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Rubino Ventura (Finale di Modena, Italy, 1794 - Ladenne, France, 1858) - Soldier, active in Italy, Persia, France and India (1822-1843).

Born Rubino Massarani to an Italian-Jewish family, Jean-Baptiste Ventura received a conventional Jewish education and at the age of seventeen, enrolled as a volunteer in the militia of the Kingdom of Italy, later serving with Napoleon's imperial army in the Queens's Dragons. In 1817, persecuted by the local authorities for his revolutionary ideas and his sympathies for Napoleon, he was forced to leave Italy. He went first to Trieste, and then to Constantinople. Having learned that Persia was seeking the services of European soldiers, he obtained a commission as an officer and helped train the Shah's army with European military methods. In 1822 he took a similar job with Maharaja Ranjit Singh, King of Punjab. Along with Jean-Francois Allard, Paolo Avitabile, and Claude Auguste Court, Ventura formed a group of European officers responsible for modernizing the Sikh army. He went back to Europe in 1843, settling in France, where he died.