Until the Holocaust, Jews were a significant part of the population of Eastern Europe. Outside Poland, the largest population was in the European part of the USSR, especially Ukraine (1.5 million in the 1930s), but major populations also existed in Hungary, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. Here are lists of some prominent East European Jews, arranged by country of origin. List of Czech, Bohemian, Moravian, and Slovak Jews List of Hungarian Jews List of Polish Jews List of Romanian Jews List of Belarusian Jews List of Ukrainian Jews List of Jews born in the former Russian Empire (and the former Soviet Union) Azerbaijan Max Black, philosopher Misha Black, designer; brother of Max Black Bella Davidovich, pianist Gavril Abramovich Ilizarov, Soviet physician, known for inventing the Ilizarov apparatus Garry Kasparov, world chess champion of jewish-armenian descent Lev Landau, physicist, Nobel Prize (1962) Lev Nussimbaum, writer (a.k.a. Kurban Said) Vladimir Rokhlin, mathematician Moldova (formerly Bessarabia) Lev Simonovich Berg, geographer & zoologist Jacob Bernstein-Kogan Gary Bertini, conductor Bronfman family Samuel Bronfman, founder of Seagram Samuel Cohen, composer of Hatikvah I. A. L. Diamond, comedy writer Meir Dizengoff, politician Giora Feidman, musician William F. Friedman, cryptographer A. N. Frumkin, electrochemist Mikhail Gershenzon, historian Bianna Golodryga, journalist Nachum Gutman, painter Idel Ianchelevici, sculptor Mona May Karff, chess player Boris Katz, artificial intelligence researcher Gary Koshnitsky, chess player Abba Ptachya Lerner, economist Avigdor Lieberman, politician Oleg Maisenberg, concert pianist Lewis Milestone, director Sigmund Mogulesko, singer, actor, composer Sacha Moldovan, painter Moishe Oysher, Yiddish singer Boris Polak (born 1954), Israeli world champion and Olympic sport shooter Mendel Portugali, An Hashomer founder Sir Michael Postan, historian Anton Rubinstein, pianist Joseph ben Yehuda Leib Shapotshnick, rabbi Volodia Teitelboim Andy Zaltzman, British comedian Mark Zeltser, concert pianist Meir Zorea, general in the Israel Defense Forces Slovakia Joseph Goldberger, discovered cure for pellagra Juraj Herz, actor and film director Ignác Kolisch, chess player Peter Lorre, actor Robert Maxwell, media mogul Ivan Reitman, film director Richard Réti, chess player Herman Steiner, chess player Rudolf Vrba, coauthor of the Vrba–Wetzler report, chemist Alfred Wetzler, writer See also List of Galician Jews List of Sephardic Jews East European Jews Jews Jews,East European