Theodor Wiesengrund Adorno (1903-1969) was one of Frankfurt's most famous Jews. The philosopher, sociologist and musicologist was a highly influential figure in the student movement of the 1970s. To escape the National Socialists' persecution, he immigrated to England, taking up a teaching post in Oxford. He returned to his hometown of Frankfurt in 1949 and joined Max Horkheimer as director of Frankfurt's Institute of Social Studies.

Ludwig Börne (1786-1837) was another famous Frankfurt Jew. Born in Frankfurt on 24th May 1786 as Löb Baruch, he grew up in Frankfurt's Jewish ghetto in most unsavoury conditions. Thanks to the Jewish emancipation, he was however allowed to study, became a civil servant and later a journalist and author. In 1830, he moved to Paris, where he was an ardent supporter and spokesperson of the "bourgeois-democratic revolution".

Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915) was from 1899 onwards the director of the Institute of Experimental Therapy in Frankfurt, where he made great inroads and gained worldwide fame primarily in the field of chemotherapy. He developed the first effective medicinal treatment for syphilis. In 1908, Professor Elie Metchnikoff and he received the Nobel Prize for Medicine. The annually awarded Paul Ehrlich Prize pays tribute to this great scientist.

Anne Frank (1929-1945) was born in Frankfurt as the child of Jewish parents. With the rise of the National Socialists in 1933, the family immigrated to the Netherlands. In July 1942, she was forced to go underground, living in a hideaway in a rear house in central Amsterdam. It was here that she wrote her world-famous diary, which has to date been translated into 60 languages. In 1944, the family was betrayed and deported. Anne Frank died in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945. Her father survived the war, the only one of his family to do so.

Erich Fromm (1900–1980) was born the son of a Jewish-Orthodox wine merchant. He was co-founder of the Southern German Institute of Psychoanalysis in Frankfurt (1929), immigrating to the USA in 1934. His most important literary works include "The Art of Loving“ (1956), "Analytical Social Psychology and Social Theory" (1970), "Anatomy of Human Destructiveness“ (1973), "To Have or to Be?" (1976) and "Greatness and Limitation of Freud's Thought" (1980).

Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1744-1812), the founding father of the Rothschild House, was born in Frankfurt's Jewish quarter, the so-called Judengasse ("Jewish Laneway"). His five sons were responsible for the rise to financial prominence of this famous Frankfurt family. Throughout the 19th century, they established branches of their family-run bank in all of the world's leading metropolises. Mayer Amschel (1773-1855) was raised to the peerage of nobility by Franz I of Austria. The last family director of the world-renowned Frankfurt banking institution was Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild, who died in 1901. Frankfurt remains indebted to the Rothschild family for the countless foundations that they left behind, such as the Clementine Children's Hospital and the Carolinum Dental Clinic, just to name a few.

Leopold Sonnemann (1831-1909) was a merchant, banker, publisher and politician. He quickly transformed his father's textile business into a bank. The founder of the "Frankfurter Zeitung" was also an active member of a workers' movement and for 28 years a member of Frankfurt's city parliament. Sonnemann, the co-founder of Frankfurter Volksbank, was also involved in modern urban development, having been involved in everything from water to electricity supply, not to mention his role in the foundation of Frankfurt Zoo. His newspaper remained in business until 1943 and was soon thereafter continued as today's Frankfurter Allgemeine (FAZ).

Georg Speyer (1835–1902) was the son of the Frankfurt banker, Layard Speyer. Having completed his schooling at the Philanthropin, he had intended to become a merchant, but soon ended up making a name for himself in Europe's banking business. Aside from his profession, Speyer also showed a keen interest in promoting Frankfurt's social, cultural and scientific aspirations. Together with his wife, Franziska, he supported Frankfurt's scholarship foundation, which later formed the basis for Frankfurt University. Without the financial support of the Speyers, Paul Ehrlich's research efforts would not have come to fruition, for example. Yet another part of his fortune went to support various funds as well as the Senckenberg Research Society. The University Foundation bearing the Speyers' name exists to this day.

Rabbi Yisrael Perlow of Stolin (1869-1921) was the rabbi of a small Russian town named Stolin. Having been buried in the Old Jewish Cemetery on Rat-Beil-Straße, he became known as "The Frankfurter". Over the years, his grave became a pilgrimage site for devout Jews from all across the globe, wearing kaftans and growing the now rarely seen payot, the unusual sidelocks or sidecurls. These very strict Orthodox Jews are known as "chassidim", the devout ones. Chassidism, or Hasidic Judaism, is a relatively new and mystic religious movement established in the Ukraine in the middle of the 18th century. According to the Hasidic faith, the "Wonder Rabbis" belong to the 36 chosen ones, who due to the wisdom they possess are particularly honoured and revered.