50 Influential Jews 2017

He left Kazakhstan for a brighter future in Israel

“My dream is to be an engineer, work in my field in an exciting company that is bringing positive change to this world, and start a family. Israel is where my present and future come together.”

 Vladimir Goldfeld, 24 From Shymkent, Kazakhstan, to the Jezreel Valley, 2014
Roman Abramovich,  the Russian billionaire businessman and owner of the soccer team Chelsea FC.

22. Roman Abramovich

Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit

1. Avichai Mandelblit

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

2. Benjamin Netanyahu


#6 Esther Hayut - The Supreme Court president in the hot seat

After years as a mostly quiet back-bencher, Hayut emerged in a more aggressive role, using biting sarcasm and cutting off lawyers left and right.

Esther Hayut

#47 Yehoshua Fass - The rabbi making the Zionist dream possible

Together with Tony Gelbart, Fass has helped olim actualize what Natan Sharansky has called the “aliya of choice.”

Rabbi Yehoshua Fass

#35 Rebecca Vilkomerson - Leads the Jewish Voice for Peace

The BDS Jewish firebrand triggered anxiety in mainstream American Jewish circles with a 2016 Washington Post opinion article titled “I’m Jewish and I want people to boycott Israel.”

Rebecca Vilkomerson

#28 Howard Kohr - Rebuilding AIPAC's bipartisan reputation

Kohr's mission has been to rebuild AIPAC's ties with the Democratic Party and its reputation as a bipartisan force – the very foundation of support on which the lobby is based.

Howard Kohr

#46 Irina Nevzlin - Altering traditional paradigms of Jewish life

The daughter of billionaire Leonid Nevzlin who saved the Jewish People's museum from collapse, now charged with its evolution.

Irina Nevzlin

#27 David Grossman - Bringing Hebrew literature to the world

The world-famous Hebrew man of letters that brings Israeli reality to the center of the stage.

Israeli author David Grossman poses for photographers after he received the Medicis Foreign book award for his novel "Une femme fuyant l'annonce"

#45 Dr. Kira Radinsky - Hi-tech’s young pioneer

One such activity is Kira Radinsky position at the Technion, where she uses artificial intelligence technology with a special focus on the medical field.

Dr. Kira Radinsky

#26 Lea Goldin - A mother’s struggle

Lea Goldin insists that there is a lot that the government can do and is not doing in order to bring Hadar and Shaul’s bodies back to Israel for a proper burial.

Leah Goldin, the mother of slain IDF soldier Lt. Hadar Goldin

#4 Steven Mnuchin - Skyrocketing to the top

Mnuchin was one of the president’s most “troublesome” cabinet appointees for Democrats, who were concerned with the banker’s role at Goldman Sachs.

Steven Mnuchin

#44 Dorit Rabinyan - The novelist who hit a nerve

Israel’s Education Ministry, headed by Naftali Bennett, targeted her novel in response to high school teachers who began including it on their lists of required reading.

Author Dorit Rabinyan holding her controversial book 'Borderlife.'