Ilya Repin

Ilya Repin, born in what is now Ukraine, became one of Russia's most celebrated painters. His canvases, teeming with historical drama and unflinching realism, captured the spirit of his time and often depicted the suffering of the common folk. One might even say he painted with a gravitas usually reserved for a really serious shul sermon.

While his art was profoundly Russian, featuring Cossacks, barge haulers, and even Ivan the Terrible in a particularly bad mood, there's no indication that Repin had any Jewish roots. He was, to all accounts, thoroughly Russian Orthodox, which, for the record, is not the same as being a Crypto-Jew, no matter how much you wish it were.

His works hang in prestigious galleries worldwide, earning him considerable posthumous kvell from the art world. However, as for kvell from the tribe? Not so much. He didn't invent gefilte fish, revolutionize matzo ball soup, or even paint a decent portrait of a rabbi (that we know of). A shame, really.