misconceptions about women in our community, as if they aren’t capable and aren’t successful – it’s just not true,” said Freier recently during an interview.

As an EMT, Freier was involved in the establishment of Ezrat Nashim, a company that provides Ultra Orthodox women with emergency medical care administered by other Ultra Orthodox women. When asked how she handles all of work, she said, “There are 24 hours in a day, we can get a lot in.” She will soon begin her job as a judge and her term is expected to last through 2027.

Age 32, the Jewish singer who represented France in the Eurovision song contest.

Despite the harsh anti-Semitism that has been rampant in France in recent years, and the subsequent wave of immigration to Israel by French nationals, this year’s French representative at the Eurovision song contest was actually Jewish (and an Israeli citizen, at that!). Singer Amir Hadad initially hit the big time in Israel as a participant in the fourth season of the reality show “A Star is Born”. But he was eliminated early on in the competition.

His big break came on the French version of the show “The Voice” where he took third place. Shortly after the show ended, he was chosen to represent the country in the prestigious European song competition. He and his friends came in sixth place.

Haddad was born in Sarcelles, a suburb of Paris, to a Jewish family of Moroccan and Tunisian descent. When he was 8 years old, his family made Aliyah and they lived in Herzeliya. In addition to being an international pop sensation, he’s also a dentist: after failing on Kochav Nolad, he decided to try his hand at school. He went to the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to study dentistry. Though he was sure that his singing career was behind him, it turned out that he had more to give to the world of pop.

Age 75, the singer who tried to escape his Nobel Prize.

Jewish singer songwriter Bob Dylan was chosen this year as the winner of the Nobel Prize in literature, but he failed to answer phone calls from the Nobel committee and eventually sent a prerecorded message to the ceremony and didn’t bother to show up in person. In their decision to select Bob Dylan as this year’s winner, the committee wrote that they selected the singer “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition”.
 

Dylan was born in Duluth, Minnesota as Robert Allen Zimmerman to a family of Jewish immigrants. Later, he changed his name to Bob Dylan. Some claim that it was a tribute to his favorite singer, the Welsh Dylan Thomas.

Age 68, another Nobel Prize winner for the collection

There is no lack of Jewish Nobel Prize winners, and still, we manage to get excited every time another Jewish mind is nominated for the prestigious award. This year, in addition to musician Bob Dylan, Prof. Oliver Hart, a Jewish-American economist from Harvard, won the Nobel Prize in economics for his research in contract theory.

Hart studies contract theory, theory of the firm, corporate finance as well as law and economics. His research focuses on the roles that contractual arrangements and ownership structure take in corporate policies and boundaries. He was born in Britain to Jewish parents, both of whom worked in the field of medicine. He is a descendent of the noble Montagu family.

Hart is married to Prof. Rita Goldberg, a Harvard literature professor who is the author of the memoir about growing up as second generation to the Holocaust survivors entitled Motherland: Growing Up With the Holocaust.

39-years-old, another Oscar in the Holocaust genre.

It’s not every day that a Hungarian wins both an Oscar and a Golden Globe in the category of “Best Movie”. This year it happened though, and it was for a movie about Hungarian Jews in the Holocaust. The director and screenwriter of the movie “Son of Saul”, Laszlo Nemes is the first Hungarian to win a Golden Globe, and the second to win an Oscar. Following his win, he was chosen to serve on the committee for the 2016 Kahn festival.

He was born in Budapest to a Jewish mother and Hungarian father, director Andreas Yeles. When he was 12, the family moved to Paris, and it was there, when he was still a child, that he began making horror films of his own.

The plot of “Son of Saul” is set in October 1944 in the Auschwitz concentration camp. At the center of the movie is the character of Saul Alexander, a Jewish-Hungarian member of the Sonderkommando. The character’s job is to clear the bodies out of the gas chambers and he comes across a young boy who is somehow still breathing. An S.S. officer proceeds to strangle the child and Saul convinces himself that the child is his own and makes sure to provide the child with a proper Jewish burial.

35-years-old, our funny girl in Hollywood

If the position of resident funny Jew was occupied in the 90s by the one and only Jerry Seinfeld, in the 2000s, Amy Schumer stepped up. Schumer’s father is Jewish, and owns a furniture company. Her mother is a protestant who converted.
 

In her youth, Schumer lived with her family on Long Island where she even learned Hebrew in a Jewish day school. The family belonged to a Reform synagogue, and her mother served on the synagogue’s board of directors. During interviews, Amy has said that as a child, she was the target of anti-Semitism.

Schumer is the creator and star of the show “Inside Amy Schumer” which is shown on Comedy Central. She is the only actor that appears in every episode, the rest of the actors change. Many actors including Jerry Seinfeld, Rob Schneider and Julia Louis Dreyfus (all of whom have Jewish roots) have appeared on her show over the seasons.    

Schumer was nominated a number of times for an Emmy for her various roles in the show, and even won an Emmy in 2015. This year she was nominated for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical at the Golden Globes.

Age 55, the Jew that is done being Prime Minister

There is a Jew who instead of being the leader of Israel, a country in which everyone is the leader (or so they think) decided to lead a calmer nation. Until just a little while ago, the Prime Minister of New Zealand was a member of the Chosen People. But after 8 years in the role, he suddenly announced that he would resign.

His name is John Kay and his mother is an Austrian Jew by the name of Ruth Lazar. He is a multi-millionaire and the head of the conservative party. Back when he had his Bar Mitzvah, he sent a letter to the then Prime Minister, Bill Rolling, telling him that one day, he would lead the nation. He is Jewish according to Jewish law and his mother was active in the New Zealand Jewish community.

New Zealand has had Jewish leaders in the past –including Julius Wogel who was a practicing Jew and served the country in the 70s, and Francis Bell, whose mother was Jewish who converted to Christianity. Belle held the office for just 20 days in 1925.

Passed away at the age of 87, the unofficial representative of the Jewish people.

Winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, author Elie Weisel passed away in 2016 in his home in New York. He dedicated his life to remembering the Holocaust and stood behind a massive operation that included dozens of books and writers. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his work on the “Presidential Committee for Holocaust Memorial”.
 

Weisel, one of the most respected authors and human rights activists in the world, was a Holocaust survivor himself. In the past, he made the Time magazine list of 100 most influential people in the world.

In the past, Weisel worked as a journalist in Israel, he was a teacher and he served as the unofficial representative of the Jewish people and the continuously dwindling population of Holocaust survivors before world leaders and politicians around the world, many of who considered him a close friend. Among his most prominent American friends was President Barack Obama who even joined him for a tour of the Bouchenwald concentration camp, as well as television personality Oprah Winfrey.

68 years old, winner of the “Spiritual Nobel Prize”

While the Nobel Prizes might be well known, it turns out that there’s another prize that’s worth even more, but for some reason hasn’t landed the public’s attention like the Nobel. This year, the prize was awarded to the former Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, Rabbi and Professor Jonathan Sacks. The prize is called the Templeton Award and at a value of a million and a half dollars for “bringing an exceptional contribution of spiritual insight to the public conversation”.  The first winner of the prize was Mother Theresa.

Rabbi Sacks, who is also a British Lord, served as the chief Rabbi of Britain until a few years ago and he is famous around the world as a philosopher and religious leader. Just over a decade ago, he was granted the British title of Lord, and in 2009, he was even added to the House of Lords as “the Baron Sacks from Oldgate”. Since leaving his role as the Chief Rabbi, he has served as a professor at New York University, at Yeshiva University and at Kings College in London.

Rabbi Sacks has strong ties to the royal family in Britain, specifically to Prince Charles, who participated in the ceremony where Sacks’ successor, Rabbi Efraim Mervis, took his place.

Age 51, Jewish journalist with ties in the White House

There aren’t a lot of journalists who managed to hold no fewer than five in depth interviews with Barack Obama and other senior politicians such as Hillary Clinton, David Cameron, Bibi Netanyahu, King Abdullah of Jordan and others. Jeffrey Goldberg is, no doubt, one of the senior journalists in the world, and he has a special connection with the last President of the United States, Barack Obama as well as other senior members of the US government – something that gives him serious props as far as his readers are concerned.

This year, Goldberg went from being a writer for The Atlantic to being the magazine’s Editor-in-Chief. He specializes in foreign affairs, the Middle East and Africa. Goldberg is a member of a synagogue and is very involved in the Jewish community in the United States.

During his academic studies, he decided to move to Israel and even served in the IDF as a counselor for detainees in the Military Police unit. He began writing articles for the Jerusalem Post. When he moved back to the US, he started writing for the Washington Post and then for the New York Times and the New Yorker. His in-depth articles landed him numerous journalism awards. Under his guidance, the Atlantic decided to voice their support for Hillary Clinton during the most recent presidential election.

מקור ראשון במבצע היכרות. הרשמו לקבלת הצעה אטרקטיבית » היכנסו לעמוד הפייסבוק החדש של nrg