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.