Politicians and Government
- Madeline Albright, (Jewish parentage, raised Catholic)
- Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York (R)
- Barbara Boxer, Senator (D)
- Dianne Feinstein, Senator (D)
- Emma Goldman, 19th/20th century anarchist
- Alan Greenspan, Chairman of the Federal Reserve
- Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State under Nixon and Ford
- Joe Lieberman, Senator (D)
- Harvey Milk, late San Francisco gay activist and politician
- Arlen Specter, Senator (R)
- Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary for Defence (Bush administration)
Jurists
- Louis Brandeis, late Supreme Court justice
- Abe Fortas, late Supreme Court justice
- Felix Frankfurter, late Supreme Court justice
Academics and Science
- Noam Chomsky, linguistics
- Milton Friedman, economist
- Stephen Jay Gould, biologist and anthropologist
- Robert Oppenheimer, nuclear physicist
- Ruth Roskies Wisse, Guardian of Zion Award (2003)
Film, TV & Stage
- Jason Alexander
- Woody Allen
- Ed Asner
- Lisa Bonet (Jewish mother)
- Mel Brooks
- Marx Brothers
- Larry David
- Larry Fine, Stooge
- Al Franken
- Jerome Howard, "Curly" from the Three Stooges
- Moe Howard, Stooge
- Ron Jeremy
- Stanley Kubrick
- Jerry Lewis
- Arthur Miller, playwright
- Zero Mostel
- Paul Newman (Jewish father)
- Leonard Nimoy
- Gwyneth Paltrow (Jewish father)
- Sara Jessica Parker (Jewish mother)
- Jerry Seinfeld
- Jon Stewart
Musicians
- Paula Abdul
- Irving Berlin, songwriter
- Leonard Bernstein, conductor and composer
- Sammy Davis, Jr., (convert) singer and dancer
- Bob Dylan
- Billy Joel
- Phil Ochs
- Lou Reed
- David Lee Roth
- Paul Simon
Writers
- Isaac Asimov, science fiction writer
- Saul Bellow (Candian born), author
- Joseph Brodsky
- E.L. Doctorow, author
- Andrea Dworkin, feminist writer
- Howard Fast, author and screenwriter
- Allen Ginsburg, poet
- Cynthia Ozick, Guardian of Zion Award (2001)
- Ben Hecht, author and playwright
- Ayn Rand, philosopher and screenwriter
- Philip Roth
- Susan Sontag
- Elie Wiesel, Guardian of Zion Award (1997), Nobel Peace Prize (1986)
- Herman Wouk, Guardian of Zion Award (1998)
Journalists
- Wolf Blitzer, CNN
- Thomas Friedman
- Norman Mailer
- Ted Koppel, Nightline
- Charles Krauthammer, The Washington Post columnist, Guardian of Zion Award (2002)
- A.M. Rosenthal, Former New York Times editor, Guardian of Zion Award (2002)
- William Safire
- Mike Wallace, 60 Minutes
- Barbara Walters
Artists
Business
- William S. Paley, founder of CBS