Israeli NGO NALA Sends Team to Ethiopia to Help Fight the Coronavirus Pandemic
Israeli non-governmental organization NALA: Advocacy Learning Action has a sent a team…
Debbie Friedman: Her Beautiful Religious Songs Move and Inspire
Deborah “Debbie” Friedman (z”l), Feb. 23, 1951 – Jan. 9, 2011, was a beloved singer-songwriter of Jewish religious songs. Hundreds of Jewish congregations in America -– Reform, Conservative, Modern Orthodox, and even some Orthodox — have incorporated her music into their prayer services. Friedman was a feminist and a lesbian. She died from cancer at…
Jewish Baseball Greats: Koufax… Greenberg… Rosen… and More!
American Jews have long had a love affair with professional baseball — not least of which because members of the tribe have excelled at the sport. Whether by giving stellar performances on the field or by sitting out big games that fall on Yom Kippur, baseball’s great Jewish players have made an indelible imprint on…
Pamela S. Karlan: Law Professor and Trump Impeachment Witness
Pamela S. Karlan, 61, is a professor at Stanford Law School and an expert on voting rights and political process. From 2014 to 2015, Karlan was U.S. Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Voting Rights in the United States Department of Justice Civil Division. A vocal critic of President Donald J. Trump, she testified at his…
Doctor Mike: Internet Star Who Shines a Light on Medical Issues
Dr. Mikhail Varshavski (known online as Dr. Mike) — a Russian-born, American family medicine physician — has become an Internet star by addressing a wide range of medical questions. His good looks, bubbly personality, excellent sense of humor, and expansive knowledge of medicine and medical issues have fueled his popularity. In 2015, People magazine named…
David Litt: Bestselling Author and Former White House Speechwriter
David Litt was a speechwriter for President Barack Obama; he specialized in writing funny lines to be delivered by the president. (He began working in the White House at the age of 24.) His first book, comedic memoir Thanks, Obama: My Hopey, Changey White House Years, was a New York Times bestseller. His new book,…
Doris Roberts: Marie Barone on ‘Everybody Loves Raymond’
Doris Roberts (November 4, 1925 — April 17, 2016) had a successful acting career on television and in film lasting some six decades. Roberts, who garnered five Emmy Awards and a Screen Actors Guild Award, was best known as the overbearing Marie Barone on the popular sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, which aired for nine seasons.…
Ron Wyden: Senior United States Senator from the State of Oregon
Ronald (Ron) Wyden (D), 71, has served as the U.S. Senator from Oregon since 1996. From 1981 to 1996 he was a member of the House of Representatives. Wyden is the Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee. In May 2017, he co-sponsored — with Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin, who also is Jewish — Senate…
Ladino: Sephardic Jews’ Primary Language for Hundreds of Years
What Yiddish has been to Ashkenazi Jews, Ladino has been to Sephardic Jews. Perhaps more correctly called Judeo-Spanish, Ladino is a Romance language based on Old Spanish and influenced by several other languages. Although not widely used today, it is still spoken by small Sephardic minorities in more than 30 countries. The story of Ladino…
Daniel Goleman: Bestselling Author Asks ‘Why Aren’t We More Compassionate?’
Daniel Goleman, 74, is an author and journalist whose column about the brain and behavioral science appeared in The New York Times…
To learn about these and many more AmazingJews, watch a compilation put together by JewOfTheWeek.net in 2015 and posted on YouTube.