# Jewish heads of state/government **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 29, 2007, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613 "2007-12-29T18:31:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/1 "2007-12-29T18:31:51Z")
Excepting the modern state of Israel, and the ancient Jewish states of the same region, has there ever been a head of state or head of government who actively practised Judaism? Note that I am not referring to Jews in an ethnic, cultural, or ancestral sense, but only in a religious one. I have heard Janet Jagan, the prime minister and later president of Guyana, often described as Jewish, but as she was a Communist and Marxist I suspect she was an atheist. Likewise British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli had Jewish parentage, but converted to Anglicanism long before he entered politics. ---
**Author:** ![brazil84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@brazil84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brazil84)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/2 "2007-12-29T18:42:53Z")
Do governors count? Wikipedia lists Eliot Spitzer as Jewish. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/3 "2007-12-29T19:18:39Z")
[Benjamin Disraeli](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Disraeli%2C_1st_Earl_of_Beaconsfield), the famous British Prime Minister was born Jewish (but later converted). And, although not what you asked, but peripherally related, there have been two Jewish Mayors of Toronto ([Nathan Phillips](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Phillips_%28politician%29) and [Mel Lastman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mel_Lastman)). Given Toronto’s large population, the Mayor of the city leads a larger population than do many heads of state. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/4 "2007-12-29T19:32:23Z")
Of course, [Roosevelt, Stalin, Churchill, and Eisenhower were all Jews, too](http://judicial-inc.biz/Bush_Mossad11.htm) :dubious: (and, if you believe what that site has to say, then ‘Do I have a bridge for you. I’ll give it to you cheap’ . . .) Re: my earlier post - if I’m gonna talk about Jewish mayors, how could I forget about [Ed Koch](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Koch)? ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/5 "2007-12-29T21:38:03Z")
Among heads of state, the most prominent is probably French Prime Minister Leon Blum. If Jewish mayors count, there’s Robert Briscoe, twice the Lord Mayor of Dublin, Ireland. His son Ben Briscoe is still a politician in Ireland today. Legend has it that when Yogi Berra was told a Jew had just become mayor of Dublin, he said, “You see that? Only in America!” ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/6 "2007-12-29T21:55:07Z")
More a head of government than head of state, but Sir Joshua Hassan was Chief Minister of Gilbraltar from 1964-1969, and then again from 1972-1987. There was also, in addition to Leon Blum of France, Laurent Fabius was PM from 1984-1986. Kurt Eisner was the president of the short lived Soviet Republic of Bavaria and Bela Kun of the equally short lived Hungarian Soviet Republic, but as they were both Communists, it’s likely they were atheists themselves. There was also Julius Vogel, PM of New Zealand from 1873-1875, Ruth Dreifuss, President of the Swiss Confederation in 1999, Bruno Kreisky, Chancellor of Austria from 1970-1983, and Roy Welensky, Prime Minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland from 1956-1963. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/7 "2007-12-29T22:05:34Z")
[QUOTE=psychonaut] I have heard Janet Jagan, the prime minister and later president of Guyana, often described as Jewish, but as she was a Communist and Marxist I suspect she was an atheist. [/QUOTE] There have been many Communists/Marxists who retained their religious practices. ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/8 "2007-12-29T22:16:43Z")
[Linda Lingle](http://odtireh.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B6290B77D34AC26A!1335.entry), the Governor of Hawaii, is Jewish, as is Ed Rendell, the Governor of Pennsylvania. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/9 "2007-12-29T22:26:48Z")
[QUOTE=psychonaut] Excepting the modern state of Israel, and the ancient Jewish states of the same region, has there ever been a head of state or head of government who actively practised Judaism? Note that I am not referring to Jews in an ethnic, cultural, or ancestral sense, but only in a religious one. [/quote] Well if you aren’t excluding ancient/medieval rulers from _outside_ the region of Israel/the Levant, there have been a few converts. A Himyarite king in the region of Yemen for one and, rather more extensive, at least the upper classes ( possibly more ) of the Khazar state on the Russian steppe. In the latter case that would be at least 150 years of Jewish rulers. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/10 "2007-12-29T22:27:37Z")
[QUOTE=panache45] There have been many Communists/Marxists who retained their religious practices. [/QUOTE] Yes, but given that materialism is one of the central precepts of Marxian thought, it’s unusual. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/11 "2007-12-29T23:08:39Z")
How about the Khazars? Wouldn’t that count? edit: pfui. that’s what happens when you open a dozen threads in the background and someone posts before you get to 'em ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/12 "2007-12-29T23:09:14Z")
Australia has had two Jewish Governors-General (the vice-regal representatives of the Crown): [Sir Isaac Isaacs](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Isaacs) [Sir Zelman Cowen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zelman_Cowen) ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2007, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/13 "2007-12-29T23:36:17Z")
[QUOTE=psychonaut] Excepting the modern state of Israel,… [/QUOTE] Israel’s never had a non-Jewish President or Prime Minister, have they? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2007, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/14 "2007-12-30T06:04:13Z")
Adolf Hitler was reputed in some quarters to be a self-hating Jew, for what it’s worth… Disraeli, despite his conversion, was often taunted by anti-Semites. He is quoted as replying to one particularly unpleasant MP, “Yes, I am a Jew, and when the right honourable gentleman’s ancestors were hunting wild boar in the forests of Silesia, mine were princes in the Temple of Solomon.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2007, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/15 "2007-12-30T06:11:00Z")
Forgot to add: the current French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, had a Jewish mother but is a baptized, practicing and self-identifying Catholic. As Jewish descent is matrilineal, there are those who nevertheless consider him Jewish. ---
**Author:** ![jimmmy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/73ab20/32.png) [@jimmmy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jimmmy)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2007, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/16 "2007-12-30T13:53:47Z")
I want to be really careful of this because all Neo-Nazi literature of the past half century contains this as “fact” & I want to beat yje next poster on it to the punch but Lenin was of one-quarter Jewish ethnic ancestry. His maternal grandfather, Israel (Alexander) Blank, was a Ukrainian Jew who was later baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church. A great, great deal has anti-semitically been made of this (& of Trotsky’s jewishness) – if Lenin had any Jewish “identity” it has not documented. Lenin also had as much Volga German ancestry through his mother, who had a Lutheran religious identity. Much less has been made of this. ---
**Author:** ![Hari\_Seldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hari_seldon/32/5173_2.png) [@Hari\_Seldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hari_Seldon)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2007, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/17 "2007-12-30T14:21:11Z")
Since no one has mentioned Pierre Mendes-France, I will. He was French Premier for about 7 months in 1954-55. He withdrew French forces from Viet-Nam and was widely vilified for it by, among others, Le Pen. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2007, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/18 "2007-12-30T20:01:49Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] Disraeli, despite his conversion, was often taunted by anti-Semites. He is quoted as replying to one particularly unpleasant MP, “Yes, I am a Jew, and when the right honourable gentleman’s ancestors were hunting wild boar in the forests of Silesia, mine were princes in the Temple of Solomon.” [/QUOTE] I thought this was [Judah Philip Benjamin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judah_P._Benjamin). > [@Wikipedia](#): > > […]Benjamin Wade of Ohio accused him of being an “Israelite in Egyptian clothing,” and he replied that, “It is true that I am a Jew, and when my ancestors were receiving their Ten Commandments from the immediate Deity, amidst the thundering and lightnings of Mt. Sinai, the ancestors of my opponent were herding swine in the forests of Great Britain.” ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2007, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/19 "2007-12-31T01:01:40Z")
I’ve read it attributed to both - more often to Disraeli, though (including in my 15th edition of _Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations_, in which both men are noted as having said similar things). ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2007, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613/20 "2007-12-31T01:34:21Z")
[QUOTE=Captain Amazing] Bruno Kreisky, Chancellor of Austria from 1970-1983 [/QUOTE] That was the one I was most familiar with, if only because it came up in conversation as a point of contrast during a discussion as to how Austria then elected Kurt Waldheim as State President a few years afterwards. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/jewish-heads-of-state-government/431613.md?page=2)