List Of Jewish Atheists And Agnostics

This page lists well-known Jewish atheists. Based on Jewish law's emphasis on matrilineal descent, religiously conservative Orthodox Jewish authorities would accept an atheist born to a Jewish mother as fully Jewish. A 2011 study found that half of all American Jews have doubts about the existence of God, compared to 10–15% of other American religious groups.

Entertainment

Cinema

* Woody Allen – American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician
* David Cronenberg – Canadian filmmaker, screenwriter and actor, one of the principal originators of what is commonly known as the ''body horror'' or ''venereal horror'' genre
* Stanley Donen – film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are ''Singin' in the Rain'' and '' On the Town''
* Richard Dreyfuss (self -described agnostic) – American actor
* Sergei Eisenstein – Soviet Russian film director and film theorist
* Harvey Fierstein – American actor, playwright, winner of two Tony Awards
* Stephen Fry" – English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television presenter, film director and a director of Norwich City Football Club
* Keith Gordon – American actor and film director
* Nina Hartley – American pornographic actress, pornographic film director, sex educator, feminist, and author
* Alejandro Jodorowsky – Chilean director
* Stanley Kubrick – American film director, writer, film producer, and photographer
* John Landis – American film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, collaborated with Michael Jackson
*Fritz Lang – Austrian-American filmmaker, screenwriter, and occasional film producer and actor.
* Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) – American actress, model, and singer (converted to Reform Judaism to marry Arthur Miller, and remained within Judaism even after her divorce from him).
* Daniel Radcliffe (self-described atheist) – English actor, protagonist of ''Harry Potter'' film series
* Harold Ramis (irreligious, agnostic) – American actor, director, and writer specializing in comedy.
* Carl Reiner (self-described Jewish atheist) – American actor, film director, producer, writer, comedian, won nine Emmy Awards and one Grammy Award
* Rob Reiner – American actor, film director, producer, and political activist
* Adrienne Shelly (agnostic) – American actor, screenwriter and director
* Todd Solondz – American independent film screenwriter and director known for his style of dark, thought-provoking, socially conscious satire
* Matt Stone''Nightline'', ABC News, March 25, 2011, Quote: "I am an atheist, I live my life like I'm an atheist."Swanson, Carl
"Trey Parker and Matt Stone Talk About Why The Book of Mormon Isn’t Actually Offensive, and the Future of South Park"
''New York Magazine'', March 11, 2011 – American actor, voice actor, animator, screenwriter, producer, musician, ''South Park''
* Gene Wilder – American actor"Well, I'm a Jewish-Buddhist-Atheist, I guess."

Comedy

* Eric Andre (atheist and practitioner of Transcendental Meditation) – American comedian, actor, producer, and musician.
* David Baddiel ("fundamentalist Jewish atheist") – British comedian and television presenter
* Jack Black – American comedian, actor and musician, Frat Pack comedian group, Golden Globe award
* Michael Ian Black – American comedian, actor, writer, director.
* Rodney Dangerfield (self-described "Logical atheist") - American stand-up comedian.
* David Cross – American actor and comedian
* Larry David (1947–) – American actor, writer, comedian, and producer
* Jay Foreman (1984–) – English YouTuber, singer-songwriter, and comedian.
* Myq Kaplan – American stand-up comedian
* Bill Maher (antitheist, self-described atheist, apatheist and agnostic) – American stand-up comedian, author, host of HBO's ''Real Time with Bill Maher''
* Marc Maron (negative atheist) – American stand-up comedian, radio and podcast host
* Sarah Silverman (irreligious agnostic) – American comedian, writer, actor, singer, musician
* Gene Wilder – American actor

Comic book writers

* Neil Gaiman (agnostic) – English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films; works include the comic book series ''The Sandman'' and novels '' Stardust'', ''American Gods'', ''Coraline'', and ''The Graveyard Book''

Comic book editors

* Stan Lee (agnostic) – American comic book writer, editor, actor, producer, publisher, television personality, and the former president and chairman of Marvel Comics

Music

* Larry Adler – American musician, widely acknowledged as one of the world's most skilled harmonica players
* Irving Berlin (agnostic) – American composer and lyricist of Jewish heritage, widely considered one of the greatest songwriters in American history
* Aaron Copland (agnostic) – American composer
* Shalom Hanoch – Israeli rock singer, lyricist, composer, father of Israeli rock
* Richard Hell – American singer, songwriter, bass guitarist, and writer
* Billy Joel (1949–) – American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer.
* Howard Kaylan – American rock and roll musician, best known as a founding member and lead singer of the 1960s band The Turtles, and as "Eddie" in the 1970s rock band Flo & Eddie.
* Geddy Lee – Canadian musician, best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Canadian rock group Rush
* Tom Lehrer (agnostic atheist) – American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician
* Jenny Lewis – American singer-songwriter musician and actress
* Gustav Mahler (agnostic) – Late-Romantic Austrian composer and one of the leading conductors of his generation
* Randy Newman – American singer-songwriter, arranger, composer, and pianist, known for his distinctive voice, mordant (and often satirical) pop songs and for film scores
* Anton Rubinstein – Russian pianist, composer and conductor who became a pivotal figure in Russian culture when he founded the Saint Petersburg Conservatory.
* Kurt Weill (agnostic) – German composer

Radio

* Ira Glass – host of ''This American Life''
* Larry King – American television and radio host.
* Howard Stern (agnostic atheist) – American radio personality, television host, author, actor, and photographer

Sports/games

* Mikhail Botvinnik (1911–1995) – Soviet and Russian grandmaster and three-time World Chess Champion, widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time

Humanities

Archaeology

* Eleazar Sukenik – Israeli archaeologist and professor of Hebrew University in Jerusalem, undertaking excavations in Jerusalem, and recognising the importance of the Dead Sea Scrolls to Israel

Arts

* Ernst L. Freud – Austrian architect, youngest son of Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud
* James Lipton – American writer, actor, dean emeritus of the Actors Studio Drama School at Pace University and host of Inside the Actors Studio
* Arthur Miller – American playwright and essayist.
* Jonathan Miller – English theatre and opera director.
* Hannah Moscovitch – Canadian playwright
* Julia Pascal – British playwright and theater director
* Harold Rubin (positive atheist) – South African-born Israeli visual artist and free jazz clarinettist

Historians

* Isaiah Berlin (agnostic) – British social and political theorist, philosopher and historian of ideas of Russian-Jewish origin, thought by many to be the dominant scholar of his generation
* Raul Hilberg – Austrian-born American political scientist, scholar of the Holocaust, ''The Destruction of the European Jews''
* Derek J. de Solla Price – British-American historian of science
* Adam Bruno Ulam (agnostic) – Polish and American historian and political scientist at Harvard University; one of the world's foremost authorities on Russia and the Soviet Union; author of twenty books and many articles
* Howard Zinn – American historian, playwright, and activist.
* Yuval Noah Harari – Israeli historian and popular science author. “History began when humans invented gods, and will end when humans become gods”

Law

* Cesare Lombroso – Italian criminologist and physician, founder of the Italian School of Positivist Criminology

Literature

* Isaac Asimov (atheist, humanist and rationalist, identified as "non-observant Jew") – American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books
* Howard Bloom

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