Robert Shapiro, 76, was the original member of what became known as O.J. Simpson’s “Dream Team” of lawyers, when the legendary football player was tried for the brutal murder of his wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and her friend Ron Goldman. No matter what one thinks of the innocent verdict in the 1995 “Trial of the…
Female rabbis are no longer a curiosity: The first woman rabbi in North America was ordained in 1972. The many women who have entered the rabbinate since then have all been ordained by non-Orthodox streams of Judaism. Until 2010, that is. Rabba Sara Hurwitz is the world’s first female Orthodox rabbi. (Rabba is the female…
Thirty-four-year-old Danielle Goldstein is a champion equestrian show jumper who competes internationally under the Israeli flag. (She has dual American-Israeli citizenship.) In addition to her many other accomplishments on horseback, Goldstein and her horse, Lizzymary, won first place in this year’s winter Palm Beach Equine Clinic Grand Prix — the second year in a row,…
Acclaimed journalist and historian Tony Horwitz passed away on May 27, 2019, reportedly from a heart attack. Horwitz won a Pulitzer Prize in 1995 for his best-selling book Confederates in the Attic: Dispatches from the Unfinished Civil War. He was a prolific writer whose many other works include One for the Road: A Hitchhiker’s Outback…
Before Bob Mankoff, 75, became the cartoon and humor editor at Esquire in 2017, he was the legendary cartoon editor at…
Dr. Katie Bouman is a 29-year-old computer scientist involved in the first successful effort to photograph a black hole. She played a prominent role in developing the algorithm that made this groundbreaking feat possible; in addition, she was a member of Harvard’s Event Horizon Telescope team that captured the amazing image. Bouman is set to…
In 2016, Rabbi Sharon Brous, 46, gave a Ted Talk titled “It’s Time to Reclaim Religion”; since then more than 1.3 million people have viewed…
Bernie Sanders hardly needs an introduction here. In 2016, the now 77-year-old U.S. senator (I) from Vermont became famous in America and worldwide by challenging Hilary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in that year’s presidential election. A self-styled Democratic-Socialist, Sanders has long championed progressive positions on a variety of issues. Now he’s running to appear…
Ezra Klein, 35, is a journalist, commentator, blogger, and podcast host. He was editor-in-chef at Vox.com; now he’s the editor-at-large. Previously, Klein worked as a columnist for The Washington Post and an associate editor at The American Prospect. Also, he’s a contributor to Bloomberg News and MSNBC. Klein’s eponymous podcast (“The Ezra Klein Show”) can…
Daniel Libeskind, 73, is the owner and principal design architect of New York-based Studio Daniel Libeskind. His prestigious architectural credits include the Jewish Museum in Berlin; the Grand Canal Theatre in Dublin; the Imperial War Museum in Manchester, England; and the Danish Jewish Museum in Copenhagen. In 2003, he was named the master plan architect…
WOW! FACTS
Inventor of the mobile phone, “Father of the Internet,” inventor of the video game cosole, inventor fo the laser, inventor of the gramophone, creator of the Barbie Doll, creator of the cruise ship, “Father of Immunology,” inventor fo the modern condom (!), a prime minister of the U.K., a three-time prime minister of France, a president of Switzerland and the primary financier of the American Revolution?
We knew you could guess… all of them are (or were) Jews!
To learn about these and many more AmazingJews, watch a compilation put together by JewOfTheWeek.net in 2015 and posted on YouTube. >>
Nobel Prizes
Although Jews are less than two-tenths of one percent of the world’s population, more than 20% of Nobel Prize winners have been Jewish. Source: Google
Polio Vaccine
Millions and millions of people worldwide have been spared the ravages of poliomyelitis — including paralysis and even death — thanks to research conducted by Jewish scientist Dr. Jonas Salk and his team. The Salk vaccine entered widespread use in the U.S. in 1955. Source: Wikipedia
Miss Liberty
The words “…give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses…” on the Statue of Liberty were written by Emma Lazarus, a Jew. Source: BuzzFeed
Blue Jeans
Levi Strauss, an immigrant from Germany, invented his blue jeans in 1873. Source: BuzzFeed
Start-Up Nation
Israel has the third highest rate of entrepreneurship in the world. It has the highest rate of entrepreneurship among women and people over 55 in the world. Source: BuzzFeed