S. Y. Agnon (1888–1970) was a Nobel Prize–winning writer and one of the principal voices of modern Hebrew literature.
Sholom Aleichem (1856–1916), one of the fathers of modern Yiddish literature, was born in what is now Ukraine. He wrote many books including Tevye the Dairyman, which would be adapted into the Broadway musical Fiddler on the Roof.
Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) was a journalist and playwright, and the founder of the political form of Zionism.
Emma Lazarus (1849–1887) was a poet and essayist best known for writing “The New Colossus,” the sonnet excerpted in an inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty.
Rebecca Newberger Goldstein (1950–) is a writer and philosopher whose books include the novel The Mind-Body Problem and the nonfiction work Plato at the Googleplex.
Chaim Potok (1929-2002) was a rabbi and author of The Chosen, The Promise, and other novels.
Joanna Rakoff (1972–) is a memoirist and novelist.
Mark Strand (1934–2014) was poet laureate of the United States.
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) was a writer known for his literary accounts of surviving the Holocaust.